Patharia, a village-situated in the Bundhelkund region is stark contrast to other villages. Inhabited by the Bedia tribe, a part of the vimukta jati where adult members in the family never worked and depended solely on the earnings of the young girl involved in prostitution.

Recent studies examining British attitudes and ideologies which structured colonial policies towards 'outcaste'2 and 'deviant' groups in indigenous society, have suggested that the groups who were marginalised included those whose activities were conceived of as 'threatening' to new normative def