anita

Anita is a village girl whose parents spent every day working in the fields, leaving her home alone for long periods. With lack of contact with her totally unaware parents, she soon fell into bad company. Shekhar won her over with sweet talk, presents and false promises, gradually convincing the smitten Anita to have physical relations with him.

 

He told her he was constructing a house for her and they eloped, travelling to Alandi where they got married. When Anita’s parents discovered their daughter had disappeared, they lodged a complaint against Shekhar for raping and kidnapping a minor girl. The police found Anita and admitted her to our Snehadhar women’s shelter as a rape victim having discovered that Shekhar was 20 years older than Anita, already married and had a teenage daughter.

 

Our counselling and social workers jumped into action, convincing Anita that her parents loved her and wanted her to be secure and happy. They also got her to realize how Shekhar had been taking advantage of her loneliness and insecurities. She finally gave a written statement to the court, adding that she did not want to see Shekhar again, instead she would be staying in Snehadhar and taking her own decisions about her future. She then called her parents and asked them to forgive her.

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Undeterred, the persistent Shekhar managed to locate Anita and started pestering her to meet up with him. Worried that she may fall for his charms again, we arranged for her to move to Pune to complete basic and advanced computer courses. Having mastered those she is now pursuing the course in naturopathy which will help her become financially independent and secure her future. Anita says: “There is always a second chance in life. For me, it was Snehadhar!”