Wadia's pimps extract pound of flesh
READ MORE
Women|interest rates
RELATED
PALANPUR/AHMEDABAD: Wadia village in Banaskantha district, branded a
village of prostitutes, seemed to have turned a leaf last year when an
NGO got 15 girls married and helped them start a new life away from the
oldest profession in the world. International media had rolled into the
little hamlet in March 2012 when the mass wedding was held for the first
time since independence.
But scared by the winds of change, pimps of the village say they will not allow any more weddings and have started threatening the girls. This at a time when NGOs try to bring more girls from the Sarania community, largely involved in prostitution here, into the mainstream.
Last month when Shraddha Bhati of NGO Vicharta Samuday Samarpan Manch (VSSM) in Tharad came to the village looking for an auspicious date to get another 10 girls married, she had to face the ire of the pimps. The NGO had arranged the mass wedding last year. The 10 girls, aged between 17 and 23, too have been told to forget about a new life.
"The pimps told me to give up the idea of marrying more girls in Wadia and even threatened to kidnap my daughter," Bhati says. She approached the police, who are now setting up an outpost in the village. As many as 181 families are engaged in the flesh trade here while 25 have left it.
Sources say because the girls' families mortgage their land to the pimps at high interest rates, they have a hold on the girls. If you want your land back then do as we say, the pimps tell the families.
Mital Patel, coordinator for VSSM, says, "This is a reaction of the pimps to the women no longer wanting to be prostitutes. Many have started farming on the land given to them by the government. Some are also involved in trading cattle."
Both the NGO and the girls however say they will go ahead with their wedding plans despite the threats.
But scared by the winds of change, pimps of the village say they will not allow any more weddings and have started threatening the girls. This at a time when NGOs try to bring more girls from the Sarania community, largely involved in prostitution here, into the mainstream.
Last month when Shraddha Bhati of NGO Vicharta Samuday Samarpan Manch (VSSM) in Tharad came to the village looking for an auspicious date to get another 10 girls married, she had to face the ire of the pimps. The NGO had arranged the mass wedding last year. The 10 girls, aged between 17 and 23, too have been told to forget about a new life.
"The pimps told me to give up the idea of marrying more girls in Wadia and even threatened to kidnap my daughter," Bhati says. She approached the police, who are now setting up an outpost in the village. As many as 181 families are engaged in the flesh trade here while 25 have left it.
Sources say because the girls' families mortgage their land to the pimps at high interest rates, they have a hold on the girls. If you want your land back then do as we say, the pimps tell the families.
Mital Patel, coordinator for VSSM, says, "This is a reaction of the pimps to the women no longer wanting to be prostitutes. Many have started farming on the land given to them by the government. Some are also involved in trading cattle."
Both the NGO and the girls however say they will go ahead with their wedding plans despite the threats.
Wadia (village)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page.
|
Wadia is the only village openly known for prostitution in Gujarat, which otherwise does not boast of any red-light areas, and flesh trade is a business which thrives underground.[1]
Since pre-Independence, the village has been known to attract men from many places. Such is the acceptance in the village that most men have turned into pimps and openly solicit clients for the women of their family.
This small village is inhabited by a nomadic tribe called Saraniyas. It is believed that the tribal community took to prostitution for want of any other form of employment and poverty.
References
- ^ "Women of this village pimped by their kin - Times Of India". Articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 2012-02-19. Retrieved 2012-05-13.
No comments:
Post a Comment