NGO seeks safety net for migrant vendors' families at Mysuru Dasara
Odanadi Seva Samsthe has asked Karnataka to provide shelter, sanitation, water and protection to migrant street-vending families during Mysuru Dasara.
A city-based non-profit working on the rescue and rehabilitation of trafficked and sexually exploited women and children has asked Karnataka's Chief Minister, D. K. Shivakumar, to turn his attention to the safety of migrant families who arrive in Mysuru every Dasara to earn a living through street vending.
Odanadi Seva Samsthe, in a statement issued by its directors Stanley and Parashuram, noted that impoverished families from across Karnataka and from other States travel to Mysuru during the festival season to sell balloons, toys, ribbons and whistles. These families, the organisation said, draw almost no attention from the authorities during the celebrations.
The appeal recalled the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl who sold balloons with her family outside the Dasara exhibition in 2025. The child belonged to a nomadic family from Kalaburagi, and her body was found near Doddakere Maidan.
A festival held at the expense of the safety, dignity and lives of women and children, the organisation said, carries neither meaning nor cause for celebration, and instead leaves behind pain, hunger, despair and mourning.
Odanadi has urged the State government to arrange free accommodation, toilets and drinking water, along with security, for homeless and vulnerable families who come to Mysuru for vending during the festival.
It has also sought learning centres offering sports and cultural activities for children from these families who are out of school, and childcare centres for all children below the age of five.
The organisation flagged the practice of women being made to beg while holding infants who are given intoxicating tablets to keep them asleep. It said such practices harm the dignity and image of Karnataka, and asked that the women be identified and the children rescued from forced begging.
Separately, Odanadi raised concerns about tourism operators allegedly promoting sex tourism in Mysuru by running prostitution networks through lodges, massage parlours, spas, beauty parlours, resorts and homestays, with women brought in from other States and countries. It warned that minor girls face a high risk of falling victim to these networks, that such activity is already spreading in the city, and that it could rise further during Dasara. The police, it said, should treat the matter as a priority.