Celebrated at birth, pushed into sex work
The Banchhada community in Madhya Pradesh maintains a traditional practice where girls are pushed into sex work upon reaching puberty. While some families and NGOs are working to break this cycle, the systemic nature of the practice remains a significant social challenge.
Why it matters
It highlights a deeply entrenched human rights issue involving intergenerational exploitation and the struggle for social mobility within marginalized tribal communities.
Identities of all sex workers, former sex workers, and their families have been changed to maintain privacy
S itting in her older daughter’s room, where one corner is covered with maps and math formula sheets, Savitri, a 40-year-old former sex worker, recalls when she began hating her profession. “It was when my girls turned five and seven,” she says. “I had decided that my daughters would never live the life I had. They would live with dignity.”
Although she continued in the profession for a few more years due to family responsibilities — her husband, who was one of her clients, abandoned the family years ago — Savitri eventually quit. Now, about 10 years later, her elder daughter works with an NGO and is preparing to write the police exam, while her younger daughter is preparing for medical entrance tests in Indore.
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