Mohammad loves to paint!

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.

Four year old Mohammad hails from Ghatkopar red light area, one of the innumerable poverty stricken red light pockets in Mumbai, India. His father, Mohammad, works as a carpenter and his mother, Gulshan, is a house wife. Mohammad has one sister and two brothers. His parents are not well educated and the family income is 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 Mohammad hails from such a disadvantaged background, he can dream of a stable future because he studies at the Ghaktopar Study Center run by the Sahaara Charitable Society. The foundational pre-primary teaching provided at Sahaara’s balwadis (Indian pre-schools) will enable Mohammad 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.

Mohammad is a smart child with good recall skills. He knows the alphabet and is skilled at reciting numbers. He is a quiet child with a hunger to learn more and more from the teachers. He knows how to recite nursery rhymes and loves performing ‘action’ songs. He also loves painting and drawing sessions. Mohammad is very sociable with the other children and loves sharing his toys with them.

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 will enable Sahaara can provide a year of pre-primary education to Mohammad.

Thank you so much, Abhishek and Kowsilliya, for your gift to Mohammad!