Village of sex workers set for a mass marriage in Banaskantha

“Marriage means that the young girls will be saved from the traditional profession of prostitution. As per norms here,once the girl gets married or engaged,she cannot be forced into flesh trade,” co-ordinator of VSSM Mittal Patel said.

“In initial invitations sent out for the mass marriage,we had mentioned seven young girls will get married,while eight others will get engaged. But as of today,eight girls will wed and 24 others have agreed to get engaged on that day,” Patel said.

The marriage will take place on March 11.

Vadia is a small village in Tharad block of Banaskantha district,about 210 km from here,comprising people from Sarania community,a de-notified tribe.

For women here,flesh trade has been a norm for generations in the community at Vadia,which is also commonly referred to as a “village of prostitutes”.

All women of the community,which has its roots mostly in Mewar region of Rajasthan,give into prostitution willingly or unwillingly due to various reasons such as social pressure,poverty and coercion.

The men of the families often live off their women’s income and also bring clients for them.

The Sarania community originally hails from Rajasthan.It is believed their ancestors worked with the royal armies making arms and maintaining weapons in good condition.

The army would always be on the move and so would the Sarania community with it.

After the community moved to Gujarat,they took to the occupation of sharpening knives and thus got their name from “saran”,an instrument to sharpen knives.