Celebrated at birth, pushed into sex work
Unlike most communities in India, the Banchhadas in M.P. invest more in their daughters’ upbringing than in their sons’, by giving them better nutrition and clothes, only so that they can force them into sex work and live off their earnings. Branded a ‘criminal tribe’ by the British and now classified as a Scheduled Caste, the community remains on society’s margins as government and NGOs have…
Savitri, a 40-year-old former sex worker, vividly remembers the moment her perspective on her profession changed. "It was when my girls turned five and seven," she recalls. At that time, she had made a firm decision that her daughters would never live the life she had led, a life she now detested. "I had decided that my daughters would live with dignity," Savitri explained. The source material does not delve into the specifics of why Savitri entered the sex industry or provide any details about her present circumstances.
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