Sharifa Khatoon, a young woman from the rural village of Molikpur in Basirhat, West Bengal, India, had dreams of a better life. Her aspirations were simple: to find a stable job and contribute to her family's well-being. Little did she know that her pursuit of a brighter future would lead her down a dark and harrowing path.

In 2016, Sharifa secured a job as a nursemaid at a local nursing home with a very modest salary or Rupees four thousand a month. Though insufficient to meet her family's needs, it offered a glimmer of hope. However, her world was turned upside down when a fellow colleague, Jhuma, convinced her to join a nursing home in Barasat, promising a significantly higher salary. With the encouragement of the nursing home owner in Basirhat, Sharifa agreed to the transfer.

What followed was a nightmare. Under the guise of employment, Sharifa was tricked by a man named Rafiqul Nashkar, and trafficked to Ahmedabad and sold into forced prostitution. Two months later she was sold into the infamous brothel in Pune, the Budhwar Peth. She endured unimaginable physical and emotional abuse, her dreams shattered and replaced by despair.

Back in her village, her family members in pursuit of missing Sharifa, got in touch with Bikash and his team, who worked worked with the Partners for Anti Trafficking (PAT)  network, an initiative by Barasat Unnayan Prostuti (BUP) , a partner organization of Tafteesh in West Bengal.