Once again, this Center serves many functions and reaches out to multiple beneficiaries: children, teenagers, young adults, and women …. Our visit to ASHA Samajik Vidyalaya Rajatalab (Community School, Rajatalab) began with a meeting with the women of the self-help group who live in neighboring villages.

Our visit to Lok Chetna Samiti Girls Hostel was a joy from the moment we drove into the large compound that houses the hostel and its grounds …. The girls follow a set daily routine that includes yoga, music, dance, studying, as well as taking responsibility to keep the premises clean. After a few months of being here, most students do not want to go back not least because they get used to having electricity and a clean space to live in.

Our very first visit on this trip was to Asha Kaithi Bal Pustakalay (A children’s library located in Kaithi and funded, to some extent, by the organization Asha). The name, however, gives a mere glimmer of the true extent of the work being done here. The Center houses women’s vocational education courses; a library which girls from neighboring rural areas use to prepare for competitive exams at the local, state and central level; online and in-person English language classes; student-led organic farming; a (sanitary) pad bank; a mobile library among other things.

Once children of sex-workers come of age they are often met with closed doors. Older girls may try to sit for competitive examinations but if they are met with failure, even once, their mothers will encourage them to join the trade and earn money – easily and quickly. Often it is so that the mothers themselves are the primary movers (de facto pimps) in this situation because they are reaching an age where they may not be able to sell themselves for that much longer.

As I look back upon this trip to India, I think about the two organizations that I worked with: SNEHA Mumbai and Guria India. Both of them were dealing with the same overarching issue, but they were working on a different part of the problem.

Little had I expected this trip to India to be as harrowing as it turned out to be. Perhaps, the hardest thing for me to comprehend is the scale of violence inflicted on children. In legal terms children are defined as persons under the age of 18 years in India. And indeed, violence appears to have no barriers - children as young as a few months old to teenaged girls and everyone in between is subject to being victimised.

How do you keep a prostitute’s child out of the business? The brothel owner, the Madam, accomodates the entire pregnancy of her earning asset, the prostitute. She is the one who will hold the baby in her lap while the prostitute is servicing the clients inside.

There is a certain dichotomy between the existing culture in India and the rhetoric around it. There is always a great deal of talk about our Indian values and ancient culture.

At Guria’s office, I was met with 4 of the many girls who have been helped by them. These were all girls whose court cases are on-going; i.e., justice has not been given to them, but it has not been denied as yet either, nor have they succumbed to pressure (bribe or threats of violence against them and/or their family) to withdraw their cases.

A ‘sangini’ is ‘one who stands by you,’ who is your ‘companion.’ This is the title given to the female volunteers who are the task force of SNEHA’s operations in the field, in the slums of Dharavi and Mumbai. 400 sanginis are currently being trained and re-enforced as part of SNEHA’s project: Teaching Communities Zero Tolerance for Gender Based Violence.

‘What will people say? What will people think?’ Is that what a victim should be concerned about? And yet, why is it so often the case? Is this kind of paralyzing thought process common to all abused women? Or do some learn not to care?

It takes courage and a helping hand to raise your voice against your abuser.

I am going to digress a little from the official content of the blog, in light of my jet lag, and tell you a little about my impressions of Mumbai.

As I wait for my flight to India, I feel compelled to answer this question: Why care? Why care about prevention of violence against women and girls in India when there are so many other pressing causes.

Monday, March 6th, 2023 we anticipate travelling to India and hope you will join us on our trip.