PALANPUR, India, March 11 Reuters - A village in western India hosted a mass wedding and engagement ceremony of 21 girls on Sunday aimed at breaking a tradition of prostitution which has for centuries exploited women of a poor, marginalised and once nomadic community in the region.
They did not think they were doing anything wrong. Once a girl is married, she is out of the profession. Once she is even engaged, she is out of this nexus. Local people from mud-and-brick Wadia village are reluctant to talk about the issue, fearing discrimination against them in this conservative and largely patriarchal country. We have been doing agriculture and farming castor seeds and now are earning more money.
At the ceremony, musicians played the dhol and shehnai, the traditional Indian drum and trumpet used in weddings, as the eight marrying couples simultaneously placed garlands over one another and walked around a sacred fire placed in front of them, as per Hindu tradition.
Thirteen couples as young as 12 were also engaged during the ceremony, exchanging rings in the incense-filled tent, as a priest gave instructions from a microphone. Their parents said their weddings would take place when they turn This will end this cycle.
No woman wants to do this by choice. Discover Thomson Reuters. Directory of sites. United States. Nita Bhalla.
