Dignity March: Young woman from Madhya Pradesh shares chilling tradition of her village
"Family members of my father's side severed ties with us because we had refused to take up prostitution," said Sandhya Chauhan. She said it's a tradition in their Madhya Pradesh village to push girls into sex trade as they turn 13 or 14, but her father, Pappu Chauhan, a Class XII pass and a 'highly qualified' resident, fiercely protected his five daughters.
The decision was like blasphemy in a village where no one dared to go against the age-old tradition. "Our family was looked down upon by the others as they felt we had tainted the entire Bachra caste that we belong to by challenging the age old custom," she said.
Sandhya has been a part of Dignity March, partaken by survivors of rape and sexual violence. It began on December 20, 2018 in Mumbai and will cover 10,000 km of 200 districts across 24 states to culminate on February 22 in Delhi.
Among several demands of the members of the rally, one will be demand for 100 per cent conviction of people engaging in sex with minors and trafficked victims.
"My two elder sisters have been married off while two younger ones are studying. They stay at a hostel. I am studying in Class X through distance learning," she said and added that her father had asked them to study and find a groom of their choice. "Finding a groom for girls in the family is a difficult task. People have to pay at least Rs 10 lakh to get their girls married off. My elder sister got engaged and later when the family of the groom refused to defer marriage as my sister had examinations, my father had to pay Rs 6 lakh to break the engagement," Sandhya said.
A very few girls of their cast get married because most of them are forced into sex trade at an early age and till about 30 years they flourish. After that they are left on their own with no proper income and even families refuse to take care of them.
Ashif Shaikh, convenor of Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan, which has organised the march is leading the march. He said that the conviction rate is abysmally low across India and more so in West Bengal. "West Bengal stands at number 2 in violence against women in the country. Conviction rate is about 3.3 per cent. It is considered as a social stigma and people, including parents of the victim try to suppress the matter instead of putting in a complaint. The figure which we see is what the national crime records reflects which is far less than the actual figure because a lot more goes unreported," Shaikh said.
He said that in different states sexual violence was carried out in different ways. "While in villages of MP it is a custom, in Kolkata we have found several girls being forced into commercial sexual exploitation. In Odisha it is done in the name of migration where girls are lured with jobs in other states and then pushed into sex trade," he added.
Age-Old Practice
- Sandhya Chauhan said girls in their village are pushed to flesh trade once they turn 13 or 14
- She said their father fiercely guarded them against the tradition
- His act of defiance did not go down well with the villagers who outcast him
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 "Sandhya Chauhan")
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