‘I was engaged at 11’: Gujarat village uses early engagements to keep girls out of sex work
Reported by Telegraph India.
Bhanderaj observes Navratri (Garba) on Sunday, 11 October 2026, along with the rest of Gujarat.
The principal temple recorded for Tarapur mandal is Swaminarayan Temple Bavla. No temple of this dedication is on record within Bhanderaj itself.
Nine nights of Garba and Dandiya Raas circling a perforated earthen lamp, the garbo, or an image of Amba — dancers moving anticlockwise, singing and clapping together. Garba of Gujarat was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2023, the fifteenth element from India to join it.
The regional form observed across Gujarat. How any one household or village keeps it varies, and is not something recorded here.
By population, Bhanderaj ranks #15 of 42 villages in Tarapur mandal.
Source: Census of India 2011 (village PCA; mandal and district aggregates).
Bhanderaj is a village of 1,958 people in 348 households (Census 2011) in Tarapur taluka, Anand district, Gujarat, the 15th-largest of 42 villages in Tarapur taluka. Literacy is 61%, 10 points below the taluka average of 71% and the sex ratio is 916 women per 1,000 men. The pincode is 388170, served by Sayma post office; the LGD village code is 516846. The village votes in Sanand assembly constituency, represented by MLA Kanubhai Karamshibhai Patel. The population is estimated at 2,308 in 2026, up 18% since the 2011 Census.
Gram panchayat: Bhanderaj →
Source: Census of India 2011, Village Directory. Facilities may have changed since.
Water supply timings, gram sabha dates, camps and drives — residents post them here and they expire on their own.
Sources: Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India (Census 2011 + Population Projections 2011-2036) · International Institute for Population Sciences (NFHS-5) · Election Commission of India · data.gov.in (Jal Jeevan Mission, PMAY-G, SBM-G dashboards). Projections may differ from on-the-ground reality by ±20% for individual villages. An asterisk next to a sex-ratio value (—*) flags a Census 2011 figure outside the plausible range of 300–2000 ♀/1000♂; the underlying source row is suppressed pending review.
Centred on Tarapur mandal
Reported by Telegraph India.
Reported by Telegraph India.
Reported by bhaskarenglish.in.
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