“’I wanted to make her look pretty. Why shouldn’t I?’ Kumari said. “My mother did it for my elder sister when she turned 12 years old, and now it’s my turn because Neetu is the oldest among my three daughters. It is my duty to get her prepared for her new life.’”

Among the Banchhara people of India, caste-based prostitution has been a way of life for 500 years. When a first-born daughter of the Banchhara tribe turns 12, her father organizes a ceremony where she makes known her intentions to work as a prostitute. After this declaration, her father takes her to her first customer, who waits in a room in her family's house reserved for this purpose. The girls seem resigned to their fate. As one child said, “My father has told me that I have to do this work because it is part of our custom. So I don't mind.”

With nearly 50 percent of the women in the area suffering from sexually transmitted diseases, the Indian government tried to “rehabilitate” the Banchhara prostitutes without success.

YWAM began praying for the Banchhara, asking God how they could make a difference. In addition to conducting children’s programs, visiting the villages regularly and offering medical assistance, the YWAM workers leased and renovated a building and opened a children’s home with 86 kids. In addition to Banchhara children, the place provides a home for orphans and the children of leprosy patients. YWAM workers are also planning to start a day care center, an HIV/AIDS awareness program and an adult literacy course, to name a few projects they have in mind.

“We’ve gone through a lot of wilderness experiences in the past months,” says one YWAM worker, “but it is our vision to see the transformation of the Banchhara community.”

If you would like more information about YWAM’s work among the Banchhara, please email scram@pmbx.net.