Rose could feel the townspeople watching her and Victor Ashdown as they left the local church. It was raining and Victor was holding the umbrella over her.
The tongues had been wagging since they showed up for the Sunday morning service. No doubt they were wondering why Victor Ashdown was there with Rose instead of his grandmother, Lady Ashdown.
Rose was the elder woman’s companion. She had placed to an ad in the newspaper and received a reply. After providing references which were satisfactory, she was accepted to the post and a week later she was on her way to Langley Hall. It was the first time she had left the society of London and her friends to come to the countryside. She fell in love with Langley Hall the moment she saw it. The stunning, historic home surrounded by lush and idyllic countryside with its romantic interior of wood paneling and ornate chandeliers took her breath away. Her family cottage seemed dull compared to this splendid home. And the room she occupied was very charming.
Lady Ashdown was very amiable and Rose soon developed a deep affection for her. Life at Langley Hall was pleasant. Then she met Victor whom she found to be very agreeable, engaging and irresistible. When she was not engaged by his grandmother, they spent time together in the garden where they had stimulating conversations. It was only a matter of time before they fell in love. Of course, it was no surprise to Lady Ashdown who raised no objections. Victor went to London to see her father who gave his consent. Rose had written several letters, telling her family about him.
“Good morning, Miss Haversham,” the greeting brought her back to the present and she met the curious gaze of Mrs. Lambton. The older woman’s eyes were sharp with curiosity as she looked first at Rose and then at Victor.
Rose feigned a smile. Busybody. She thought. “Good morning, Mrs. Lambton.” And she continued walking, giving the woman no opportunity to engage her in any further dialogue. “Horrible woman,” she muttered under her breath.
Victor seemed amused rather than annoyed at the attention they were getting. “They will have plenty to talk about when you and I get married,” he said.
“Yes, indeed. It will be quite the story–Victor Ashdown marries a city girl when he should have married a girl from Darbyshire.”
“I am marrying the girl I love and that’s that. Let’s not talk about this anymore. We have more important matters to talk about.”
“Such as?”
“Such as where would you like to go for your honeymoon?”
Rose smiled, her eyes sparkled as she met his gaze. “You’re right, where we honeymoon is of great importance.”
Imagine you are a child and your daily routine is to get up early every morning to go and pick through trash with your mother. You and your family are “untouchables” in your society which means you are treated as outcasts, undesirables. You don’t have many options when it comes to jobs so in order to survive, you have to pick through garbage to find plastic bottles to sell. This was Asha’s reality.
Her world was tough, bleak. She spent her days trudging through streets and alleyways strewn with garbage, hungry because she left home without having any breakfast. The stench of the heaps of trash and filth assailed her nostrils as she searched for plastic items that could be sold. She sorted, graded and sold whatever she could find.
When it was time for Asha to go to school she dreaded it because she feared the rejection of her teachers and classmates. None of the children wanted to sit next to her or play with her. She alone with no friends. Asha knew why the others didn’t want to be around her. It was because she picked trash for a living. She had no choice. She was trapped in the cycle of poverty and the door to better future was barred to her. Asha wanted to learn but she was afraid to go to school.
For I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord, plans for peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope – Jeremiah 29:11
When Asha’s father heard about a Gospel for Asia supported Bridge of Hope center, he encouraged her to go. He knew that Bridge of Hope offered help to people in need, especially to those whom society considered to be the lowest of people and he knew that the Bridge of Hope Center would care for her and provide her with the things he couldn’t.
Asha showed up at the Bridge of Hope carrying a plastic bag full of school books, dressed in tattered and smelly clothes, her face dirty and unwashed. Unlike the reception she normally received at school, Asha was welcomed by the staff. They loved and cared for her. They took the time to help her to keep neat and clean. She was given a backpack to replace her makeshift book bag and then school supplies and other useful gifts.
Within a year, Asha’s life was completely transformed. She was fast learner and developed strongly in her studies. She no longer went hungry as every school day she enjoyed a meal at the center. Thanks to the staff, Asha has learned how to keep herself clean and she participates in all the activities at the center. Her Dad couldn’t be happier, “My daughter is getting her daily needs met through the Bridge of Hope center. Now she is having good food, and she is healthy now. We are very happy to see her growth. She feared to go to school, but now she is never absent from school.”
Asha no longer has to pick up trash or feel alone and rejected by teachers and other students. Instead she thrives under the love and attention she receives at the Bridge of Hope center and is excelling at school. The door that society had barred her from because of her background, God cleared through Bridge of Hope. Hope for a better future was now in her grasp. No more trading plastic bottles. No more rummaging through garbage to maintain the family because her father was paralyzed and couldn’t provide for them.
You can help other children like Asha to have a better life, a bright future by supporting the Bridge of Hope centre. Bridge of Hope is reaching out to the hopeless and rejected “through education, daily meals, character-building activities, lessons on good hygiene, and by setting positive examples of love and good morals. There is a bridge for these children that gives them a chance to rise above the cycle of hopelessness they have always known.”
More than 50 million people in India suffer from a mental illness. In 2011, India recorded the highest rate of major depression in the world at 36 per cent. According to doctors, roughly 10 per cent of India’s population suffers from depression – MGMH
Women with mental illness are treated as less than human. They are dumped, abandoned and abused. If there are any signs of mental illness, a woman is put in a mental hospital with no chance of getting out. Men can go back home while women are there for life. In the following video, we meet a woman whose husband had her institutionalized although she had no history of mental illness. Here’s a story of a mentally ill woman whose husband built a case against her so that he could get custody of their children after divorcing her.
It is not surprising that women suffer from depression at higher rates than men. They have to deal with gender inequality, violence, lack of paid employment, lack of education, excessive spousal alcohol use and poverty. Mothers are blamed for the birth of a female child and many face pressure to have male children. Women are diagnosed with schizophrenia later in life, oftentimes, following the birth of their children. The children are often removed from the ill mother’s care and this results in further distress for her. Indian women have higher rates of suicide than women in most developed countries and a higher rate of suicide compared to men in India. Depression is one of the most common reasons for suicide among Indian women.
Mental health in India carries with it a stigma, especially if the person suffering from mental illness is a woman. According to MGMH (Movement for Global Mental Health), in rural India, it is common to see people taking their children to temples and faith-healers instead of hospitals and doctors, especially in cases of mental health. Mental health was something that was talked about in hushed tones. Thankfully, it is no longer being swept under the rug. People are coming forward. Deepika Padukone stunned her fans last year when she admitted that she suffered from anxiety and depression.
At the time the news broke, she was one of the most sought after actresses in Bollywood. It took tremendous courage for her to disclose her illness, especially since people diagnosed with mental illness face discrimination. Deepika has since launched the Live Love Laugh Foundation to raise awareness about mental health issues and as a result many celebrities were inspired to come out in the open and address the need to talk about mental health. Varun Dhawan admitted that he was depressed during the making of Badlapur and Honey Singh revealed that he has been undergoing therapy for bipolar disorder.
Sadly, those living with mental illness are victims of a cruel fate. They are often locked away and stripped of their basic human rights in state-run institutions that are under-staffed. In an article, titled Mentally Ill Suffer a Horrible Fate in India posted on the site for Deutsche Welle (DW), most state run mental hospitals are in deplorable conditions. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) reported that out of the 43 government mental hospitals in India, less than half a dozen are in a “livable” condition”.
There are doctors in charge of these hospitals who have no business being there. “These doctors don’t understand the intricacies of a psychiatric illnesses and the comprehensive care the patients require,” said a psychiatrist working in a state-run mental hospital in Uttar Pradesh.
And in the midst of the crisis of hospitals not providing the conditions and care the patients need, are quack healers who are profiting from this. According to a study by Dr. Shiv Gautam, former superintendent of Jaipur Mental Hospital, 68 per cent of the mentally ill are taken to faith healers before a psychiatrist. “The reason, besides superstition, is that most general medicine doctors fail to diagnose psychiatric illness,” Gautam said. “A mentally ill patient displays symptoms which superstitious people believe are paranormal,” he added. “Such patients are tortured, chained and used for extracting money from their families.” Hema, who was suffering from Schizophrenia was believed to have an evil spirit. Her family took her to Datar Sharif Dargah where she spent a year locked up. It wasn’t until her condition deteriorated that she was brought to Dr. Gautam. In 15 days, she began to improve and a month later she was normal.
In other cases, the mentally ill are subjected to one of these horrific ordeals: whipping, caning, inhaling burnt chili smoke, having their eyes smeared with chili paste or having their eyes branded with red, hot coins. There are laws banning this practice, however, many dargahs and temples keep the patients chained. Some of them spend the rest of their lives like this. In 2001, 26 patients perished in a fire at a dargah in a coastal village because they couldn’t escape the blaze since they were chained. What a horrific and senseless tragedy.
Families of mentally ill people opt for dumping them. This means that they are dumped into an asylum where the conditions are not fit for a human. When an illegal asylum was raided, they found thirty-five men and six boys living in inhuman conditions. The stench from their unwashed bodies and the excrement drove neighbors to alert the health department. Naked and chained inmates were discovered, dumped there by their families after they paid the asylum owner. Some of these poor souls were found crawling in their excrement, some even consuming it. On their bodies were marks of torture. Some had surgical scars on their backs, leading to allegations that the asylum had links to kidney theft. 78 patients had entered the asylum but only 41 were found during the raid.
Other patients are dumped in jungles or forests ranges. Their families pay lorry drivers to drop them. Women and children are among these victims and in some cases, the females are raped by the drivers before being dumped. Social activist Murugan S. who has rescued countless mentally ill people from the streets, cautions us not to judge the families by calling them cruel. Instead we are to examine what forced them to take such extreme measures. He believes that system needs to change.
Part of the solution is raising awareness. The suffering of the mentally ill has been brought to our attention. It is out in the open. The next thing that needs to be done is to show the superstitious and fearful society that mental illness is nothing to run away from or to be ashamed of. The person suffering from mental illness needs love, support and most importantly, proper care so that he or she can live a normal life.
The government needs to put something place to ensure that patients are placed in reputable, sanitary facilities that will provide the care that they need and to ban the operation of illegal asylums and the practice of dumping. Quack healers should be banned from profiting from other people’s suffering. Husbands should not be allowed to institutionalize their wives if there is no record that they have mental illness.
No one wants to be mentally ill but it is a reality for many people and what they need is to know that they have a platform where they can talk about what is happening with them. Here in Canada, we have Bell Let’s Talk, a wide-reaching, multi-year program designed to break the silence around mental illness and support mental health all across the country. It has done so much to fight the stigma of mental illness and encourage people to get involved in educating themselves and others.
It is my sincere hope and prayer that something will be put in place in India so that attitudes toward mental illness would change and those suffering from it will have a platform where they would not be judged, dumped, abandoned or discriminated but supported and be treated with dignity and open minds. In the meantime, let’s keep talking and raising awareness.
Talking is the best way to start breaking down the barriers associated with mental illness – Bell, Let’s Talk
The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlastinglove;
Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you – Jeremiah 31:3
Imagine you are a South Asian woman. Every day is a struggle and a challenge to survive. All you know is oppression from the day you were born until the day you die. As a girl child, your birth is not celebrated. You feel unwanted and are constantly reminded that you should have been born a boy. You are neglected, mistreated, abused or abandoned. As a young girl, you are abducted and forced into a life of prostitution which increases your risk of dying from AIDS.
If you are a widow, you are blamed for your husband’s death. His family and your community shun you and you are forced to fend for yourself. You are forced into an inhumane existence. You are completely alone, with no one to support or care for you. Life is too hard. There is no help. There is no hope. Only despair, misery and pain. What’s the use? Tens of thousands of widows end their lives just to end the pain.
If your dowry is not enough, your husband can douse you with kerosene and set you on fire. I have read horror stories of women being set on fire by their husbands or in-laws because of their dowries. A woman’s life is not worth anything. It’s hard to believe that there are countries where it’s not safe to be a woman. It can even be fatal. Women who survive infanticide because of gender are forced to live in a society which denies them rights to equality, respect, education, etc.
Being a woman in South Asia is unimaginable and unbearable for many and it is not surprising that the suicide rate is up to 21 times higher than the world’s average. Life for these women is a never-ending cycle of misery, hopelessness, degradation and rejection. These women need to know that there is hope. They need to know that there is a God who values them. To Him they are precious. They were fearfully and wonderfully made in His image.
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you – Jeremiah 1:5
Imagine the joy these women will have when they hear about Jesus for the first time through Gospel for Asia’s ministries. Help them find hope and joy in a Savior who loved them so much that He gave His life for them so that one day they could spend eternity with Him. They need to know that they are worth a price far above rubies. They need to know that although there might have been silence in their homes on the days they were born, there was a joyful noise in heaven.
Women missionaries have been bringing the message of love and hope to the women of Asia. It is crucial that women minister to women because of the Asian culture. Women are more comfortable around other women. Gospel for Asia has trained, dedicated women missionaries who are willing to risk their lives to share the love of Jesus Christ with millions of women who still need to hear the Good News. These heroic women missionaries are willing to risk persecution, beatings and imprisonment because they are passionate about giving hope to women who have lived in despair for so long. They want to offer hurting women healing and encouragement. They want to bring the Savior’s light and love into their dark and uncaring world. Many Asian woman have had their lives transformed but there are still so many who are still waiting.
Weeping may endure for a night, But joycomes in the morning – Psalm 30:5
Help Gospel for Asia send more missionaries to those who are perishing without knowing about Jesus and His love. Find out how at this link. Help bring joy to a woman in Asia.
Then I returned and considered all the oppression that is done under the sun: And look! The tears of the oppressed, But they have no comforter— On the side of their oppressors there is power, But they have no comforter – Ecclesiastes 4:1
It saddens me that in some countries, it is dangerous or even deadly to be a woman. Sex trafficking, bride burnings, infanticide, gender related crimes, poverty and oppression are the realities that girls and women face in Asia.
Women should be able to live in a society where their rights are protected and are not oppressed because of their gender. Gender discrimination is something that all women may encounter at some point in her life but in Asia, women are perpetual victims of violence, abuse and oppression.
Imagine that you are a mother and one Sunday evening you find your daughter lying naked on the front step of the house she shares with her husband and children. There is no one there to help her and no one wants to come to her so you are the only one she can call for help although you live quite a distance away. Imagine how you would feel when you see your daughter with burns on more than 80 percent of her body, crying in agony. She survives for three days, long enough to tell the police that she was doused in kerosene by her mother-in-law and set on fire by her husband–the father of her children. Then she dies…
This is what happened to Laxmi, a woman in Bangladore. She was a victim of bride burning which is a crime that accounts for the death of at least one woman every hour in India. More than 8000 women die in this horrendous way. This type of crime is also called, “dowry death”.
A dowry death is the death of a young woman in South Asian countries, primarily India, who is murdered or driven to suicide by her husband. This results from the husband continually attempting to extract more dowry from the bride or her family. Bride burning is just one form of dowry death. Others include acid throwing and Eve teasing. Because dowry typically depends on class or socioeconomic status, women are often subjected to the dowry pressures of their future husband or his relatives.
Laxmi was only 28 years old when she died. Hers was not an arranged marriage. It was a love marriage and she came from higher caste than her husband, Majunath. He became increasingly drunk and was unable to find regular work because most of the money Laxmi earned was spent on liquor. Pressured by her in-laws to provide, Laxmi turned to her mother for financial support. Laxmi was harassed and accused of adultery by her in-laws and beaten by her husband. It turned out that it was her mother-in-law who compelled her son to set his wife on fire. Majunath ended up dying because he suffered from burns when Laxmi hugged him in a desperate attempt to put the flames out. So, their two children became orphans. An arrest warrant was issued for Laxmi’s mother-in-law but she has disappeared.
Trafficking of minor girls – the second-most prevalent trafficking crime – surged 14 times over the last decade and increased 65% in 2014, according to new data released by the National Crime Records Bureau.
Girls and women are the main targets of immoral trafficking in India, making up 76% of human trafficking cases nationwide over a decade, reveal NCRB data.
Other cases registered under human trafficking over the last decade include selling girls for prostitution, importing girls from a foreign country and buying girls for prostitution.
Sexual exploitation of women and children for commercial purposes takes place in various forms including brothel-based prostitution, sex-tourism, and pornography.
As many as 8,099 people were reported to be trafficked across India in 2014.
In the article, Silent Slaves: Stories of Human Trafficking in India, I read about a 15 year old girl who was in a New Delhi hospital. She was frail, her face and head were bandaged. A bruised black and blue eye and swollen lips were visible. She had burn marks and scabs on her neck and down her whole body and one of her ears was disfigured. She had a wound on her skull which was rotting and filled with maggots. This caused a stench. She was in this horrific condition because of her employer who beat her everyday with a broom and a stool. Many times the woman would put a hot pan on the girl’s body and burn her skin. The skin on her skull started to peel because she was repeatedly burned in that same spot.
How could one human being treat another like this? Sadly, this teen’s case is not an isolated one. Thousands of girls like her are trafficked every year from remote villages to large cities and sold as domestic workers. Many of them are abused or sexually exploited.
Extreme poverty, lack of education and employment, and poor implementation of the government’s minimum wage system in rural India make girls more vulnerable to being trafficked. The 2013 Global Slavery Index, published by the Australia-based Walk Free Foundation, an organization that works to end modern slavery, found that almost half of the 30 million “modern slaves” in the world are from India.
The article describes how domestic worker placement agencies operate and how they are flourishing at the expense of minor and illiterate girls. Read more.
Due to the fact that girls are seen as an economic burden and boys a source of income, girl babies have been aborted and murdered – female infanticide or Gendercide – in their millions in India. The Lancet estimates that 500,000 female fetuses are aborted in India every year. As a result according to the BBC, “an estimated 25-50 million women in India are ‘missing’, if you compare the proportion of women in the population with other countries.” Staggeringly, Unicef believes 10 million girls, were killed by their parents in the last thirty years.
Killing babies because they are girls really hits close to home. As a woman, I can’t imagine my parents ending my life because I was born a girl instead of a boy. I always remember my mother telling me that she had a dream of how I would look before I was born. My father used to take me kite flying. My parents loved my two sisters and me. I know fathers who have only daughters and no sons but they are ecstatic. They adore their girls. This is not the case for the girls in India, however. Some are aborted or killed after they are born, others are neglected or abandoned.
In India a girl is an expensive burden because when she marries, her family is expected to pay a sum of money to the groom’s family regardless of whether or not they can afford it. It’s an expense they don’t want to deal with. So, when a girl is born, there is no joy. There is no celebration, only disappointment and anxiety. In some cases, there is rage–rage of the husband toward the wife and the baby girl. The wife is blamed for the gender of the baby and the girl, if she survives, is constantly reminded that she is a mistake–she should have been a boy.
Bride burnings, sex trafficking and girl infanticide are just some of the hardships that women and girls face in Asia. The documentary film, “Veil of Tears” takes you on a harrowing journey into their lives. Their stories may make us squirm but instead of shutting them out, we ought to raise awareness and do what we can to help. Let us be the voice of hope for the oppressed.
I told them that even if their situation seems like a mountain, God is mightier than the problem – Nitya
Can you imagine being so poor that you live in a shack made of cardboard and plastic? What if you had to struggle daily just to survive? Imagine sharing a shanty with ten other families because you and your family can’t afford your own space? This is the reality for people in India who dwell in slums.
In India, slums are growing rapidly. Millions are living in extreme poverty and everyday is a struggle for survival. They are trapped in a world filled with desperation and hopelessness. Open sewage, polluted water, lack of healthcare, illiteracy, superstition and diseases such as tuberculosis and AIDs are some of the problems they face. It is a constant battle for them to find or keep a job. No job meant that they would have to beg, scavenge or turn to prostitution. It’s worst for them if they were too sick or too old to work because there was no social agency to help them to survive. This is why many of them turned to alcohol for solace. When the men drowned their sorrows and fears in alcohol, their wives and children were left to fend for themselves. One woman who was a tailor had to work outside because there was not enough room in her tiny hut.
People should not be living like this. And this is why God had to intervene. He did so through a man named Nitya. Nitya had a dream about a shack by the sewer. And he moved into one! How many of us would leave our nice, comfy, clean homes and families to live in a slum among complete strangers? Nitya had no reservations. Why? He knew that God had called him to serve in the slums. Sometimes the harvest is in places that we normally wouldn’t imagine ourselves going but when God calls us to go, we go. Nitya made his home among the slum dwellers and through his actions, demonstrated God’s love and acceptance.
In Nitya’s eyes, these people were God’s children. God called him and is calling others to share the Good News of Jesus with people who are hurting and are shunned by society.
Watch this video of Nitya–a real life hero who has a true servant’s heart.
God transformed the lives of the people in the slum. Darkness gave way to light and despair turned into hope. When Nitya found out that children were unable to go to school because their parents could afford to send them, he started a Bridge of Hope centre. At the centre, children learn about Jesus, receive quality education, medical care and daily meals.
Nitya also began holding worship services. At first the attendance was low due to lack of interest but now more than 40 people attend. At each service Nitya teaches them from the Bible and prays for them. Thankful for the hope they have found in Jesus, believers take part in Communion to remember the great sacrifice He made for them.
One couple’s lives changed dramatically, thanks to the church. Achal and Malika used to follow their traditional gods and Achal beat Malika but one day she slipped into a coma. Nitya, his wife and other believers prayed for her and she was healed. When Achal and Malika saw the Lord’s power, they gave their hearts to Christ. Today they are among His faithful followers.
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:
“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!” – Romans 10:14, 15
The Goa slum is home to the illegal prostitution trade. Life seemed hopeless for the people there until a Gospel for Asia missionary team began to visit the area, bringing hope in the form of Gospel literature.
As I went through the photo gallery of Team Ministers of Slum Area, tears came to my eyes. It drove home the fact that there are people out there who will gladly accept the Good News if only there were people to share it with them. These photos touched my heart.
“Most of the people they meet are open to the Gospel message. Almost immediately they become engrossed in reading the literature.”
“After he told them the Good News, many raised their hands, indicated that they wanted to follow Jesus. John is the pastor of a GFA-supported church in this area of Goa. He is overjoyed to see so many from the slum become part of the Body of Christ.”
Find out more about Gospel for Asia’s Slum Ministry and see how the work they began in 1999 is still impacting the masses of “desperate people who have no means whatsoever to better their situation or escape their surroundings.” Share Nitya’s story and take a look at the photos. Pray for the slum dwellers and the missionaries of the Slum Ministry. Ask God how you can help.
