DSS leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh

It is one of the more amazing stories to emerge from a land where events never cease to amaze – more than 1,000 devout Indian men offering to marry female sex workers to free them from exploitation.

BBC South Asia News reports that Hindu, Muslim and Sikh men have been coming forward in droves to be “wedding volunteers” and rescue women from brothels.

They are followers of Dera Saucha Sauda (DSS), a religious sect that commands a huge following of predominantly lower caste males across Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

DSS is not popular with mainstream Sikh clergy, who accuse it of insult by imitating their beliefs –although many commentators maintain that it is not an offshoot of Sikhism.

The BBC’s online report reminds readers that two years ago the rivalry sparked violence across the Punjab and subsequently there were accusations of sexual exploitation of young girls by DSS and also involvement in murder.

The sect’s startling new rescue campaign – also aimed at restricting the spread of the HIV/Aids virus – follows previous DSS initiatives to combat drug abuse and female foeticide*.

Supporters turned up to hear about it in their thousands at the DSS centre in the town of Sirsa. More than 1,200 members signed pledges that they would marry sex workers.

DSS leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, also known as Guru-ji, has stated that “all women forced to live as prostitutes are my daughters”.

The BBC was told that around 100 young sex workers from Calcutta, Delhi and Mumbai have been in touch with the DSS.

A senior DSS representative, Dr Aditya Insan, calculates that up to half the women working in city red light districts are HIV carriers.

Developing the rescue programme would have to be delicately handled, he said. Some of the women had young children and were concerned about their future, and the DSS wanted to ensure the women were legally protected once they were married.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was born in Sriganganagar, Rajasthan, in 1967.

Under his leadership, according to supportive websites, DSS has previously made headlines by arranging for couples with many children to give some of them to ashrams for subsequent placement with childless couples; encouraged blood donation and fasting  every week; formed a welfare force of thousands that has worked in earthquake relief in Gujurat, tsunami relief in South India and drought and flood relief in Rajasthan and Bihar.

*The International Humanist and Ethical Union states: “The killing of women exists in various forms in societies the world over. However, Indian society displays some unique and particularly brutal versions, such as dowry deaths and sati (burning of a Hindu widow on her dead husband’s pyre).

The Union says: “Female foeticide is an extreme manifestation of violence against women. Female foetuses are selectively aborted after pre-natal sex determination, thus avoiding the birth of girls. As a result of selective abortion, between 35 and 40 million girls and women are missing from the Indian population. In some parts of the country, the sex ratio of girls to boys has dropped to less than 800:1,000. The United Nations has expressed serious concern about the situation.”

More information: http://www.iheu.org/female-foeticide-in-india
BBC report: see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8416739.stm