Gayathri loves to sing!

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 Gayathri hails from the Turbhe red light area, one of the innumerable poverty stricken red light pockets in Mumbai, India. Her father, Mukesh, is a rickshaw driver and her mother, Pinky, is a sex worker in Turbhe. Both her parents are uneducated and they earn barely enough to make ends meet.

Children from red light areas face educational deprivation, such as generational illiteracy and a physical lack of access to a quality education. Due to the social stigma and poverty associated with red light areas, these children are not put in school, which further compounds their present and future challenges.

Though Gayathri hails from such a disadvantaged background, she can dream of a stable future because she studies at the Turbhe Study Center run by the Sahaara Charitable Society. The foundational pre-primary teaching provided at Sahaara’s balwadis (Indian pre-schools) will enable Gayarthi 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 such as colors, animals, flowers and personal hygiene; and games and activities such as counting and recognition.

Gayathri is a quiet child with a hunger to learn. She loves singing nursery rhymes and performing action songs. She knows her alphabets and numbers as well! She is sociable and enjoys sharing 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 Gayarthi 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 ensures Sahaara can provide a year of pre-primary education to Gayathri.

Thank you all so much for your gift to Gayathri!