Several residents of Kanjar colony in the Pandher area of Rajasthan’s Bhilwara district are unhappy with news reports that claim girls are being ‘sold on stamp papers’ in some districts of the state and that their mothers are being raped as a result of caste panchayat directives to settle differences.
According to the residents, recent claims that girls were being sold on stamp papers were an attempt to reclaim the community’s image from an unpleasant past. According to some villagers who talked to India Today, girls were sometimes sent away for what was euphemistically called dancing and singing.
A male family member identified Shiv Prakash reported that the majority of the residents of Kanjar Colony in Bhilwara’s Pandher had been working hard to make ends meet through manual labour, farming, and other traditional means.
‘The girls are not sold, neither does prostitution happen. Because of education, improvement has happened. It’s an old case. Girls used to go outside for dancing and singing,’ Shiv said.
‘I was born over here. It is wrong to say that girls are sold over in this village. Girls study here. Now, just because of the accusations, how will girls and boys from this village get accommodation outside,’ another villager stated.
Some locals did, however, admit that girls had previously been sent out, but they claimed that this had only ever been done for dancing and singing. Some of the denotified tribes in Rajasthan have a history of allegedly forcing girls into prostitution or selling them for money.
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