Trafficking, crime and exploitation in the lives of orchestral dancers

Raxaul, Bihar: Scantily clad women dancing to music in front of scores of men during a wedding is a common sight in Bihar. However, most of these women have been forced into the profession and are regularly subjected to non-consensual touching, among other things, when they are performing, local social workers say.Social workers also mention that dancers are often victims of human trafficking owing to the lack of protection measures. On December 10, 2020, an orchestral dancer was shot in Raxaul. On September 23, 2020, a young man shot a dancer during the performance dance in Samastipur. Every year, orchestra dancers are subjected to instances of gun firings, kidnapping and coercion during the wedding season. Local journalists say these women are subjected to molestation, rape and torture in exchange of money, but such stories don’t come into the limelight.Srikanth Saurabh, a journalist from Champaran, told 101Reporters that hiring these dancers to perform during weddings is an “absolute must” in the state. During weddings, people, who are usually drunk, often clash with other members in the crowd, leading to a brawl, which often ends when a bullet is fired, Saurabh mentioned. He informed that there are almost a thousand orchestra companies operating in Champaran and Saran. He pointed out that such dance performances aren’t bound by social status, and even the educated people organise it. Most of the girls working in these group are minors and in need of money, he added.  Most of these hail from West Bengal and Nepal and are brought to Bihar under the garb of providing employment, he explained.‘Abuse, a part of tradition’In March 2020, six dancers allegedly from Nepal were rescued from Nalanda. The women said they were forced to perform to sexually suggestive songs in revealing clothes. On further interrogation, it was found that when they protested against the mistreatment, they were physically abused, the report added. A writer-journalist and cultural activist from the region, Nirala Bidesia, stated that such performances are not new and have been going on for ages. Earlier too, bayee ji (local tongue for erotic dancers) used to be hired to perform in Ara and Buxar, and it led to the establishment of the practice, he explained. He added that it was common for the dancers to be abducted and raped, as well. He mentioned that the atrocities meted out against these women have been going on for ages.Though the dancers and people present at the wedding have fun, the lives of hundreds of girls are being wasted and are in severe danger, stated Ratnesh Mishra, a member of Fakirana Society, a Champaran-based organisation working to address human trafficking. Most of these young girls come from Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district, UP's Gorakhpur-Gonda, Delhi, Haryana and even from Nepal, he added. He highlighted that a majority of these women are minors and are lured by the appeal of the entertainment industry.Mishra pointed out that the local administration is extremely negligent which gives a free pass to the local orchestra groups to procure trafficked women. The orchestra operators, however, deny the allegations. Md Imamuddin Ansari, the director of Azmeri group from Siwan district, confirmed that many people open misbehave with the dancers and engage in indecent behaviour. “We want to run the orchestra group as an artistic group. But people themselves become uncontrollable. They try to climb the platform touch the dancers, dance with them while holding money between their lips,” he added. Even when they relent, the organiser quashes their demands saying, “All this goes on in weddings,” he mentioned.Imamuddin emphasised that the lack of legislation and government supervision means that a lot of groups engage in human trafficking and prostitution. He said he has tried several times to get his company registered with a government body but has failed to do so. SP assures action against miscreants Experts say that only the cooperation between the orchestra companies and the administration would ensure that the performers are not subjected to abuse and physical hurt.Vijay Sharma, a manager with Prayas Juvenile Aid Centre, an organisation working with children from marginalised communities in Motihari, told 101Reporters that both, the society and the government, will have to come forward to stop the practice. Sharma, who is also a member of the East Champaran’s anti-human trafficking cell, stated that the local police administration has become active and raids are being planned. Sharma highlighted that earlier the police administration had taken strict steps, and then this practice had stopped to a great extent, but it started again when the Superintendent of Police (SP) was transferred. Speaking to 101Reporters, Naveen Chandra Jha, SP, East Champaran, stated that though no special drives are being carried out, they immediately rush to the spot if any crime regarding the orchestra dancers is reported. If the dancers are minors, then their parents are informed, he added. However, he pointed out that training to curb human trafficking is being carried out in Patna, and several times, teams come from Patna to train them.

How Covid has amplified woes of Bihar's maize farmers

After leasing one bigha (1 bigha= 27,240 square feet in Patna) of land, Indrakant Thakur, a farmer in Dhamdaha village in Purnia district of Bihar, had sowed maize. However, after the harvest, he could only get Rs 1,000 per quintal even though the government had fixed the minimum support price (MSP) at Rs 1,760 per quintal. He stated that he couldn’t even recover the cost he had incurred.Like him, many farmers in Bihar have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and irregular rainfall. He added that he had hoped to earn around Rs 35,000 from the yield, but instead, he had to sustain a loss of about Rs 8,000. He mentioned that the situation is so dire that he is unable to support his cattle and he is looking to get a job as a daily labourer in a nearby town. Last year, the price of maize was around Rs 2,200 per quintal, which encouraged many to take up maize farming. The yield from a bigha of land is close to 30 quintals, and farmers earn up to Rs 65,000 in one crop cycle. Indrakant added that unseasonal rain during the harvest period reduced his yield, and he could only get 22 quintals. He mentioned that since there weren’t many traders this year owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, they had to sell at low rates. The Kosi region, of which Purnia is a part, is one of the highest producers of maize in the country. This year, farmers were forced to sell their crop for a maximum of Rs 1,200 per quintal, while the minimum was Rs 900. As the rates are so low, several farmers have not sold their produce and are hoping for corrective measures by the government. Another farmer from Dhamdaha village Arvind Poddar stated that the cost of threshing corn has increased to Rs 200 and if he sells his crop at such rates, he’d have to incur a huge loss. When asked why the rates reduced to almost half of what they were last year, he said that the lockdown induced by the coronavirus is the main reason. He mentioned that every year, agents arrive at Purnia’s Gulabbagh Mandi and buy maize, which is used for the manufacturing of corn-based products like nutrition supplementary drinks, cornflakes and animal feed.Indranath mentioned that this is the situation in eight districts of the region. He mentioned that owing to the lockdown, most farmers are in a loss, but small farmers, who had leased agricultural land for farming, were hit the hardest.Exploitation Basu Mitra, a local journalist who covers agricultural issues, stated that Gulabbagh mandi of Purnia is one of the largest grain markets in Asia, but it didn’t see much business during the lockdown. Although the government had exempted farmers from the lockdown, the absence of outside traders affected them the most, he mentioned. “The farmers became completely dependent on the local traders, who took full advantage of the helplessness of the farmers,” he stated.He added that the poultry sector is one of the biggest buyers of maize, but since there was fake news at the beginning of the pandemic that chickens spread coronavirus, their sales decreased as well. Owing to the fall in rates, farmer associations in Bihar are demanding government procurement. The Kosi Navnirman Manch (KNM) in June wrote to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, asking for government procurement. However, as their demands were ignored, the KNM filed public interest litigation with Patna High Court. In response to the PIL, Dayanand Mishra, Joint Secretary, Department of Food Supplies, Bihar, told the court through a counter-affidavit that according to the rules of the central government, his department is only obliged to make government purchases of those crops, which are distributed under the Public Distribution System and midday meal schemes. In response, the petitioner Mahendra Yadav, the convener of the KNM, in his affidavit told the court that the Bihar government can purchase all coarse grains at MSP. While the hearing was carried out on July 13, the bench of Justice Sanjay Karol has reserved the verdict and no verdict has been pronounced.

Large amounts of money being sought for the funeral of coronavirus patients in Bihar

Patna, Bihar: For the cremation of people who died of COVID-19, the handlers and workers at the crematoriums in Bihar are demanding upto Rs 1.5 lakh, media reports say.On July 14, a bank officer succumbed to COVID-19 at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital (JLNMCH) in Bihar. The body was handed over to the family, but they were asked Rs 1.5 lakh at the crematorium to conduct the rites. Even after negotiation, when the operators at the crematorium were not ready for less than Rs 50,000, the family returned the body to the hospital.  Like this, many other cases have been reported from Bihar. Since the lockdown was removed, the state has seen a rise in the number of deaths. Two separate videos of the deceased lying on the hospital bed have gone viral. Media reports also suggest that there are cases in which the hospital administration handed over the bodies directly to the relatives and a huge amount was demanded from the families for the funeral at the crematorium. According to the guidelines by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the dead body should either be handed over to the relatives or taken to the mortuary.Kumar Gaurav, the hospital superintendent at JLNMCH, told 101Reporters that there have been many such cases when the relatives of the patients refuse to take the bodies. “We place the dead body of the patient in a body bag and give it to the relatives for funeral. Our manpower is already very low and so far 55 health workers from this hospital have been infected from COVID-19. In such a situation, we cannot even do the funeral work of dead bodies. It is very difficult for us to perform the last rites of an unclaimed body,” he added.Negotiation fruitless: JournoIn the first week of July, bodies of three patients, who had passed away owing to COVID-19, were kept in the hospital as huge amounts of money were demanded for cremation. Finally, after the intervention of Bhagalpur district magistrate, the JLNMCH management negotiated with crematorium operators and agreed to pay Rs 8,000 per body. Of this, Rs 2,000 would be from the state government’s Kabir Funeral Scheme and the remaining Rs 6,000 would be from Rotary Club, a voluntary organisation. Senior Bhagalpur-based journalist Sanjeev Jha, who had been following the case for Prabhat Khabar (a Hindi daily), stated that in the first week of July, three COVID-19 patients died in JLNMCH Hospital: one from Kharik, one from Bhagalpur town and one from neighbouring district Banka. The family members of the three weren’t available at the funeral because of different reasons. When the hospital management took them to the crematorium, the handlers demanded Rs 12,000 for each body, with the condition that the body be kept on the funeral pyre by the hospital staff, he added. Later on July 9, the cremation ground operators had an agreement with Rogi Kalyan Samiti and a sum of Rs 8,000 was fixed. Despite this agreement, he said, the hospital management has often handed over the bodies of patients hailing from well-to-do homes to their families. Earlier, the body of a former officer of Bhagalpur University was also handed over to his family members. After this incident, the banker's wife (who wished not to be named), stated that owing to the non-cooperation of the crematorium operators and local administration, they had to return without conducting a funeral. After the death of the bank officer, several media reports brought out the racket at crematoriums, forcing the district administration to intervene. On July 15, the Bhagalpur district magistrate wrote to the Bhagalpur municipal commissioner, requesting to immediately start the electric crematorium. He also mentioned the matter of the bank officer’s funeral in that letter. Protocol being followed: Health ministerSimilar cases have also been reported in other cities of Bihar including capital Patna. At a crematorium in Patna, there is also a demand of asking for 40 to 50 thousand rupees for funerals. Two videos from Patna’s Nalanda Medical College Hospital (NMCH) have gone viral where the bodies are said to be lying in the ICU for two days and the patient's family claims that other patients too are being kept with them. After the incident came to light, the hospital superintendent was replaced. An official from the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, stated that such practices are taking place as the hospitals don’t have enough vans and the management doesn’t want to take responsibility for the funeral expenses.Speaking to the media, state health minister Mangal Pandey stated that an inquiry into the NMCH incident has been sought, but underlined that the videos are misleading in nature and all protocol was being followed.