Artisan Handicrafts :: Handicrafts from the heart and soul of Artisans
Article of the Week
Posted on: Saturday March 4th, 2006
Prostitution A Family Business
Girls are a Boon ,Boys a Liability in this ancient village where prostitution is family business.
By Sanjay Austa
As I travel India sourcing handicrafts for Artisanhandicrafts.com, I often see many cultural and family traditions that are worth mentioning. When I find artisans, their handicrafts always reflect their beliefs, traditions and customs. Both the handicrafts and the customs have characteristics that are always memorable.
Here is a small community in Badias.
They celebrate the birth of girls and consider boys a curse, sometimes taking the extreme step of male infanticide. This small community called the Badias, spread in small pockets in and around Agra in Uttar Pardesh, India, has turned the stereotypical Indian middle-class obsession with boys on its head.
The girls are a preference as the Badias have been in the business of prostitution since the Mughal Times. It is believed that they were especially brought in to Agra by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan to entertain the engineers, labourers, artisans and other workmen employed in the construction of the Taj Mahal.
More recently the girls from this community contributed hundreds of its girls to the Mumbai dance-bars. Though the girls deny it , it is alleged that more than 80 percent of these dance-bar girls moonlight as prostitutes. '' They don't think its bad. It is their family tradition and custom and they have been doing it from generations'', says Gulab Singh SP Agra.
The Badias are spread in Agra and its outskirt villages including Dhok village, Koralakala and Champura. However it is in Basai, a small settlement on the fringes of Agra city where the majority of the Badias live. It was an open secret that the Badias are into the flesh trade and even the Badias made no effort to hide the fact. However over the last few years the police have been cracking down on the Badias , arresting girls on charges of prostitution, so the Badia lie low and do not openly profess their trade.
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