vidharbha series final: unwed mothers

Mother hoot
Author: Mamta Sen
Date: 07 Mar 2008
Daughters and widows of Vidarbha farmers are being sexually exploited by local politicians and moneylenders
Laxmi Bhimrao Bhupam (21) is busy juggling her two children. Her two-year-old daughter sits on a floor covered in cowdung to eat her evening meal of dry bhakri (bread made of jowar), while Laxmi feeds her month-old baby. Laxmi wants her kids to sleep before ‘visitors’ begin to arrive at her doorstep. Barely out of her teens, Laxmi is among the growing number of unwed mothers in Vidharbha who have been forced into prostitution for their daily survival after the suicide of their farmer fathers. “I was stupid to fall for a moneylender who helped out my father by lending him small sums. He often came home and promised to marry me, but after my father died he was a changed man. He threatened to throw us out if the money wasn’t returned.” If handing over their eight acres land wasn’t enough, ‘Anna’ as he is called, pressured Laxmi into entertaining his friends. “With mouths to feed, I don’t see any future for myself. Sex for me is the sole means of income,” she says, adding that she gets Rs 20-25 a day for her ‘services.’ Meerabai Meshram (30) from Matharjur village in Yavatmal (which has seven unwed mothers), says that she can’t remember the father of her eight-year-old son. “I can’t even send him to school since they ask for the father’s name for registration,” she said. “A local politician had wished to marry me. But 10 years after he ditched me, I have been ‘entertaining’ his partymen and district officers,” she shrugs. While farmers’ suicides and their widows dominate the headlines, less is written about their daughters. Advocate Vinod Tiwari, who has been fighting on the behalf of these unwed mothers, says Vidharbha has 5,000-odd such women belonging to tribal groups between the age group of 18-30. “We have submitted a list of recommendations to the state government which includes allotment of a single parent status and free education,” he said. “These uneducated women have been exploited by moneylenders and politicians. The least they can do is acknowledge their existence.” President of Vidharbha Jan Andolan Samiti, Kishore Tiwari, nods in agreement, “We have submitted a writ petition to the government asking for a compensation of Rs 5 lakh, as well as permanent jobs in places like aanganwadis.”