'Starved', 'reduced to bones', 50-year-old woman held captive by brother in Delhi was given piece of bread once in 4 days

The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has rescued a 50-year-old woman from a house in the city’s Rohini area, where her brother had held her captive for the past two years. The DCW counsellors’ team reached the spot after receiving a call regarding the woman being locked inside a house. [caption id=“attachment_5216741” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal with the 50-year-old woman they rescued in Delhi. Twitter/Amit Mishra[/caption] According to the Commission, it received a call on its helpline number and informed about the woman being locked inside a house. A DCW team was immediately sent to the spot. After making several unsuccessful attempts to enter the house, the DCW team, along with the police, got in by climbing the roof of the neighbour’s house and found the woman on the open terrace in her own filth. The DCW team immediately got her admitted to Ambedkar Hospital in Rohini area. “The condition of the lady was pathetic. She has been starving for several days and reduced to bones. She was kept on open terrace which had no room or toilets and the terrace contained piles of the excreta of the woman,” the DCW said in a statement. The woman confirmed to the DCW that she was given a piece of bread only once in four days for the past two years and no one was allowed to visit her. Reflecting on the incident, DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal, who met the woman in the hospital, expressed shock over the treatment given to the woman and demanded strict punishment for all the perpetrators. “I am deeply shocked at the inhuman manner in which the lady has been treated. While she is only 50 years old, she presently looks as though she is over 90 years of age. Her starvation is so extreme that she was unable to look after her basic needs. For days together, she would keep lying in her own filth in an open terrace,” Maliwal said. “The brother of the rescued woman and his wife should be immediately arrested and taken to task. I feel sad that none of the neighbours thought of informing the police or the commission of her condition. I urge all citizens to please come forward and report such incidents so that more girls and women can be saved,” she added. An FIR has been registered in the matter at Rohini Sector 7 Police Station. With inputs from agencies