Girls are lured by jobs and love, sold to orchestras, who are then brutalised into submission and groomed as dancers; prostitution is part of this horrendous journey which includes daily beatings and rape as a matter of course
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New Delhi: It’s always been a bad business. Now it’s getting worse, much worse.
Bihar’s travelling dance troupes have incorporated some really nasty moves in the sex-trafficking rackets they are known for, using love jihad and conversion to further their primary money-spinning activity. These troupes, known popularly as orchestras, have now expanded their reach to neighbouring West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and even Nepal.
“The governments of states where orchestras are a problem, such as Bihar and Punjab, must show will and must act against them. Sexual exploitation of minors is rampant in these orchestras. Moreover, why should there be minor girls dancing in orchestras? Then these are also places where a religious conversion rackets are active. Another angle to this problem is the involvement of illegal migrants in India, such as Bangladeshis and Rohingyas,” National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) chief Priyank Kanoongo told Firstpost.
Kanoongo said these orchestras are patronised by the rich and powerful which is one of the reasons why state governments have been loath to act against these crime hubs.
There is actually an infamous ‘orchestra belt’ in Bihar comprising the districts of Gopalganj, Motihari, Muzaffarpur, Rohtas, West Champaran and adjoining areas. These orchestras cater mostly to wedding functions that as a rule include the lascivious, and sometimes occasions like the birth of a son to people of means.
The modus operandi is simple: conmen lure young women, a lot of them minors, promising jobs or love, usually both. The unsuspecting girls are then sold to the orchestra or dance troupes for as less as Rs 10,000. Religious conversion to Islam is also part of cycle frequently, for sale to Muslim buyers.
Unsuspecting girls are mostly sourced from Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha, among other states, and neighbouring Nepal.
The girls are then brutalised into submission and groomed as dancers; prostitution is part of this horrendous journey which includes daily beatings and rape as a matter of course.
Many of these girls who are later sold forward by the orchestras go on to join brothels, mostly in West Bengal, where they are formally initiated in selling flesh for money. In several instances, these girls are also sold as brides to willing husbands in regions where the sex ratio is skewed, such as western Uttar Pradesh.
In a recent case from June this year, four minor girls were rescued by Bihar Police from an orchestra in Chiraiya, West Champaran. These girls were from Jharkhand, West Bengal and Muzaffarpur in Bihar.
The police filed FIRs against three orchestra owners, who slipped out of the police net and escaped.
“The girl from West Bengal had been sold by her close friend to the orchestra for Rs 50,000. She had been lured on the pretext of a job. She was made to dance against her will while she was also physically exploited,” Virendra Singh, director of Mukti Foundation, told Firstpost.
Mukti Foundation is one of the biggest non-profits working for emancipation of women, especially minors, from the clutches of such unscrupulous elements and works closely with the NCPCR.
“The girls from Muzaffarpur told the authorities that she had been netted in a love affair by one Tanveer three months ago (from the date of rescue). Tanveer also married her. Tanveer then sold the girl for Rs 20,000 to an orchestra in Chiraiya in Bihar’s West Champaran. The same was the case with a girl from Jharkhand,” Singh added.
“This is not an isolated case. This has been happening in Bihar for some time now. Guys like Tanveer net young unsuspecting minors in love affairs, push them to have physical relations after which the girls are psychologically gripped by these men. They are also alienated from their families. When the time is ripe, they elope, but then are sold,” Singh said.
In 2018, 17 women, including five minor girls, were rescued by Bihar Police in East Champaran district from an alleged sex racket that was run by human traffickers operating under the garb of an orchestra group.
The rescue operation was at two places in Balwa Rai village near Mahnava Bazar under Turkaulia police station, some 200 km from Patna. According to the police, these women were residents of Nepal, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Odisha.
In the same year, an orchestra owner had been arrested on charges of subjecting a girl to sexual abuse, while six girls, all from Ghughali in West Bengal, were rescued during a raid in Dipau village of East Champaran district in August.
There have also been reports of home-based brothels posing as orchestra bands in some areas of the state.
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