Gujarat man calls helpline to save 6-year-old daughter from his wife

SURAT: It was a strange call that 181 Abhayam women’s helpline received from a village near Vyara of Tapi district on Saturday, leaving the counsellors puzzled and curious.
Nonetheless, they rushed to spot and to their horror found a six-year-old girl bleeding from being tortured physically.
Upon seeing the team, a man rushed forward, identifying himself as the caller, Amarsinh Gamit, (name changed). The diamond artisan pleaded the helpline officials to save his daughter Divya (name changed) from the wrath of his wife, the girl’s biological mother.
Gamit then explained that he stayed in Surat, while his family stayed in the village.
However, every week when he came home he would find his daughter battered, bruised and bleeding. When asked, the sobbing girl would always point at her mother Sonal (name changed).
It was a daily ritual, Gamit’s neighbours would tell him as they feared that Sonal vents her frustration of not having a male child on the poor girl.
He tried, each time, to make Sonal understand that she couldn’t torture her own daughter in that extreme manner but this would only end up in an argument between the two.
This time, however, when things went beyond control he wanted to take his girl with him to the city despite him staying in a shared accommodation sans proper facility.
However, Sonal even objected to this and was in no mood to accept her mistake too. Helpless, Gamit turned to Abhayam to help to save his girl.
The counsellors tried to explain to the mother that she cannot beat her daughter inhumanly.
However, even their advices and warnings failed to evoke any positive response from the woman, who was allegedly very short-tempered.
“When the counsellors discussed the issue with her family as well as neighbours, they discovered that Divya was beaten up black and blue almost daily in absence of Gamit,” said an official of Abhayam helpline.
Abhayam officials then contacted the District Child Welfare Committee and shifted the girl to a government facility.