FINDING FREEDOM FROM
FAMILY
- SAAVNI
sisters, Altisna and Saloni,
work for him.
What was it like to live with
your chacha?
My chacha took all of us out of
school and turned us into his
slaves. He used physical abuse
to send us waste-picking in the
morning, made us do all the
housework and even sent us beg-
ging at a temple. We had to give
him all our earnings and watch
him spend it feeding his children
and sending them to school while
we were fed scraps and lived in
constant fear of his beatings
How long did you spend
waste picking?
I waste-picked and stole things
for three years while I was living
with my chacha. When I was not
able to find enough scraps from
waste-picking I resorted to steal-
ing as I was very good at it and
I’m not afraid of stealing. I used
to steal iron, electrical sockets
and electrical wires from people’s
homes. I enjoyed stealing dur-
ing the rainy season as everyone
would be inside their homes and
I could easily steal iron and tin
items lying outside their homes.
She lost her father many
years ago. Her widowed
mother was forced to marry
the younger brother of her
deceased husband. Not long
into the unhappy marriage,
her mother was found hang-
ing from the ceiling. Saavni
is convinced her chacha
(Father’s younger brother)
is responsible for the death How much could you earn
because of the countless in- from waste picking?
juries on her mother’s body.
Saavni and her sisters found
themselves under the care
of their chacha. He quickly
married off two of her sis-
ters, Sandishna and Nand-
ishna, who were barely in
their early teens and made
Saavni and her two other
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I could earn between Rs 70-
100 (0.77p-£1.10) a day from
waste-picking and always had
to give all my earnings to my
chacha. However, if I stole, I
could make about Rs 1000 (£11)
from which I would keep Rs 200
(£2.20) to indulge in good food
and give the balance to my cha-
cha. Waste-picking is extremely
difficult and tiring. I would walk
for hours under the hot sun on an
empty stomach and often felt like
fainting from the heat and exhaus-
tion.. Stealing on the other hand,
was very risky as I can be caught
and beaten.
What is an average day like for
you when you go waste pick-
ing?
I would be violently shaken from
my sleep at 5am by my chachi
(Aunty on Father’s side) and sent
waste-picking before I could even
wash my face. If I was unable to
wake up in time or feel too tired to
work, I would be beaten. The po-
lice too would often beat us when
they saw us waste-picking as they
always suspected we were stealing
something because we are Pard-
his. On days where we did not earn
enough money, my sisters and I
would sleep in our chacha’s auto
rickshaw outside the house as we
feared his beatings if we went in-
side with insufficient earnings. He
never fed us well despite making us
spend all day waste-picking, doing
all the housework and even beg-
ging at night.
How did your chacha react
when your older sister won
custody of you?
My chacha was so angry and
threatened to beat me and
forcefully take me away from
Sandishna. He’s desperate for
me because I’m so good at
waste-picking and stealing. I can
earn so well for any family. If he
gets me married, he can demand
a high price for me in the commu-
nity too.
me. During the weekends I stay
with Sandishna. I can’t attend
Muskaan’s boarding school or day
school because some children
from my community might rec-
ognise me and news will spread
to my chacha that I’m actual-
ly living with Muskaan and not
Sandishna. This will be grounds
enough for him to try and gain le-
gal custody of me. I hope my cha-
cha never finds me or Sandishna.
What happened to your
family after you left?
What happened after you
heard my chacha is getting my
went to live with your sister? I second
youngest sister, Saloni,
I stayed with Sandishna for a
few months and then Muskaan
enrolled me in Grade 5 in a pri-
vate school. I enjoy school as the
teachers treat me well and don’t
hit me. The school is located far
away from Sandishna’s house so
I’ve recently started to stay at a
house rented by Muskaan with
another older girl who looks after
who still stays with him married
soon. She’s only 13. She’s too
afraid to run away as she’s terri-
fied of him. He won’t even send
her waste-picking alone for fear
she might run away. Saloni is not
allowed to meet any of us. I wish
she had the courage to run away.
I really miss her.
“
My chacha was
so angry and
threatened to
beat me and
forcefully take
me away
“
Saavni is an 11 year old girl
who belongs to the Pardhi
tribe, a community that suf-
fers from a poor reputation
in India. Consequently, they
are branded as thieves and
good-for-nothings and are
very often picked up by au-
thorities on the pretext of
crimes that they have not
committed. Saavni is the
youngest of five sisters and
although her mother was
different from other Pard-
hi families in the sense she
believed in education for
daughters, this in itself has
not been adequate to shield
them from inheriting the in-
ternal and external dynam-
ics of being born a Pardhi
and a girl.
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