There are stories we celebrate loudly — and then there are truths we quietly look away from. This is one of them.
Along certain highway stretches in madhya pradesh — in districts like Mandsaur, Neemuch, and Ratlam — a deeply uncomfortable reality continues to exist. Young women from the Banchhada community are still being pushed into prostitution, not as a choice, but as a system they’re born into. A system that normalizes exploitation and passes it down like inheritance.
This isn’t hidden. It’s not rare. And it’s certainly not new.
Highways turn into marketplaces. Survival gets reduced to a transaction — sometimes for as little as ₹400 or ₹500. Families, instead of being a place of protection, often become part of the structure that sustains this cycle. Over time, exploitation stops looking like violence and starts getting mislabeled as “tradition.”
But let’s call it what it is.
This is not culture. This is not a choice. This is organized, systemic exploitation.
And yet, the silence around it is deafening.
We live in a society that proudly speaks about respecting and worshipping women, but struggles to confront realities like this. It’s easier to celebrate ideals than to question uncomfortable truths. Easier to look away than to ask who benefits from this system continuing exactly as it is.
Because someone always does.
The bigger question isn’t just about where this is happening — it’s about why it’s allowed to continue. Why is outrage selective? Why conversations stop before they get too real.
Until that changes, these highways won’t just connect cities.
They’ll continue to carry stories we refuse to confront.
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