Satish loves to play games!

The 2.8 million sex workers’ population in India is highly marginalised, vulnerable and unreached due to the burden of severe stigma, the commoditisation of personhood, forced poverty and debt bondage. Being doubly disadvantaged, the children residing in red light areas face worse consequences. They face physical danger, vulnerability to violence and sexual exploitation. Many of these children are kept drugged under the very beds upon which the trade is carried out. Also, as the mothers work through the night, they wake up late in the afternoon and the children invariably miss their meals. This leads to malnourishment of the children. Perishing in hunger, neglect, illiteracy and hopelessness, these children long for the day their childhood would be theirs again.

Three-and-a-half year-old Satish hails from the Turbhe red light area, one of the innumerable poverty stricken red light pockets in Mumbai. His father sells waste materials, and his mother is a housewife. He has one brother and one sister. Both his parents are not educated and the family income is barely enough to make ends meet.

Children like Satish who reside in red light areas face educational deprivation in terms of generational illiteracy, physical access to education, and quality of education. Due to social stigma and poverty associated with red light areas, the children are not put in school. This further compounds the present and future challenges of these youth. Though Satish hails from such a disadvantaged background, he can dream of a stable future with a good education because he studies at the Turbhe study center, run by Sahaara.  The foundational pre-primary teaching provided at Sahaara’s balwadis enables Satish to step into a bright future.

Sahaara’s balwadi has a systematic curriculum wherein children are equipped in the following subjects over the period of a year: English and Hindi; alphabets and poems; writing skills; general knowledge (colours, animals, flowers, personal hygiene, etc); colouring; and games and activities, such as counting and recognition.

Satish has good recall skills and enjoys taking part in dance programs. He knows his alphabets and numbers. He enjoys drawing and painting exercises and loves singing nursery rhymes and action songs. He is sociable and enjoys sharing his toys with the other children.

Sahaara Charitable Society believes that every person has a dream, and their work centers around ensuring that marginalized persons are able to articulate and work towards achieving their dream. Sahaara’s early childhood education program gives children like Satish a firm educational base that will help them break out of the vulnerable existence in the red light area and step into a safe and secure future.

Your generous donation will enable Sahaara to provide a year of pre-primary education to Satish.

Thank you so much for your gift to Satish!