The Story

We would like to share the story of one woman whose name has been changed but whose story is real and like so many other stories that we hear everyday. It is a story that begins with loss and betrayal. But we are thankful to report that a new chapter of life is opening for “Kushi” to a place of hope and freedom.

Kushi’s Story 

When Kushi was 14 years old, her step-mother, who was beating her, sent her away. She sent her with another woman whom she stayed with for a time. Another woman came to that house and said, “You are a very young girl. No one is looking out for you. If you come with me, I will give you a good job and look out for you.” That woman sold her into the sex trade in a local red light area. She was drugged and kept in locked quarters for some time. Eventually, she met a man she thought was good and he became her boyfriend, or babu. He moved her from the largest red light area in the city to a smaller red-light and left her there for several months.

Her babu had gone to Bombay and eventually returned to be with her in Kolkata. At this point she conceived a son. The babu left her again, and she was forced to place her son in the care of an uncle.

She then fell in love and married a customer who treated her kindly. They moved to a good neighborhood where they had a happy life for ten years but Kushi was not able to have any children (she never revealed to her husband that she already had a son). So her husband left her and married another woman and never came back.

Then Kushi worked for some time cleaning houses and cooking, but there was no one to help her or support her as she tried to care for her son. Eventually, Kushi returned to the sex trade for a short time until she was invited to work for Sari Bari by one of the other employees.

She is now on the road to a new life. She was extremely excited to learn to read and write. She told a story from her childhood when she would watch the other children go to school and wish she could go also but her step-mother would not let her go. She finally got to attend “school” at Sari Bari. Kushi has completed training and is now earning good wages and is hopeful to have a place of her own someday through the Sari Bari Savings Plan.

 

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