In MP, birth of a girl is auspicious for flesh trade

In Banchhada community, women are given importance for wrong reasons

Neemuch (MP), March 18: While female foeticide due to preference for boys is an issue that is plaguing India, there is a community in Madhya Pradesh that actually celebrates the birth of a girl child, albeit for not a positive reason.

Members of Banchhada community, who operate family-based prostitution for livelihood, consider the birth of a girl auspicious as it means another breadwinner for the family.

For the community, which is mainly settled in Ratlam, Mandsaur and Neemuch districts of Madhya Pradesh, prostitution is a way of life, passed down generations and young girls are groomed to become prostitutes as male members mostly live off their earnings.

A survey conducted by the MP Women Empowerment Department in 2015 in 38 villages in Mandsaur, showed that their population in the district was 3,435, with 2,243 women and 1,192 men. “It means as compared to men, the population of women is almost the double,” Chouhan said.

A similar exercise held in 2012 in Neemuch’s 24 Banchhada-dominated villages also showed that the number of women is more than the men — 3,595 women and 2,770 men.

“This belt — Ratlam, Mandsaur and Neemuch, notorious for opium cultivation, is also known for Banchhada community, in which prostitution has been given a societal approval,” Akash Chouhan, coordinator of Nai Abha Samajik Chetna Samiti, an NGO, said.

“As the members of the community are dependent on the women of the family for livelihood, they always celebrate the birth of a girl child with pomp, unlike others. For earning their daily bread, the male members allow their women to indulge in prostitution, although it is illegal in the eyes of law,” he added.

Citing a census report, Chouhan said, “The total population of Banchhada community, which is spread over 75 villages in the three districts, is about 23,000, of which at least 65 per cent are women.” - PTI