Tribal girls flee homes to escape flesh trade

A barbaric custom marks every girl in a Madhya Pradesh tribe as a “prostitute by birth”. The age-old tradition is currently being challenged by young girls in the Banchda tribe, who have been escaping their homes.

Around 200 girls, some of them as young as seven, have fled their homes to escape the custom that turns them into prostitutes at a young age. The parents of many of the girls act as pimps to trade off their minor daughters for huge sums under the pretext of marriage to avoid police action.

“The parents initiate their minor daughters, some as young as seven, into the flesh trade. These young girls are administered growth hormones to hasten their puberty and then pushed into prostitution in the name of custom,” social activist Renuka Ranawat, who has given shelter to four fleeing Bachda girls in her “Child Care Home” in MP’s Mandsaur, told this newspaper on Sunday.

The girls, aged between seven and nine, raised the alarm while being trafficked, catching the attention of the police a couple of years ago. They were rescued and handed over to the Child Care Home for rehabilitation.

“All the four girls are now going to school and nurture the dream of becoming teachers in future,” Ms Ranawat said.

Around 200 Bachda girls, who have fled their homes to escape the custom, have currently been rehabilitated in four shelter homes for women and children in the districts of Mandsaur, Jeora, Neemuch and Ratlam, a senior officer in the MP state women commission told this newspaper. Every Banchda girl has a tragic tale to tell.

“I have been sold off no less than 50 times in my life. My father, whom I strongly suspect of not being my biological father, first sent me off with a 70-year-old man after conducting our fictitious marriage in a local temple when I was barely seven years old,” Sarita (name changed), who has been rehabilitated in a shelter home in Neemuch district, said.

“I had been subjected to brutal sexual exploitation by him for nearly one year. Then he traded me off to a 28-year-old man. Like a commodity, I was sold by one person to another for around 35 years till I was found unsuitable for the profession,” she added,

“I have visited several villages in the districts of Jeora, Mandsaur, Neemuch, and Ratlam inhabited by the tribe to create awareness among them to do away with the heinous practice. These people are economically well off. They virtually run prostitution rings by involving their women folk to get easy money under the garb of custom. Government intervention is needed to stop them from carrying out the dirty business,” state women’s commission chairperson Lata Wankhde said.

She has sent a proposal to the state government suggesting measures to save the tribe’s girls from the flesh trade.

According to her, the law does not act as deterrent for the parents of the girls.

“The girls are arrested under provisions of the immoral trafficking act during raids in their homes or hotels by police. But, they are later released on bail and then go back to their profession,” Ms Wankhde said.

According to her, a young man from the community, who studied law, has recently launched a campaign to bring social reform to the tribe. However, he has been threatened with dire consequences by the racketeers.

“The custom has given birth to sex racket rings involving parents of the girls, local small-time politicians and sometimes even the policemen,” Ms Ramawat said.

Adding a dangerous dimension to it, the tribe has of late been found to be indulging in the kidnapping of small girls from railway stations and residential areas to push them into prostitution.

According to Ms Wankhde, a rehabilitation package launched by the state government earlier for the tribe failed as the community turned to the custom again after enjoying the financial benefits provided under the scheme.

“It is a good sign that young girls in the community have started revolting against the custom. They are the only hope for the tribe to turn a new leaf,” Ms Ranawat observed.