Her eyes are filled with a strange unrest. This unrest turns shades of apprehension and anger as our conversation proceeds. Whether the issue is of complaining about her habitual drunkard mother or of her own further studies, her straightforward gestures impress.

Banjara by caste, 17-year-old Kailasi belongs to Gajron village of Ghatti panchayat. Her destiny is linked with a community where a whole life of girls gets decided even before first step on the earth, in exchange of few thousand rupees.

But Kailasi has started resisting. She is keen to pursue her studies further and has filled in the form for 8th class examination. Her anger heightens when her father, a habitual liquor consumer, expresses his inability to arrange Rs 100 for her to fill up the examination form. "How do you manage 45 rupees every alternate day to buy liquor for yourself "? She had asked her father. "Actually they don’t want to let me go anywhere to study out of village. Suppose, by any chance I ran away, they would loose 40-50 thousand", Kailasi tell us. Her friends nod in agreement.

For two hours of our stay in her village, she stood nearby, answering questions and clarifying doubts of her elders. “You have spoken a lot in our presence, I am afraid they would beat you after we leave”. She assures us - "Just don’t worry. I would handle them. You just say a few words to our sarpanch saheb, it would build pressure".

The suppressed feelings of anger and isolation have started pouring out. How long would it last ? Would it find some positive channels to manifest itself or just fade away with the passage of time ?

After a month, we heard Kailasi came, filled in the form and her father accompanied her. Now confident with a lot of promise, Kailasi is part of the group of three girls, all from deprived class, being chosen as apprentices under Doosra Dashak.

Read about the “Girls of Ranwasi”