The community where prostitution of older girls is a tradition

Many Indian families prefer to have boys as boys. But when Heena was born, her parents celebrated. Unfortunately, for the wrong reasons.

Heena is part of the remote community of
Bacchara, India. For centuries, its members forced older girls to become bad workers aged 10 or 12.

And when they get older, a younger sister replaces him.

This custom has been handed down from generation to generation as an "accepted tradition", and the men in the family live off the profits generated by these girls.

In some cases, the father or brother acts as a pimp.

Even marriages in this community are different. There, the bride's family is the one who claims a high price for her daughter, the so-called "reverse dowry".

No option

Heena was ready to fulfill her role since she was born and forced to prostitute herself. "I was only 15 years old when they forced me to do it, I had to give up my studies and follow the same path as my mother and my maternal grandmother," she said. she told the BBC.

Every day, he spoke to many clients, from poor men in rural areas to wealthy truckers. "When I was 18, I realized how bad it was and I felt very angry.What were my options? How would my family survive if I did not win? Money that way? "

Baccharas are relatively poor in India and trust their wives to improve the economic situation of the family. Akash Chouhan, coordinator of a local NGO, "about a third of women who prostitute themselves are minors".

The baccharas are a nomadic tribe, spread across three districts of the state of Madhya Pradesh, in the center of the country. They occupy mainly rural areas or areas near roads, in places where truckers stop.

Tips from the job

The girls, known locally as khilawadis or "the ones who play", wait alone or in groups in rope moorings, thus attracting attention to their potential customers.

There are usually small shops on the road where your agents are. They enter into an agreement with truckers, who pay between $ 1.45 and $ 2.80 for the transaction.

According to locals, the best prices are paid for a virgin, which usually costs around $ 72. "During the day, between four and five men come in. At night we go to hotels or nearby, we always run the risk of being infected," Heena says.

A report published by
In 2000, the national newspaper The Hindu reported that blood samples from 5,500 community members revealed that about 15% were HIV-positive.

Many of these young women also end up having children as a result of these badual encounters. Heena had a daughter and that forced her to work harder.

Being a bad worker also means that you are prohibited from marrying a man from the same community.

Eventually, Heena struggled to get out of the system with the help of a local NGO. "Only girls who comply with this damn practice can understand conflict, I know what it's like and I want to help end it," he says.

There are many theories about the origin of this socially accepted custom, but none has been confirmed. The poverty and the difficulty of the tribe to generate money are part of it.

What the law says?

The preference given to male children in the country has generated a dangerous imbalance between the number of men and women. But the problem here is the opposite. "The community has about 33,000 members, at least 65% of whom are women," said Akash Chouhan.

One of the reasons for the high number of women is the illegal trafficking of girls to these regions. "We have saved about 50 children in these areas in recent months," said Manoj Kumar Singh, police superintendent at the BBC. "We even found a 2-year-old girl whom we have now sent to a shelter."

Kumar Singh says that raids are common, but that the habit, deeply rooted in these communities, can only create a social awareness of the problem.

Madhya Pradesh, the state in which this community lives, recently pbaded a law condemning to a death sentence anyone who rapes a 12-year-old child.

It has also extended the number of years of imprisonment for adults having bad with a child under the age of 18, the legal age of consent in India. However, these measures have not served much.

The future

In 1993, a scheme to eliminate prostitution in baccharas was introduced. But it has not yet been fully implemented.

"Every year we advertise to find non-profit organizations that help us implement it, but none has yet met the requirements," said Rajendra Mahajan, responsible of the social welfare service for women and children.

The Jabalí program focuses on the rehabilitation of these women through education, health and awareness. But with or without the help of the government, the situation is changing slowly.

Some of the youngest women in the community are defying the norms by looking for work elsewhere or going to school.

There are also local initiatives that offer help. Heena participates in one of these projects (the one who saved her in 2016). "I'm helping other girls understand that they can find support and withdraw from this job," she says.

This NGO has a local training center which provides free education to minors. "Girls are forced to stay in this profession because they have no other way of finding a job, only education can help them progress," says Heena.