Story Brunch
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Stage dances, popularly known as orchestra dances have been part and parcel of marriages, receptions, and other ceremonies in many villages in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.Many of these orchestra dancers are also invited to perform during political rallies of local leaders such as Pradhans and Mukhiyas to keep the audience hooked .The motive of organisers is to invite an audience as large as possible .
Orchestra dance can be ideally classified under art and culture, but in its current manifestation this tradition has taken a very malevolent form. There are hundreds of horrid tales of exploitation, sexual as well as mental, of the girls who dance on the stages.Unlike earlier times the dances have become more vulgar and perverse. The demand for nude stage performances, body expose and skin show has been increasing rapidly in the countryside. This has demeaned the profession of orchestra dancers and people see them with contempt .They have to face social stigma in day to day life. In the era of social media when their video clips can be easily uploaded from anywhere on platforms like YouTube and Facebook, many of these these girls go viral and get instant fame,but they do not get respect in the society as an artist. One out of thousands of orchestra dancers get chance to performed in albums of Bhojpuri, Angika or Magahi music industry.
These dancers have to face harassment and abuse while doing their performances on stage. Though there are fences on many stages , some people climb up and try to kiss and touch the private parts of these dancers .They are molested in presence of hundreds of people with the crowd cheering such acts of teasing because it’s considered part of the job of the dancer to please the audience in all the ways possible. Many of these girls are minors.
How do so many girls join this profession which doesn’t have self respect and social esteem? Do these girls join such orchestra groups by choice or are they manipulated and forced to do such performances ? The answer lies ahead.
Story Brunch brings you the dark and ugly face of these orchestra performances. These are stories of exploitation, harassment manipulation, molestation, rape and thuggery. Most of these girls belong to very poor backgrounds and they generally come from states with low socio- economic indicators namely West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha. Allegedly there are certain rackets whose job is to lure these poor girls and trap them in love through fake promises of marriages, or jobs in a different city. Once these girls fall for such manipulations and they get physically intimate with their lovers, they are blackmailed through the recorded videos of private acts. Some of them move to different cities with the boys in search of a better life and lifestyle by will.
As soon as they land there, there are sold to orchestra teams either directly or indirectly through middle men for an amount ranging from Rupees 5000 to 50000. Many of these girls are raped by the guys who lured them, by the middle men and often by those in orchestra groups . They are also beaten repeatedly till they agree to perform stage dances. Once these girls get detached to their families, to their hometowns and to their states, it becomes tough for them to go back to their families due to taboo attached. With time they adjust to the new environment and start performing as stage dancers. It’s a full-fledged human trafficking system which provides the labor for the flourishing orchestra industry. The fact also remains that many of these girls who perform, do so by choice, for money to support their poor families.
There are reports that many illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya immigrants are part of these human trafficking rackets and they also indulge in conversion of trapped girls.
Many of these performers are also forced to work as call girls or prostitutes by the organizers. There are closed-door events by individuals or a small group in which some of these girls perform.Most of these dances are nude performances which end up with sexual assault.
Let us also get to the demand side of the orchestra performance. Why are such dancers flourishing in countryside of Bihar, UP, Bengal etc.?
It is not the case that these dances have appeared in last one or two decades.Such performances used to be a part of Bihar and UP village ceremonies for a long time. The families in villages organized these dances as a show off of their richness. But current increase in vulgar stage dances cannot be attributed only to pomp and show. With the increased penetration of internet and free availability of adult content on different websites, these nude and seminude dancers cater to instant gratification of the aroused men in villages , attracting hundreds of youth who cheer and tease while trying to catch a glimpse of the scantily dressed girls from as close as possible,or even touch them.
Unlike cities and metros, the villagers do not have too many entertainment avenues like theaters, malls etc. This also adds to the popularity of orchestra dancers in rural belt. The songs on which these girls perform comprise of vulgar lyrics .There is a big industry in Bhojpuri music which sells a lot of albums by making songs which can be considered as audio erotica. Since these stage dances are open theater performances with no entry barriers,or very low ticker rates, the audience comprises of many minor boys . This does not augur well for a women friendly environment in villages. Such open acts of women objectification and nudity spoil the young minds. It spells disaster for the moral ambience off society at large.
What is more surprising is that no serious effort has been taken by administration in these areas to stop this menace ! It seems as if it’s a totally unregulated sector despite evidences of vulgar performances in plethora of videos on different platforms such as YouTube and Facebook. There are certain NGOs associated with the cause but the malice is so huge that such small efforts are ineffective.
Solution to this problem in absence of administrative regulation is community policing. The elder and educated sections of villages need to come together and ask the organizers of such events to stop then with mild threats of filing a case against them in case of failure. The initiative has to come from within the society. Families should organize only decent cultural performances and not hip shaking eortic dances. Many times such demands are made by grooms’ families for entertainment of baraati. The new generation should take care to not make such obligations and if any such demand is made by the groom’s family, the bride’s family should vehemently oppose it.This will reduce the demand for erotic dances and give dignity to performers in society.
