Chhattisgarh News: Girl Locked Away For 20 Years Rescued By Social Welfare Team In Bastar

Raipur: A heart-wrenching case was reported from the Naxal hit Bastar’s Bakawand block, where a minor girl was freed from imprisonment after a span of 20 years only when a team of the Social Welfare Department intervened. The time the girl was rescued she had already attained the age of 26 years.

The tragic true story begins in the year 2000 when the girl was only six years old, a normal school going girl child. A young man of the village, who kept following her, threatened to kill the minor. The girl panicked from the threat and got so terrified that she felt that once she came in front of the young man, he would definitely kill her. The girl was so terrified that she stopped talking to people.

A minor threat from a young man in the village reportedly instilled a profound and lasting fear in the girl.

"The fear was so ingrained in the child's mind that the girl imprisoned herself in a dark room," stated Suchitra Lakra, Deputy Director of the Social Welfare Department, Bastar "The girl was imprisoned in that room for 20 years in the shadow of terror."

Meanwhile his ignorant father, a farmer by profession as a part of misguided protection, permitted the fear to grip her and grow inside her. The girl's fear was so severe that she gradually withdrew from all social interaction, becoming unable to communicate with relatives and even her immediate family members. Her father, instead of seeking help, reinforced her in isolation.

Department officials explained that the father's actions were driven by a terrifying fear that his daughter would "fall into the hands of the beast" (referring to the young man who had issued the threat). This protective instinct tragically led him to keep her confined.

"The father also feared that the child would not fall into the hands of the beast, so he remained imprisoned in the room," Lakra added, highlighting the profound psychological toll on both individuals. "The daughter kept suffocating in the closed room while the father kept suffocating outside seeing the condition of the daughter."

The Social Welfare Department emphasized that the initial minor threat had catastrophically poisoned the victim's life, turning a simple fear into two decades of severe isolation and developmental delay.

"If the father had freed the daughter from captivity in time, her life would have been happy today," Lakra noted.

The woman was recently rescued as part of an intervention by the Social Welfare Department. Authorities are now focusing on her immediate care and rehabilitation. The case underscores the critical need for mental health awareness and appropriate intervention following traumatic events, particularly in rural communities.