Mandsaur's ugly truth: Sex trade in the name of tradition

October 12, 2012

Bopal_sex_trade

Bhopal, October 12: Just 350 kilmetres from Bhopal, dotted along the Mandsaur-Chittorgarh state highway are girls and women indulging in the sex trade. Nothing unusual, except these women belonging to the Bachda tribe conduct the sex trade in the name of tradition. For them, prostitution is a way of life, passed down generations. No questions asked.

This happens in 35 villages alongside the highway from Mandsaur to Chittorgarh in Rajasthan where pan shops and tea stalls with girl attendants are just a cover up. Asking for a 12-year-old for the night is not considered unusual.

When NDTV reached the highway and asked for a couple of pre-pubescent girls for the night, they were told it could be arranged for.


In the 100 km stretch from Mandsaur to Chittorgarh, the NDTV crew spotted at least 700 girls soliciting customers. Girls who should have ideally been in school or college. They spend their day luring customers who are mainly truck drivers.


And the presence of policemen doesn't seem to be any deterrent as many women say the police understand and respect 'their tradition.' " The police does not bother us as they know that we have been living here and doing this for generations as part of our tradition," says one such woman on the highway. "There is no particular reason why we are into prostitution. The girls do it of their own free will; we have been doing this from the beginning. There's been no prohibition by the authorities so it has been continuing from generations," she adds.

The police on the other hand say their efforts in curbing this form of prostitution have reaped benefits and fewer girls are now seen on the highway.

But another disturbing reality emerges. While the tribes are now sending their girls to school and colleges, girls from other places and tribes are kidnapped and forced into prostitution. Police say they rescued 62 girls in the last two years, 25 of them who were reunited with their biological parents.


What is ironic is that in the early 90s the Madhya Pradesh Government started the Jabali Yojna, a rehabilitation program for the Bachda and other tribes that push women into prostitution as tradition, but one trip down the highway just demonstrates how the programme's implementation remains ineffective.



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News Network
June 6,2020

Kota (Rajasthan), Jun 6: A 14-year-old boy allegedly hanged himself to death on early Saturday morning shortly after he stopped playing PUBG throughout the night and went to sleep, said police. 

Railway Colony police station’s in-charge Hansraj Meena said the boy, a class 9 student and son of an Army man, was found hanging from the grill of the ventilator in his bedroom on early Saturday morning. 

Meena said according to the boy’s family members, the boy had downloaded the gaming programme on his mother’s mobile phone only three days back but had been playing the game virtually continuously for the last three days. 

He kept on playing the game till 3 am in a room in which his brother was studying, said Meena, adding the boy went to adjoining to sleep after that. His body was found hanging from the ventilator’s grill in the morning, he said, adding the boy was rushed to MBS Hospital, where he was declared “brought dead”. 

No suicide note was recovered in the case, the SHO said. The boy lived in Gandhi Colony in the city along with his mother and brother, while his father, a Tamil Nadu native and Army man, is currently posted in Arunachal Pradesh. The boy’s body has been kept in hospital’s morgue for the postmortem, the SHO said.

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News Network
April 5,2020

Nagpur, Apr 5: A 23-year-old man allegedly committed suicide in Imambada area in Nagpur on Saturday due to financial distress, police said.

Nikhil Gavhane, who worked in a grocery shop, hanged himself as he had taken money from a person and was stressed over repayment, an official said.

"He was depressed since a week," the Imambada police station official said.

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News Network
July 17,2020

Patna, Jul 17: A 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a security guard at the Covid-19 quarantine center of the Patna Medical College Hospital where she was admitted after being rescued from a railway station, police said on Thursday.

The accused, Mahesh (40), was arrested on Wednesday night after being booked under the POCSO Act and other relevant IPC sections by the Pir Bahore police station, according to Arti Jaiswal, the in-charge of the women's police station here.

“The accused is being sent to jail while the victim will be undergoing medical tests on Thursday, as is the norm for all sexual assault survivors," Jaiswal said.

The girl had run away from her home in Nalanda district more than a week ago and reached Barh railway station on the outskirts of Patna to catch a train for Kolkata where her father is a daily wage-earner, police said.

She was spotted by Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel who informed the child helpline. The child helpline personnel, taking note of the girl’s tender age and her disturbed frame of mind, convinced her not to undertake the journey and brought her to the hospital’s quarantine ward for COVID-19 suspects as a precautionary measure, they said.

On the night of July 8, a few hours after the girl's arrival at the hospital, she was caught hold of by the accused inside the bathroom and allegedly raped. The accused also threatened her with dire consequences if she spilt the beans and, as per the FIR, kept harassing her sexually.

She finally decided to speak up when another girl, carrying a mobile phone, was similarly brought to the hospital by child helpline a couple of days ago. Using the fellow inmate’s phone, she narrated her ordeal to the helpline personnel who informed the police.

“Her Covid-19 test report is negative. After her examination, for the sexual assault, by a six-member medical board is over, she will be sent to a shelter home by the child helpline," Jaiswal said.

Meanwhile, state women’s commission chairperson Dilmani Mishra strongly reacted to the incident and said, “We are waiting for the medical reports of the girl. We will ensure that justice is done in the matter.”

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