Familial Sex Trafficking among the Bedia of India: Defying the Dominant Human Trafficking Discourse
Rochelle Dalla, PhD, CFLE | September 24 | 11:30 AM-12:30 PM
Topic: Research, International | Knowledge Level: Advanced
In India, numerous castes practice customary prostitution (Dolson, 2014; Jha & Sharma, 2016) that is either religious (e.g., Devadasi) or tribal (e.g., Bacchara, Perna, Nat, Bedia) based. Little is known about tribal-based prostitution. Among the Bedia, sex trafficking has manifested as a customary and intergenerational form of family and community survival. Intended as a “micro-analysis” focused on small regions (e.g., a town) or those with “special, delimited populations,” (Weitzer, 2015, p. 232) two research questions guided this study: First, what are the multiple intersecting social and personal vulnerabilities that put Bedia at risk for trafficking into the commercial sex industry and how do these compare with the HT literature? Second, to what extent does sex trafficking among the Bedia reflect the dominant HT discourse—with particular attention to the “ideal” victim and perpetrator conceptualizations? As a phenomenological investigation, in-depth interview data were collected from 31 sex-trafficked Bedia women and girls residing in seven multi-caste villages in central India. Data were analyzed using MAXQDA. With the exception of poverty, vulnerabilities to sex trafficking among the Bedia do not reflect “risk factors” identified in the HT literature. Similarly, the social and cultural dynamics of sex trafficking among the Bedia defy the dominant HT discourse in multiple ways. This investigation highlights the inherent value of small-scale, micro-studies for revealing the complexity of human trafficking across cultures and geographies. Other members of the research team include Kaitlin Roselius, BS; Sarah Erwin, MS, PhD (c); Jessie Peter, MS, PhD (c); Jhaveri Panshal, PhD; Ranjan Mischra, PhD (c) & Sahu, S., MS.
Presentation Objectives:
· Provide an overview of sex trafficking among the Bedia caste of India
· Identify vulnerabilities to entry into the commercial sex industry (CSI) among the Bedia, in relation to “risk” identified in the human trafficking literature
· Describe the social and cultural dynamics of sex trafficking among the Bedia and explain how these defy the dominant HT discourse