For those who have travelled on highways from Jaipur to Madhya Pradesh and the surrounding, there is no way one would miss teenage girls of Banchhada community inviting travellers for pleasure. Almost like them there is one another community in Madhya Pradesh and Central India that has survived on prostitution for generations named Bedia. But all that is slowly changing thanks to the hard work of one police officer and his NGO ‘Samvedna’.
The women and girls of the de-notified tribe of Bedias work as sex workers while the males act as their pimps. And, things had been going as usual until one day this police officer accidentally landed in the village of Narsinghgarh in Rajgarh district of MP.
Then an Assistant Superintendent of Police, Dr. Veerendra Mishra, did not take long to realise the plight of the young kids in the village, especially the girls as he spoke to them. It did not just hit him hard but also inspired him to do something to rescue them from the horror of tradition.
He was eager to help and needed that one chance to arrange for education for the Bedia girls and boys.
A DIFFICULT PATH
It was never going to be easy. For tradition and generation of a lucrative livelihood appeared to be at stake to the elders.
When Dr. Mishra approached a girl’s family with his proposal of upliftment — a formal education that could lead to a prosperous and honourable career, neither they nor the community members were ready to look at the bright and respectable future for the teen. They tried every way to dissuade the officer.
When they realised nothing could turn him away they asked him to take in more children, not just one. He agreed and took 13 children with him to Bhopal.
TASTING SUCCESS
Dr. Mishra, who himself had achieved everything in life by the dint of hard work, enrolled the children in government hostels and arranged for their admission to a school with the help of Samvedna and his seniors.
Today, one among those 13 students has appeared in the UPSC CSE 2022 and given the interview.
That is what success stories are made of. And the man behind this success story Dr. Mishra, who is currently serving in Bhopal as Assistant Inspector General of Police – Madhya Pradesh State Industrial Security Force, spoke to Indian Masterminds.
The wheel of change has not stopped. Currently Dr. Mishra and Samvedna is working in 60 villages of six districts in the state changing the lives of more than 5000 Bedias. 70 of them are in Bhopal pursuing higher education from law to civil services.
IDENTITY CRISIS
When in 2007, Dr. Mishra reached Narsinghgarh, comprising mostly of Gurjars and Bedias, he found out that not there was not one even a single child from the Bedias who had studied beyond class 9th. Only a handful of Bedia kids would go to school given the rampant discrimination even in securing admission. Almost all of them faked their identities to enter schools. They would drop out after 7 or 8th grade in fear of being exposed if they went outside the village for higher classes.
Dr. Mishra said, “To see them change their identity was heart-wrenching. It made me think about what kind of personalities they would turn into in the future.” The police officer, who was already then working against human trafficking, with “Samvedna”, established in 2002, decided to help the Bedia kids and everyone in the community to break free of their traditional sex trade.
Samvedna launched several programs – Udaan being one of them aimed at helping students move out of the village for higher studies. Under Lakshay, they identified the talents of students and helped them get jobs in policing, teaching, sports etc. Then there was ‘Eureka’ to fight against discrimination.
A HOLISTIC APPROACH
Dr. Mishra is firm a believer that the isolation of any community is the biggest hindrance to its development. It only leads to the fragmentation of society which is not healthy. The only model that works is ‘integration’, he says.
His NGO has started several activities and sports in schools across the state to bridge the gap.
“Right now, we have more than 70 students in Bhopal but we can’t bring everyone here. That is not a solution. So, we are focusing on ending discrimination and it should start with the youngest,” he added.
“If they play together, eat together and participate together then there is no place for discrimination”, says the officer who also works as an external advisor to the National Commission for Women.
The NGO is also getting the new generation to enroll in certification courses in Computer literacy. This initiative in particular has been hugely successful as even though it was targeted at the Bedias, soon other children also joined. For Dr. Mishra it is not just the children he has also extended a helping hand to the adults.
As part of a larger campaign, his team has created self-help groups of both men and women. They are helping them to generate livelihood opportunities.
“We have been encouraging them for goat breeding and animal husbandry. Many of them have benefitted from this. One family started their own small shop after they earned a profit,” he shared.
He aims to uplift every individual of the Bedia community and it is still a long road. The officer is thankful to the administration for support all the way.
