hindustantimes.com
Orissa woman ostracised for selling sex for survival
Jatindra Dash
Bongomunda (Orissa), December 5
Hunger has ravaged her life over and over again. It pushed Nura Gahir's family into debt, widowed her and even made her sell some of her five children.
Now it has led her village in Orissa to ostracise her, turning a blind eye to the circumstances that led to her unwanted pregnancy.
Gahir of Barpan village in Bolangir district, about 430 km from the state capital Bhubaneswar, is eight months pregnant, carrying the child of a man she sold her body to so she could eat one square meal a day.
Gahir has been battling hunger since her husband Tulsi starved to death on December 29, 1996. She suddenly became the sole provider for five children -- daughter Sanju (8) and sons Rohit (9), Gopal (7), Mithun (3) and Nanda (1).
"We had one acre of cultivable land, a house and a pair of bovines before my husband died," Gahir, 33, told IANS. "But the drought and the crop failure crippled us financially. We were forced to mortgage our land for Rs. 1,500. After that my husband became a daily wage earner."
But Tulsi couldn't find a steady job and had to mortgage their home for Rs. 500. Their inability to repay the debt resulted in their land being seized.
Finally, Tulsi died of hunger. That's when Gahir sold Rohit for Rs. 2,000 to a moneylender.
"I pleaded with the local administration for help," Gahir recounts. "Initially they gave me a package comprising 10 kg of rice and some unstitched cloth. Later some officials visited us and gave some cash, but that did not last long."
She told a house committee of the Orissa assembly how she sold Rohit, after which the state family welfare department and a non-government agency gave her Rs. 5,000 each. But Gahir claims her in-laws swindled the money.
"Finally I sold my two sons to some local landlords and sent the other two as contract labourers... I went to Raipur town in Madhya Pradesh with my (now) five-year-old child Nanda to earn a livelihood," she says.
"I did not get any work. I was compelled to take to prostitution for one square meal. In that process I got pregnant again.
"I returned to my village because I do not have the capability to sell my body any more," Gahir says. "But this has not ended my plight. The villagers have now ostracised me, saying I have (conceived through an) immoral act.
"The villagers are not allowing me to purchase rations (groceries) or vegetables from the village shop. I have not been allowed to mix with anybody."
The administration, however, claims its quick response has ended Gahir's ostracism.
"We provided help to Nura soon after we heard of her plight," says district chief Santosh Satapathy. "The Barpan residents ostracised her for some time but after our intervention she has been brought to the mainstream."
The villagers, however, concede that while the grocer may once again be selling his wares to Gahir for fear of official action, the social boycott persists.
Barpan, a village of 150 families, is currently in the grip of a famine-like situation that has forced many to migrate. Every alternate year the village witnesses either excess rainfall and flood, or too little rain and drought. Either way, the result is crop failure and hunger, forcing many to sell their children for a pittance just to survive another day.
Cases such as this have been reported from other parts of Bolangir, and other regions of Orissa. But the government denies them.
"We have not received any information from any part of the district (Bolangir) about people dying of hunger or parents selling their children," Satapathy says, refuting reports of at least five cases where destitute parents sold their children.
The media reported the first case of a parent selling a child due to poverty and hunger in April. Since then there have been several such reports, including a controversial case when a journalist "bought" two children paying just Rs. 1,100 and 15 kg of rice. |
