Manjula, 31, was bought by a Patel man in Mehsana for Rs 50,000 from her tribal parents when she was 13. After becoming a mother of two daughters and a son, the man kept her girls and threw her out with the son. Manjula is not allowed to even see the girls who became pawns for their father to get a wife from his own community.

In a district that is notorious for its preference for male children reflected in the alarmingly low sex ratio of 798 girls per 1,000 boys in 0-6 group as per census 2001, this unprecedented case of affection for the girl child is not an exception. Tribal girls are now being exploited to produce female progeny to be bartered for a wife in the community through the sata-pata.

In this system, which is prevalent in many communities, it is imperative to pledge a girl in marriage to the family which is giving away a bride. An extensive observation of social fallouts of the skewed sex ratio in Gujarat by Child Rights and You (CRY) with Buniyadi Adhikar Andolan (BAA) has revealed a huge number of girls exploited by affluent families as pawns. Earlier, upper caste men used to buy and marry tribal girls, but today some are simply lured to cohabit with them at a price.

The girl has no clue about the bargain or the agent who is paid Rs 50,000-75,000, of which only Rs 10,000- 20,000 reaches the family. The other case is of Shaila, 28, a brick kiln worker. Her brother-inlaw sold her for Rs 50,000 to a 26-year-old man from Mehsana when she was 13. The man whom she thought was her husband, kept her in a shanty in his farm for 13 years and abused her. She ran away with her seven-year-old daughter, unaware that she was sold as a commodity only to bear the girl, and now lives in the fear that he will take away her daughter one day.

Pravin Singh, senior manager, CRY, told TOI they have reported some 200 such cases in the past 2-3 years. "There is high infestation of middle-men selling women for marriage in districts like Patan, Himmatnagar and Mehsana. Here, a big number of girls have been bought from tribal belt of Banaskantha, Sabarkantha and Panchmahal," he said. Singh says, "It is one of the manifestations of child trafficking in the country, and a pretty exploitative one. We are working to create a mass awareness drive against this form of exploitation so that the dominant castes are named and shamed." Shaila herself is among the most vocal advocates against child marriages. "My priority is to keep my daughter away from the clutches of my husband. I want her to go to school and have enough to eat," she said. (TOI)