Rani is the partner of Anil, the sanitation worker who died of asphyxiation after he fell into a sewer in Dabri on September 16.
She stares blankly at the door, her eyes filled with sorrow, but also with hope that the person who made them twinkle could return.
Rani is the partner of Anil, the sanitation worker who died of asphyxiation after he fell into a sewer in Dabri on September 16.
Her life has been marred by tragedy and pain, relieved temporarily by Anil's love. Anil was her nephew and the two lived as a couple for over three years with her three children, after Rani unchained herself from a life of domestic slavery and violence inflicted by her so-called husband Manohar. She now has to fend for herself and the children.
After Anil's death, a photo-journalist captured the moment Gaurav – Rani's son – wept over his 'father's' corpse. The impact of the photograph was such that an organisation started a campaign and raised over Rs 50 lakh rupees in donation from around the globe for the family.
However, Anil's stepfather gave an interview saying Rani cannot lay claim on the donation as the couple was never married. He insisted that the money be given to Anil's mother and him, as Anil was the only breadwinner of the family.
Rani broke down several times as she told DNA her tale of woe, but mostly at the mention of Anil's name.
She was married off at the age of 11 to a 25-year-old man in Moradabad. At 14, when she could no longer bear a life of slavery and starvation, she ran away. Her intention was to go back to her home in New Delhi, but the teenager lost her way and landed in Rampur, instead.
At the station, a man named Ramesh offered to help her. The innocent girl accepted the outstretched hand but it only lead to further laceration. He held her as his prisoner for 10 years and raped her multiple times before selling her off to a 60-year-old man in Delhi.
The sexagenarian tortured her to the point where she lots her front teeth. He also assaulted her daughter Laxmi, fracturing her hands in one incident. "The day he broke Laxmi's hand, I decided that I won't live with him at any cost," she recounts. By now, she had two children and was pregnant with the third when Manohar, bored of his plaything, abandoned her and the children by the road. "I collected garbage and worked as domestic help to feed my children," she says.
This where Anil found her and gave her the love and care she was so deprived of. His affection towards the children erased the memory that he was not their biological father. Now the family faces a bleak future.
"Ever since the age of 11, my life has been a living hell," she says. "I only learnt to smile after Anil came into my life. But now god has even taken that away from me. I guess I was not made to be happy..."
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