Poverty and caste discrimination mean that children in Sagar Gram are being groomed by their own families for abuse. Many families in India still mourn the birth of a girl.
But when Leena was born, people celebrated. Sagar Gram, her village in central India, is unique that way. Girls outnumber boys. When they are deemed old enough, perhaps at the age of 11, most are expected to start doing sex work. India officially abolished caste discrimination almost 70 years ago. But millennia of tradition is not easily erased. For most Indians, caste still has a defining influence on who they marry and what they eat.
It also traps millions in abusive work. Girls in Sagar Gram grow up hearing a story. Sometime in the misty past of Hindu myth, a king fell in love with a dancer. His enraged queen issued the woman with a challenge: if she could walk a tightrope across a river, she could join the royal family, and permanently raise the status of her caste. As the woman neared the opposite bank of the river, a step from success, the queen suddenly cut the rope. Leena, 22, remembers learning about the woman.
She remembers the awe she felt when the older girls from her caste, the Bacchara, suddenly had enough money for makeup and nice clothing. She remembers what the adults in her village told her when she was 15, and her family was having money problems. You need to be working. That was when she started. Girls in Sagar Gram, which lies next to a highway, are groomed for this life virtually from birth. Parents decide which of their daughters will fetch the best price.
Older girls teach them how to attract customers from passing trucks and cars. The younger ones sometimes stow under beds, observing the others at work. Sex was nonetheless a mystery to Leena.
