Kanchan (name changed) is currently pursuing her graduation in law from Bhopal University. The mother back home is still engaged in sexual activity.
“She is always involved in work, but she doesn’t want her daughters to face these problems. She always encouraged me to pursue education,” she says. Uttam India.
Kanchan and his mother belong to the Bediya community, which falls under the nomadic and alienated tribes of India. In many households in the Madhya Pradesh community, it is customary for girls to engage in sex work after puberty — the profession is both a family business and a tradition. Meanwhile, their brothers start working as buyers and bring them clients.
Girls, who often earn for their families, have long been victims of institutionalized sex work. Meanwhile, the lingering stigma isolates children from the rest of the community, depriving them of their fundamental right to education.
Kanchan says, “The people of my community have to face a lot of problems because of what they do. Even after so much exploitation, there are girls in the grip of child marriage. Most of our women occupy a lot of government offices, and, unaware of their rights, are discriminated against because of work. I want to become a lawyer so that I can help my community and make a difference,” she says.
As a student, Kanchan was asked about his caste and father’s name in school. “I tell them that in our community we don’t mention father’s name,” she adds. About eight years ago, Kanchan left her village and came to Bhopal hoping for a better future. Next year, she plans to bring her sister to Bhopal.
Kanchan Bedia is one of the 5,000 children of the community who have succeeded in creating a different future for themselves. Thanks to the efforts of IPS officer Birendra Mishra, children, teenagers and youth from 60 villages in six districts are able to overcome the stigma of their caste to get an education and as a result their dream – to become a policeman. Officers, some sub-inspectors, and some doctors, engineers, IAS officers and lawyers, to name a few.
‘Children suffer the most’
“Currently, Bhopal has 26 children in colleges and 37 students in schools. Wherever we work, we have ensured that almost all children are involved,” says Mishra. Uttam India. The non-profit organization receives financial support from child rights organizations such as CRY (Child Rights and You).
What people believe to be “traditional engagement in sexual acts”, Mishra calls “community-based sexual exploitation”. “These children suffer the most, because they were subjected to traditional and traditional sexual acts from an early age and their education level was very poor.”
The 53-year-old started working with 13 children while opening his organization Samvedna. So far he has covered districts like Bhopal, Rajgarh, Raisen, Guna, Vidisha and Sagar.
Breaking a cycle
“Our idea is to create opportunities. When you create opportunity, you create hope, and when you create hope, then everyone starts pushing their limits. They should help themselves. We are just facilitators,” says Mishra, who started Samveda in 2005 to fight caste-based commercial sex exploitation and human sex trafficking in the state.
In 2010, he brought 13 Bediya children from Rajgarh district to Bhopal to educate them. “We enrolled them in school. We hand-held them right from preschool level, and helped them get higher education and find jobs. We identified the strengths of these children and helped them shape their future accordingly,” he said.
Currently posted as Assistant Inspector General of Police-AIG, Madhya Pradesh State Industrial Security Force in Bhopal, the IPS officer has earlier worked in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Ministry of Social Justice.
During his posting at Narsinghgarh in Rajgarh district, he came to know about the Bediya community. “Most of the adults here did not leave the village to seek other opportunities. Exploitation has become common among them. We are trying to break that generalization. We do not believe in stigma and do not go to them to preach that what they are traditionally doing is wrong. We informed them about various livelihood options,” he says.
“Sometimes, they don’t have identifiable biological parents because their fathers were customers. Their brothers are buyers and mothers are sex workers. The whole ecosystem is supporting that tradition. We try to engage with every stakeholder in the community so that they understand the importance of education. One of their children have not passed class 10. It was not fair with these children,” he adds.
When children face discrimination at the village level, they are admitted as children from other communities. To provide a better environment, the team convinced parents to send their children to nearby schools in Bhopal.
“It was a paradigm shift in their thought process. For four years I struggled to convince them. Even though the older generation is still involved in sex, we are trying to help the new generation to come out of that cycle,” said the IPS officer.
For Virendra, this job is a life-changing experience. “Maybe, it’s made me a better person. I’ve learned a lot from these kids. And I’m just as passionate about them as I am about my kids. I’m not doing this as a police officer, I’m doing this personally.”
He said that every citizen should ensure that the children of such communities have good education and a quality life without discrimination.
“We fight for fundamental rights, but no one respects fundamental duties. Every citizen of this country must ensure equality to these children, because we are the ones who bring inequality and discrimination,” he said.
Edited by Divya Sethu. All photos: Sense