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I Was Sold

Madhumita was born in Andhra Pradesh, India, to poor scavenger parents. Her parents, Mohan Babu and Lakshmi had more mouths to feed. They had seven children. They thought contraception was a sin. Madhumita was the eighth and an extra mouth to feed, and constantly demanded milk, when she was hungry. All her mother could manage were the leftovers from the Ramprasad Hotel’s garbage bin. 

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Anita and Karan Reddy were looking for a baby girl to give a home to, when they chanced upon the photo of a cute but frail baby in the Sai Orphanage’s office catalog. They requested to see the baby. ‘She is only one month old,’ said the Matron. Anita could already feel a tug at her heart. It was as if the baby was calling out to her and was pleading her to take her home.

 Anita and Karan fell in love with the almond-shaped eyes and long limbs of the infant. She promised to be a beauty once she grew up. The Matron also seemed very happy to be finding a home for the infant so soon. Madhumita had arrived only a day before. Madhumita’s birth mother, Lakshmi had sold her baby for Rupees 15,000. Fair and good-looking girl babies were more in demand in the tiny hamlet of Gunturpura. And fetched a higher price than dark-skinned babies. The orphanages bought and sold girl babies regularly and made a neat amount as commission. Madhumita’s luck had found her a home; otherwise she too would have ended up like her co-inhabitants in the Orphanage, in a Brothel. Babies were being dumped into the dark world of child prostitution in dozens, each month, sold off by their poor parents to the Orphanages.  

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 Madhumita became a part of Anita and Karan’s life and soon she got a sibling, Raja, also adopted. The children grew up in the loving care of the doting parents and knew no sorrow. Madhumita grew up to become a lawyer and Raja opted for Architecture. Both the children were settled in life and knew about their adoption. Their parents had told them the truth once they were of age. But, the kids did not show much enthusiasm to find and locate their birth parents. As far as they were concerned they were the Reddys’ children. 

In a span of twenty years life had changed a lot for the family. Karan had been reading the paper, when he happened to glance at the State Scan section of the paper. A shocking news headline made him read the article fully. It was about the illegal child trafficking rampant in Gunturpura, Andhra Pradesh and the reporter had given details about the Orphanages linked with the criminal elements. Sai Orphanage was one of them. It had taken two decades for the matter to blow up.

 Karan sat shell-shocked with the newspaper in his hands. His mind was dizzy with the events of the day when they had brought home Madhumita from Sai Orphanage. He just couldn’t imagine somebody selling off his or her baby to a criminal. How cruel can a human being be? He thought. 

He decided to hide the news from his family.

 Madhumita had been preparing for the day’s hearing when her cell phone rang shrilly. It was her Journalist friend, Neeta. Neeta was bursting to tell her about a news that she had heard, but Madhu cut her short and said, she would meet Neeta in the after noon for lunch.

 Neeta told Madhu about the Orphanages and their nexus with the child trafficking group. Madhumita knew that she had been adopted from a Sai Orphanage. But after hearing the news she was curious to know whether that name figured in the list. Neeta nodded, confirming Madhumita’s suspicion.

 Madhumita felt the ground beneath her feet giving away. She shivered thinking about her future had she not been taken away by the Reddys. She had to get to the root of the matter. She immediately agreed when Neeta asked to accompany her. The girls were going to find out what exactly was the case about. And Madhumita had a personal reason for going; she hoped to meet her birth parents. She knew that she had been born in a slum near the Orphanage and was given away immediately. Neeta and Madhumita scouted the countryside looking for people who had worked in the Orphanages or had lived in the nearby slums. They zeroed in on a few people who knew about Lakshmi and Mohan Babu.

It was revealed that Lakshmi and Mohan Babu had made it a business to beget babies to sell them for high prices. They had had a comfortable house in the city, the witnesses said. They swore that the couple was knee deep into the scandal and now they were employing teams to pick babies from different states across India.

Neeta and Madhumita returned home and mulled over the matter. They had decided to pursue the pair and put an end to the torture. Meanwhile, Karan had updated Anita about the matter and had warned her against talking about it to Madhu.

 Madhumita wanted to discuss the matter with her parents and get their opinion as to what her next step should be. She was very bitter towards the couple who were her birth parents and she wanted to bring them to justice. She would bring justice to the countless number of babies they would have sold off.

 Madhumita had made up her mind. Karan and Anita were mildly shocked on hearing all this and her trip to Gunturpura but immediately supported their daughter, when they were assured of her conviction.

 Madhumita lodged a public-interest litigation and criminal proceedings against Mohan Babu and Lakshmi. The police started a manhunt for the couple who escaped as soon as the scandal broke. Madhumita and her parents garnered support from people who in some way had been affected by the scandal. Countless girls and women were located in far off places as Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia, where they had been sold off as child prostitutes. Some of the girls had been sold to wealthy celebrities as servants. But the main go between was the couple and in some cases Orphanages with a link with the underworld.

 Madhumita, Neeta and the Reddys are awaiting the Court’s judgment in this case. The absconding pair is yet to be traced and there is a red alert for them. Madhumita still reflects on how her life would have been, had Anita and Karan not taken her away.

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