Manisha loves to perform nursery rhymes!

The 2.8 million sex workers in India are highly marginalised, vulnerable and unreached due to the burden of severe stigma, the commoditization of personhood, forced poverty and debt bondage. Doubly disadvantaged, their children face even worse consequences in these red light areas, including 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 their mothers work through the night as sex workers, they wake up late in the afternoon and their children invariably miss meals and become malnourished. Perishing in hunger, neglect, illiteracy and hopelessness, these children long for the day their childhood would be theirs again.

Three year old Manisha hails from the Turbhe red light area, one of the innumerable poverty stricken red light pockets in Mumbai. Her father, Namdev, is a mason and her mother, Radha, is a trafficked woman. Manisha has one sister and neither of her parents are educated. Despite all of their sacrifices, Manisha’s parents barely earn enough to make ends meet.

Children like Manisha also face educational deprivation such as 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, which further compounds their present and future challenges. Though Manisha hails from such a disadvantaged background, she can dream of a stable future with a good education because she studies at the Turbhe Study Center run by Sahaara. The foundational pre-primary teaching provided at Sahaara’s balwadis (Indian pre-school) enables Manisha to step into a bright future through enrollment in a good school.

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 (colors, animals, flowers, personal hygiene etc), coloring, and games and activities such as counting and recognition.

Manisha is a smart student who has a hunger to learn more and more. She has good recall skills and knows her numbers and alphabets. She loves singing nursery rhymes and performing action songs. She is sociable and enjoys sharing toys with the other children. She also loves to play indoor as well as outdoor games! Manisha especially enjoys dancing and loves taking part in programs conducted in the center.

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 Manisha a firm educational base that will help them break out of their 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 Manisha.

Thank you so much, UBS and Paris, for your gift to Manisha!