Bhanwari Devi belongs to a caste kumhar family and lived in Bhateri, a village in the Indian state of Rajasthan, located 55 kilometres from Jaipur, the state's capital.
19 Facts About Bhanwari Devi
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2.
Bhanwari Devi was married to Mohan Lal Prajapat when she was around five or six years old and her husband was eight or nine.
3.
Bhanwari Devi came to live in Bhateri while still in her early teens.
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In 1985, Bhanwari Devi became a saathin, a grassroots worker employed as part of the Women's Development Project run by the Government of Rajasthan.
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However, in 1992, Bhanwari Devi found herself alienated, when she took up the issue of child marriage which was still widely practiced in India despite being illegal.
6.
WDP members were tasked with convincing local villagers not to conduct child marriages, a task that Bhanwari Devi took up, along with prachetas and members of the District Women's Development Agency.
7.
Bhanwari Devi made attempts to persuade the family against carrying out their wedding plans.
8.
Bhanwari Devi was forced to leave her job when her employer was roughed up, while her husband was beaten up by another Gujar.
9.
Bhanwari Devi claimed that while Ram Sukh held her, Badri and Gyarsa took turns in raping her.
10.
Bhanwari Devi reported the incident to Rasila Sharma, the pracheta, who took her to the Bassi police station to lodge a First Information Report.
11.
At the police station, Bhanwari Devi was asked to deposit her "lehanga" as evidence.
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However, Bhanwari Devi was accused of fabricating the entire incident by the alleged rapists and their supporters, and faced public humiliation in her village.
13.
Bhanwari Devi's brothers spent this money on organizing a Kumhar caste panchayat, where people were asked to accept her back into the community.
14.
Bhanwari Devi reported that Bhanwari wanted to leave Bhateri, but couldn't afford to do so.
15.
Bhanwari Devi's sole source of income was a buffalo, as her two bighas of land had become unproductive due to three years of drought.
16.
Bhanwari Devi was invited to be a part of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.
17.
In 2002, the then-Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot, allotted a residential plot to Bhanwari Devi and announced a grant of 40,000 for construction of a house on the plot.
18.
Bhanwari Devi sanctioned an additional amount 10,000 for the education of her son.
19.
Women's activists and lawyers have propagated the view that Bhanwari Devi attracted the ire of her rapists solely on the basis of her work.