Horror on the highways

The news item I watched on the child prostitution racket along the National Highway in Madhya Pradesh yesterday has left me stunned. Its not as if I did not know about this abuse of children, but I did not realise that it was still continued as an accepted system by a community. An entire community (the Banchhada) actually follows the tradition of prostitution! One of the videos the news team recorded was of a Khap Panchayat head actually saying that they would not allow prostitution to be stopped. He also went on to say (if i have remembered the phrase correctly), 'Yeh ruk gaya toh hamare aadmi logon ka kya hoga'!! I am still stunned by his casual comment.


The tiny shelters on stilts where the girls are seated on display along the highway, the mothers negotiating rates on behalf of their daughters.... this is probably what alternate reality looks like! It was all so casually done. The video of the young girl who could not have been even 12 years old quoting her different rates for 'upper body' and 'lower body' was chilling - what could have made her so completely resigned to her life? What is it that is allowing mothers to push their daughters into this life of hell.  And where are we 'caring' citizens who are ready to stand up and be counted with our protests, our banners and candle-light walks when this kind of gang rape is happening to children, every single day of their lives?