Mumbai, 6 May 2026 – Dr. Abraham Mathai, Founder-Chairman of the Harmony Foundation, a Mumbai-based NGO, today demanded immediate state and central intervention following the rescue of an 11-year-old girl from the Banchhada community in Madhya Pradesh yesterday. He stated that the case exposes a deeply entrenched culture of trafficking that the Harmony Foundation has been fighting against.
Dr. Mathai praised Mr.Shyam Kamble head of NGO partner Exodus India Foundation and the Ratlam Police under the leadership of SP Amit Kumar for yesterday’s rescue and noted that this incident is really heart-breaking. He said that the Banchhada community, mainly settled in Ratlam, Mandsaur and Neemuch districts of Madhya Pradesh, celebrates the birth of a girl child with pomp not out of love but because she becomes a future breadwinner through the flesh trade. This, he said, is a celebration for all the wrong reasons.
“Yesterday’s rescue of an 11-year-old from the Banchhada community is a direct hit to our conscience. It is heart-breaking that the birth of a girl is celebrated here only because she will earn through prostitution. The state must step in without a moment’s delay,” said Dr. Mathai, former Vice-Chairman of the Maharashtra State Minorities Commission.
He explained that the community operates family-based prostitution as a generational practice. Girls are groomed from a young age, and the community even purchases new born girls from other areas for Rs 2,000 to Rs 10,000, raising them for exploitation.
“This is not a cultural quirk. This is organised crime with societal approval. We need a special task force to break this chain,” Dr. Mathai said
He urged the Madhya Pradesh government to immediately conduct a comprehensive survey of all Banchhada villages, rescue every minor girl, and prosecute middlemen under the POCSO Act and the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act.
He called upon the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and the Ministry of Women and Child Development to launch a nationwide review of communities where child trafficking and prostitution are normalised. He also appealed to civil society to break its silence.
“No child should be born only to be sold. If we look away because a community has done this for generations, we become complicit to this crime. The conscience of civil society will be judged by how we protect the 11-year-old girl rescued yesterday and the thousands still hidden in Banchhada villages,” Dr. Mathai concluded.
He affirmed that the Harmony Foundation will continue working with police and local activists to rescue every minor girl and ensure she returns to safety and dignity.
