Sometime in the misty past of Hindu myth, a king fell in love with a dancer. Girls in Sagar Gram grow up hearing a story. But there are likely more we haven’t identified. “We estimate there are 100,000 women and girls in this situation. “It is caste and gender slavery,” says Ashif Shaikh of Jan Sahas, an advocacy group that works with members of India’s lowest castes, communities that used to be called “untouchables”. The exploited and trafficked children of Sagar Gram, and dozens of other villages across India’s hinterland, are one of its most disturbing manifestations. For most Indians, caste still has a defining influence on who they marry and what they eat. But millennia of tradition is not easily erased. India officially abolished caste discrimination almost 70 years ago.
