A note by ATC Prerana
Prerana has been associated with iPartner India since 2014. During 2018, Prerana visited certain districts and blocks in Rajasthan to meet with families of girls who were rescued from commercial sexual exploitation from Mumbai, Maharashtra. Prerana subsequently released its report on the evil social customs of pushing young girls from families into the sex trade prevalent among certain communities of North-West India. During this time, iPartner who was keen on working with these communities on prevention and creating social awareness approached Prerana to discuss the possibility of making a positive intervention in one of the districts where the custom was rampant. Project Rakshan was thus proposed and launched in 2018. Prerana assisted in the initial conceptualization of the project. Prerana’s team (henceforth ref to as the ‘Team’) visited the project in September 2019 almost a year after the commencement.
Rakshan site visits: Day 2
The Team visited yet another basti of Nats in the district of Tonk where the school teachers spoke about children from the Nat communities coming to school. They said some children from the Nat community are sent to private schools as well.
Girls from this village are believed to be sent to Meerut in Uttar Pradesh and to Mumbai. While the Team was in the school in one basti the school teacher received a call from the nearby Nat community to check as to who had come to the school. A young boy from the Nat village came to the school to personally check who the Team was. Around 50 families live in this settlement of the Nat Community. Most girls drop out of school from the 5th std. Only a few of them reach the 8th std.
The Nat communities have informants planted in every nook and corner of the village to keep a watch on who is moving in and around their village. The 9 festive nights of Navaratri, and weddings are the occasions when the Nat girls and young women are in high demand.
In this village too, the Team visited a well-constructed house. There were two elderly women in that house and a car was parked outside their house. Although there were women in the house, the men in the house did all the talking. They said all children from the village go to school. They were highly appreciative of the school and the teachers. They said after the children complete schooling in this local village school, they pursue further education in the adjoining villages or move to the city. The men lamented that the government has not done enough for the educated youth to help them get jobs, which they considered was quite demotivating for the youth.
Young boys and men were “hanging” around outside a shop in this community and by the time the Team were to leave more came on bikes to check who were the visitors in their community.
During exiting the village, the Team spotted yet another settlement, housing about 10 families. The women of those household came forward to talk to the Team. In an assuring tone they told the Team that all children of their settlement go to school and further reiterated that some children go to a private school in the adjoining village by school bus.
Observations/ Reflections
Selling young girls from their own or extended families into the local or distant Metropolitan sex trade is still rampant in the Nat communities of the Tonk district.
Off late, the male members of the community who control this practice have also started procuring outside girls to meet the high demand for girls. This new trend has intensified the crack down by the police, local as well as of the destination metros as it is seen as an act of human trafficking. It is not tolerated as a community tradition limited to the induction of their own community and family members.
The realization that the customary practice is grossly illegal and invites strict punishment is recent and has resulted into excessive secrecy, escalated caution and increase in suspicion about outsiders. The community is tightly held together by this need to guard itself collectively.
The concern over the higher incidence of HIV positivity among the returnees from the metropolitan sex trade is shared by the better-informed community members.
The radius of supply from these communities to the sex trade has crossed national borders. Girls get supplied also to the gulf countries.
Children go to school but girls are kept away from formal secondary and higher education or pursuing legitimate work options of their choice.
The increased sensitivity, capability and capacity of the enforcement agencies in the destinations of sex trade in the metropolitan areas against CSE&T is affecting the local trafficking practices positively and hence should be sustained and intensified.
The financially lucrative nature of some of the sex trade destinations is very powerful and can pose great hurdles in the process of putting the next generation on a developmental path, through formal education in order to protect them from sex trafficking and sex trade.
Read about Day 1 of the visit here.
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