Vaddera

{{Short description|Caste found in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra}}

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{{use dmy dates|date=May 2019}}

{{use Indian English|date=May 2019}}

Vaddera (alternatively Vadde, Waddera, Vadar) is a caste in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and some other states in India.

The Vaddera have traditionally been stone cutters but many have had to change to agricultural labouring. The effects of mechanisation, usually financed and run by higher caste groups, has caused this change and government recognition of the issues has led to them being designated as an Other Backward Class.{{cite book |title=The Modern Anthropology of India: Ethnography, Themes and Theory |editor1-first=Peter |editor1-last=Berger |editor2-first=Frank |editor2-last=Heidemann |publisher=Routledge |year=2013 |isbn=9781134061112 |page=19 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sBgLb8XIGR8C&pg=PA19}}

Some Vaddera families in Chilakaluripet, Andhra Pradesh, have been noted as forming a network to buy children and groom them for sexual exploitation.{{cite book |title=Trafficking In Women And Children In India |first1=P. M. |last1=Nair |first2=Sankar |last2=Sen |others=Institute of Social Sciences (New Delhi, India); National Human Rights Commission; UNIFEM South Asia Regional Office |publisher=Orient Blackswan |location=New Delhi |year=2005 |isbn=9788125028451 |page=351 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1xFnEyqFupUC&pg=PA351}}