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Paro or Molki : An abusive word

April 18, 2012 EP Admin 0 Comments


The glossary of abusive words has increased with a new entrant, ‘paro’. The word ‘paro’ is well known today in regions like Haryana, Punjab, western Uttar Pardesh and Rajasthan.  As with so many derogatory words, paro comes from the degrading and disparaging attitude of men towards women: it means ‘woman who is purchased for a few bucks’, ‘paro’ are those girls who are bought and brought from eastern Uttar Pardesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Bengal to compensate for the shortage of shortage of women of child bearing age.  She is not a prostitute in open terms, but her levirate marriage today means that it is not only after the death of her husband that his younger brother takes his place, she is also obliged to have sexual relations with his brothers while her husband is still alive. How can it be appropriate to call a woman living like this a ‘wife?’
‘Paro’ is an exact and true example of Catherine McKinnon’s definition of the relation of the two major sexes, “man fucks women: subject verb object”. This kind of only example in Indian classical texts, is Draupadi (A character in the epic of Mahabharata who had pandavas— the five brothers as her husbands. The five brothers had their separate wives too.) Visit any region of Haryana and you will find Catherine’s definition to be true. In spite of this widespread and increasing practice, there is no wide or authoritative research in this field available, but scattered information and data do draw a sketchy picture of the situation. From field and animal husbandry to so called ‘women’s work’ a woman is expected to do it all as ‘her duty’, and you can imagine if women who are brought as legal wife with a huge dowry has to do all these what happens to those who are bought and brought from far away 
This may not directly be a case of human trafficking but indirectly it is! And it’s very serious violation of women’s most basic human rights. Our radical organisation ‘Empower People’ is researching this situation now. Before completion of this research it will not be appropriate to say anything conclusively. But already some of the examples we have found underline the seriousness of the situation. One man who is held in very high regard in his society for being vocal against female foeticide and gender inequality, agreed to speak to me and when I got closer, I found that he has two sons and no daughter, wife and his widowed mother take care of agro & domestic chores and this man has took to social service.  

Paro or Molki : Perception and Causes (An unknown face)
Our research reveals that in Jaatland of Haryana is that paro or molki owning villages become the source of spreading the practice of paro horizontally as well as vertically.  In the village of  Kharakramji the paro were mainly from Maharashtra and in the village Shillakhedi the paro are mainly from West Bengal. We discovered that a paro who had been imported from another village then became the contact through whom other paros would be imported from her area.  The ‘husbands’ of those paro or Molki are were indulging in the heinous work of dalali (Broking system) . For example, Hari Om (name changed) from Kharakramji, who did not wanted to be interviewed, but admitted with a glory that he owns a paro. He also said that he is continuously in contact with the other dalals ( traffickers or brokers) of the city. He warned us of dire consequences if we write anything about the paro or polyandry. He told us with pride that he would be bringing more paro into the village for the other unmarried and unemployed men (people) who come to him to arrange for a paro for them. A member of Panchayat of Kharakramji village admitted this fact. He told me “they import molki to satisfy their sexual needs, all the brothers take advantage of her and for the neighbours they have a bride to show” 
We found that the  ‘husbands’ of the paro or molki and their relatives become the agents and they are continuously in contact with the agents in Hissar, Sonipat and Jind, which epicenter of the trafficking. The agents dwell in the village itself. Sometimes they are truck drivers or the people who are continuously out-goers. A paro is sold more than once in many cases by the agents and their ‘husbands’ and the rate varies from Rs.7, 000/- to Rs.40, 000/.  The paro owners also lead their neighbours and relatives from other village to a place where they can find a paro. The person for whom the paro is being bought affords all the expenses throughout the way.
Our research in the field revealed a number of reasons why women are imported into Jaatland, including the practice of polyandry, the desire for cheap labour, the fact that small landholdings and division of property, scarcity of girls, the passing of marrying age and heavy dowry. But, the irony is that on one hand men are purchasing girls and on the other graph of dowry is touching sky. 

Historical evolution of Paro (molki)
Social acceptance of karewa and its prevalence can be seen in folklore and local proverbs . Also this is noticed by one British administrator, observing the practice in early 20th century onward, recorded that even where there was only one married brother, the other brothers had free access to his wife. (M. L. DARLING, the famed writer and civil administrator of  this region, writing in Prosperity and Debt, first edition, 1925 reprint, South Asia Books, Delhi, 1978) an oft-repeated story of those days jocularly related even now, to show what a marital association entailed in the past, concerns a new bride who had four or five jeth or dewar All of them had free sexual access to her. After fifteen or twenty days of her marriage, the bride requested her mother-in-law to identify her husband from among them. Upon this the mother-in-law came out in the gali (street) and started to howl loudly; when asked about it she replied: " It is difficult for me to live in this house any more. I have been married for forty years, yet even now I have never asked anyone to determine the identity of my husband. This fifteen-day-old bride is already asking about her's." (Prem Chowdhry “An Alternetive to the sati modal : Perceptions of a Social Reality in Folklore” )
The story gives a peep into the popular perception of sexual exploitation as it existed in those days and the extent to which it was accepted as common knowledge. Women's awareness of this exploitation is highlighted even more directly and in a very perceptive manner in a lokgeet (folk song), not commonly heard these days, sung by a young bride. While recounting her enormous work load she is  made to tackle in her in-law's house every day, the bride revealingly discloses :
Beaten and forced to live with my brother-in-law in sin, unending house work has emaciated me, oh God!
In another ragini (song), used for enacting a swang (local folk theatre), the theme revolves around the unwelcome advances of the jeth who forces himself on his sister-in-law and refuses to take no for an answer. The proverb originates from the earlier practice, given above, which shows the brother-in-law to have sexual access to the sister-in-law. Even the father-in-law, given a chance, was not above the sexual exploitation of his daughter-in-law. That this was customarily practiced was recorded by British officials in the late 19th century. Certain villages which need not be named, have the evil reputation of deliberately getting girls older than their boy husbands in order that the father of the latter may have illicit enjoyment of them (E. Joseph, Customary Law of the Rohtak District, Lahore, 1911).
In fact, colonial Punjab and Haryana witnessed instances of the father-in-law claiming karewa marriage with the widowed daughter-in-law in
the mid-1930s 
(RATTIGAN, William Henry. 1966 A digest of civil law for the Punjab, 82). From the sexual point of view these attempts may very well have been to legitimize an already existing relationship which had possibly left the widowed Bahu (daughter-in-law) pregnant. An old folktale highlights these aspects:
A widowed daughter-in-law conceived from her sasura (father-in-law). She was deeply embarrassed about what the people were going to say. The father-in-law reacted to this by asking her to stitch him a quilt full of patches. This quilt he wrapped around himself and sat down in the front courtyard of the house. All the men and women who saw him laughed at the old man and commented on his heavily patched-up quilt. After a few days they stopped, having got used to him and his quilt. It was then that the old man said: " Look here, you woman, now it's all over. People take just a few days to get used to a thing."
The wide-scale social acceptance in the past of this level of sexual exploitation of women for the satisfaction of men has now been transformed into the current practice of buying women ‘paro’ or ‘Molki’ – women who are purchased from outside state - from West Bengal, Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Pahad, Uttrakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
Cheap Labour
Where paro women are imported they work as cheap labour. They are sent to do the daily farm work while the local brides seldom go to the field. One head of a family, Ram Singh (name changed), told us, “they (the paro) do all types and all of the work, they run very fast here and there, like in the fields, home, cattle, management of water, night duty.”
He also justified paro as a result of the law on land and property ownership “the size of the land remains the same but the claimants increased generation by generation, employment is scanty, education gives nothing, then tell who will come with marriage proposals and why?”
There is no doubt that the scarcity of girls is one of the reasons behind the import of the girls from other states. However, there are mixed opinions expressed when people were interviewed.  Some of them agreed that there is an obvious relationship between female foeticide and the practice of paro. As an elderly women lamented “they kill their girls and now they bring other’s here, it’s like as if our ‘Barseen’ ( a kind of green leafy weeds for cattle) supply has run out and now we are going to make sure our neighbours does too”.  On the other hand, some of the people clearly denied the relationship between female foeticide and importing of Molki or paros.  A social activist Deepak Chahal, told us “until now the of killing the girls has not had any effect on encouraging the practice of paro, but for the upcoming generation or in future, its worst effects will be seen”.
When we looked at the role that age may play in the paro system,  we found  that the owners or the ‘husbands’ are in the age group of 25 - 40 years. In the words of jeth of a paro, Suresh Kumar Kataria, “ we did not have land and employment,  so the people were not coming with proposals of marriages for our son,  so at last we had to bring a molki”.

Female feticide and Bride trafficking

April 18, 2012 EP Admin 0 Comments

    • Female feticide : A glance on sex ratio
Haryana is well known for Female Foeticide. It is clear from the census of 1991 and 2001.
Table 1 , Over all Sex ratio1 (Female per 1,000 males) from 1901 to 2001 

State/ country19011911192119311941195119611971198119912001
India972964955950945946941930934927933
Haryana867844835844869871861867870865861
West Bengal945925905890852865878891911917934

In the year 1951 and 1981 sex ratio slightly improved in Haryana. In the same period number of girls increased to 865 and 911 respectively, in the source area.These figures show a slight difference in sex ratio between West Bengal (source area) and Haryana but not much difference occurred as it is believed. The tradition of importing girls in the region is known for the last fifty years. And as can be gathered from the above table, no much difference of sex ratio between source and destination area is observed. It is interesting to note that in 1951, West Bengal has 865 females per thousand males, whereas Haryana has much higher 871 females per 1000 males. Hence, the hypothesis that the ‘outnumbered’ girls from West Bengal compensate the declining sex ratio in destination region cannot stand before the reality. On the other hand if we compare child sex-ratio (see table below) with sex ratio it clearly shows that female infanticide is heavily practiced in West Bengal. In no way West Bengal is less patriarchal society than Haryana.   
Table 2 : child sex-ratio2 (female per 1000 males) of population Aged 0 to 6 year (1961 to 2001)

State/ country1961Rank in Country1971Rank in Country1981Rank in Country1991Rank in Country2001Rank in Country
India976--964--962--945--927--
Haryana*Not AvailableNot Available89913902148791282012
West Bengal1008310102981396729632
    * Haryana’s Data is available from 1971    
      Numbers of people in Haryana are employed with police, army and transport mostly as truck drivers who during their visits and travel to other region started marrying outside their own society. These marriages provided links for bride trade. In the beginning they started this marriage business to acquire (bonded) labourer for their booming agriculture and animal husbandry. While the poor parents married their daughters to the ‘dilliwalahs’—as they are known in Purvottar—because they did not ask for dowry. However this kind of marriage is not considered socially respectable in the source area and more often regarded as ‘thag vivah’. These marriages provided further contacts to get girls and make them adapt according to men’s want. Interesting part of the marriage is that most of the molki girls are second, third and fourth ‘women’ and the age of man are almost double that of the girl’s.
              The status of molki women is quite bad in Jat Land. The cases of “Paro” have come to light from Mewat region. Two cases were reported recently from the jat land where the girls were murdered and the case got registered with the police. Media remained ignorant of the incident and reported nothing on this issue from this region. Police officers in similar way are ignorant and it is natural that the voices are suppressed in this state of affairs. It is suggested that these molki women are not satisfied and happy with their status and situation, and they have to bear all this only for the sake of their livings and due to lack of any support system. They are well aware that they are being used as a toy on use and throw basis. Therefore if they get a chance to escape they had no way other than running away from their ‘homes’ with their belongings or they would be sold to other person. This lead to maximum number of molki women to adapt to the situation they are going through since they are helpless and cannot do anything. Some of the incidents have come to light where molki woman revolted and ran away to ‘unknown’ places. It has also been seen that some of the women took to sex trade to escape from their life as molki since they were unable to return back to their ancestral home. While others became member of cheating gangs, who arranged marriages with these girls who later on fled with groom’s belongings.   
This issue has regularly been reported by so-called main stream and local media. Molki’ is an exact and true example of Catherine McKinnon’s (an American feminist, scholar) definition of the relation between the two major sexes, “man fucks woman: subject verb object”. Visit any region of Haryana and you will find Catherine’s definition to be true. In spite of the widespread and increasing practice of bringing molki, there is absolutely no attention paid towards this by government or the NGOs.  
      From agro-field and animal husbandry to so called ‘women’s work’ she is expected to do it all as ‘her duty’, and one can imagine if women who are brought as legal wives with huge dowry have to do all these then what happens to those who are bought and brought from far away?  This may not be directly a case of women trafficking under definition of ITPA but circuitously it is! It is a very serious violation of women’s most basic human rights. Our network Empower People is doing a research on this issue. Before a wide research, it will not be appropriate to say anything conclusively. But early findings suggest seriousness of the situation. In Jaatland of Haryana, molki owning villages become the source of spreading the practice of molki horizontally as well as vertically.  In the village of Kharakramji molkis were mainly from Maharashtra and in the village Shillakhedi mainly from West Bengal. We found that if a molki brought from one village in West Bengal other molkis would be brought from the same village because the first molki becomes a ‘contact’ who facilitate other men to get girls from her home region. And the ‘husbands’ of these molkis work as agents. For example, Hari Om (name changed) from Kharakramji, who did not want to be named, admitted proudly that he owns a molki. He also admitted that he was continuously in contact with the other dalals of the city. He warned us of dire consequences if we write anything about molki. He told us with pride that he will be bringing more molkis into the village for other unmarried and unemployed men who come to him to arrange one for them. A panchayat member of village Safidon admitted the bare fact, bhai swaad len ke maare molki lyavain hain, saaryan ka kaam chalya reh ar ghar main lugai dikhe ja”( brother, they bring molki for enjoyment,  all  (the male members) take advantage of her and for the neighbours they have a girl to show off.) 
It is found that the ‘husbands’ of molki and her so-called in-laws become the agents and they keep in contact with the bigger agents based on Hissar, Sonipat and Jind, the epicentre of the trafficking. The agents dwell in the village itself. Sometimes they are truck drivers or the people who regularly go out. A molki is sold more than once in many of the cases by their ‘husbands’/agents and the price varies from Rs.7, 000/- to Rs.40, 000/ according to their beauty and sexual experience.  The molki owners also lead other relatives and neighbours to a place where they can find a molki. The person, for whom molki is being bought, affords all the expenses occurred in the way.
Our work in the field revealed a number of reasons why women are imported into Jaatland. It includes, practice of karewa, for cheap labour, small landholdings due to division of property, scarcity of girls, over age and heavy dowry. It is interesting to note that on the one hand men are purchasing girls and on the Second hand, graph of dowry is touching sky.


Bride trafficking is one of traditional Slavery system which has a deepliner history of the region so rescue and some other immediate relief or any harsh law can’t change the phenomenon. It can be abolish by cultural renaissance and sensitization of people. And we are working for the same.  


Nowadays female feticide is a major pushing factor for this form of trafficking. Approximately there are ten million trafficked women in haryana and punjab.  and it will regularly growing 

High Court orders release of 15 rescued sex workers

April 14, 2012 EP Admin 0 Comments

They were unwilling to go to home state Andhra Pradesh
The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed the release of 15 Andhra Pradesh women rescued from a red light area here who were opposing their transfer to their home state from a reform home in Delhi. 
Setting aside the trial court's order granting their transit remand to Andhra Pradeh police, a bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and S P Garg directed the release these sex workers.
The bench passed the order after the National and Delhi Commissions for Women, which was asked by the court to assist it in rehabilitation of these women, informed the court that there was no such scheme and it would take some time to formulate the policy.
Disposing of a petition filed by these women, the court said these women could not be kept at the home till the formulation of any scheme for their rehabilitation and ordered their release forthwith.
The women in their plea sought the court's intervention as they were forcibly removed from here despite their unwillingness to go back to their home state.
The bench accepted their plea that they are not minors and they have been settled in the national capital for last more than five years and their children are also studying here. 
These women were recently rescued during a joint operation of Andhra Pradesh and Delhi Police on the direction of a court at Hyderabad.
The Hyderabad court had issued a search warrant and directed the police to present these girls on the submission of a minor girl who had escaped from the red light area here.
The minor girl had said that others from Hyderabad were also kept in confinement in the red light area. About 72 sex workers including some minor girls were rescued and except these 15, others were allowed to go home. 

Andhra girls rescued from Delhi brothels don't want to come back home

April 13, 2012 EP Admin 0 Comments

New Delhi:  The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked the National Commission for Women and the Delhi Commission of Women to respond to pleas of some of the girls, rescued from a red light area, that they were not willing to go back to Andhra Pradesh.

A bench comprising of Justice S Ravinder Bhatt and Justice SP Garg directed the two associations to file their replies after talking to the girls and listed the matter for further hearing on Friday.

The 15 girls, currently lodged at a reform home, Nirmal Chhaya, after being rescued from the GB Road area, are seeking release saying they are "forcibly confined" and do not want to go back to their respective homes.

These girls were recently rescued during a joint operation of Andhra Pradesh Police and Delhi Police on the direction of a Hyderabad court.

The Hyderabad court had issued a search warrant and directed the police to present these girls on the submission of a minor girl who had escaped from the red light area in Delhi.

The minor girl had said that others from Hyderabad were also being forcibly held at the red light area.
The joint operation had rescued around 72 girls and all others had been allowed to go home. The two minors were handed over to their relatives. NDTV

Rescuing of girls from GB Road: HC asks NCW, DCW to respond

April 13, 2012 EP Admin 0 Comments

New Delhi, Apr 12 (PTI) The Delhi High Court today asked the National Commission for Women and the state unit to respond to pleas of some of the girls, rescued from a red light area here, that they were not willing to go to their native place. A bench of justices S Ravinder Bhatt and S P Garg directed the two bodies to file their replies after talking to the girls and listed the matter for further hearing tomorrow. The girls, currently lodged at reform home Nirmal Chhaya after being rescued from GB Road area, are seeking release saying they are "forcibly confined" and do not want to go back to their respective homes. These girls were recently rescued during a joint operation of Andhra Pradesh and Delhi Police on the direction of a court at Hyderabad. The Hyderabad court had issued a search warrant and directed the police to present these girls on the submission of a minor girl who had escaped from the red light area here. The minor girl had said that others from Hyderabad were also kept in confine in the red light area forcibly. The joint operation had rescued around 72 girls and except these 15 others were allowed to go home. The two minors were handed over to their relatives. The girls said that as the other were allowed to go, they should also be allowed to walk free.

Human trafficking agents yet to be arrested

April 10, 2012 EP Admin 0 Comments

The human trafficking agents who had sold off two young women to a brothel owner on G.B. Road here are still at large. The victims were rescued earlier this week in a joint operation by the police and a non-government organisation.
The victims, one of whom is a minor, were subjected to physical torture. They were brought to the Capital from South 24 Parganas in West Bengal on the promise of jobs as domestic helps. Both were then forced into prostitution. “The persons identified by them as local agents operating in South 24 Parganas are yet to be arrested. While it is necessary to rehabilitate the victims, it is equally important to break the entire chain through which the girls are being trafficked. All of them should be brought to book,” said Rishi Kant of NGO Shakti Vahini.
A police officer said action should also be taken against those who had kept the victims in confinement in Delhi after they were brought here.
The minor girl, who was rescued on Sunday night with the help of the young woman released from the clutches of flesh traders about a week ago, was on Tuesday produced before the Child Welfare Committee that issued directions for registration of a case against the person who brought her to the Capital. Restoring the girl to her brother, the committee said: “The child will not work, she should instead be sent to open school for education.” 

Woman who tipped against traffickers is a suspect: Cops

April 07, 2012 EP Admin 0 Comments

The woman, who tipped the police about the placement agency that had trafficked 20 children to work as a domestic help in Delhi, used to work with the same agency and was herself involved in trafficking children, police investigation has revealed. The police are now probing her role and 
are likely to arrest her as she is believed to be behind the trafficking of six of them.
After a tiff with the placement agency owner she had filed the complaint with the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), which resulted in the rescue of six girls on Wednesday. The owner of the placement agency has already been arrested.
"The children who have been rescued have also identified woman as one of the traffickers. We are currently questioning her and she will be arrested soon," a senior police officer said.
The CWC had received the complaint from the woman against LG placement agency and directed crime branch of Delhi Police to investigate the matter.
On Wednesday, a team of Delhi police and an NGO raided at least eight agencies and rescued six minors from different parts of the city.
According to sources, such raids are going to intensify in the coming few days. Police said six of the 20 minors are believed to be back in their hometown.
Some of the girls who were rescued were not even being paid for the work they did. Most of the girls hail from West Bengal.  The CWC in its order had also asked the police to register case against the accused placement agency under the Juvenile Justice Act and cases under relevant sections against the employers too.
The report further directed an age determination test to be conducted on all the girls at Safdarjung hospital.
There are 2,300 placement agencies in Delhi out of which 325 are registered under commercial establishment act. This registration is voluntary and not mandatory.  Therefore several agencies don't register themselves.
In a related incident, the police had rescued as many as 20 boys on Wednesday from the Old Delhi Railway Station. They were brought to Delhi by traffickers on the pretext of providing better paying jobs.

6 minor girls from W Bengal rescued in capital live

April 05, 2012 EP Admin 0 Comments

New Delhi, Apr 5 (PTI) Close on the heels of the shocking case of a doctor couple locking up a young maid, Delhi police has rescued six minor girls allegedly trafficked from villages in West Bengal and supplied as domestic maids by a placement agency here. The police conducted multiple raids following an order issued by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and targeted the premises of the placement agency in Chirag Delhi and houses where maids were believed to have been supplied. According to a statement by Shakti Vahini NGO, six minor girls were rescued -- two from the houses of their employers and four from the premises of the LG placement agency. The girls were today produced before the CWC which ordered that cases be registered under the Juvenile Justice Act against the employers and traffickers. In line with a CWC order, a team of crime branch and representatives of two NGOs was formed and raids were conducted yesterday. While four girls -- 13, 17 and 11 years of age -- were rescued from the premises of the agency, two sisters aged 18 and 15 years were rescued from the house of their employers where they were working since the last few months after being placed by the agency, the NGO claimed in a statement. Three of the girls had allegedly not been paid by their employers and one was sent back to the agency on allegation of theft. Most of the girls were trafficked from villages in West Bengal and the agency is allegedly run by two persons named Laxman and Rahu. The CWC directed the crime branch to produce the rescued kids before it and also asked it to produce a girl found at one of the raided houses, who did not appear minor prima facie. The CWC also directed NGO Shakti Vahini to contact the anti human trafficking unit of West Bengal to expedite the repatriation of the girls to their families. It also said that a statement of all girls should be recorded before the SDM under the Bonded Labour Act, and all six should be provided shelter and care.
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