Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Hyderabad (Agenzia Fides) - On the occasion of Universal Child’s Day, celebrated around the world on Sunday, November 20, the Spanish Catholic organization Manos Unidas has recalled the plight of the Dommara girls community, that live in the state of Andhra Pradesh, in India. The Dommara girls belong to Dom, a subcaste spread throughout the country with different names, which speaks tegulu and lives grouped in small settlements on the outskirts of the city, on the railway hubs or along roadsides, despised by the rest of society. They have no constitutional or social recognition. Most of the girls, like their mothers and their grandmothers, are forced prostitute themselves because it is the only means of survival for the whole family. According to tradition, in fact, men of the community do not work and are maintained by their wives. Idleness and lack of opportunity fuel the excessive consumption of alcohol. That of prostitution is a phenomenon which is deeply rooted in this community and prevents women from leaving the cycle of poverty and marginalization. The school dropout rate is very high. Sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infection multiply. Family violence and child abuse are carried out every day. In addition, poverty, discrimination, lack of training and neglect have turned the trafficking of children in a lucrative business.
To cope with this situation, the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, who since 1998 have been dedicated to development programs for women, youth and marginalized children from various districts of Andhra Pradesh, have initiated in four villages in the area, a 2-year -program, thanks to which young Dommara women are trained and engaged in profitable activities that not only give them their dignity back, but allow them not to prostitute themselves anymore. There are already about 500 women, children and adolescents who benefit from the project that has been so successful that the sisters have begun a new 3-year- course by extending it to children and adolescents who will receive professional training through which women can contribute to the maintenance of their families and communities. In addition, to remove the children, especially girls from prostitution, the sisters have adapted the childhood centers which already exist in each village in night shelters, which can accommodate 20 children and give them medical care and educational support. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 19/11/2011)
