Aliya loves to play!

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.

Four year old Aliya hails from the Ghatkopar red light area, one of the innumerable poverty stricken red light pockets in Mumbai, India. Her father, Imran, works as a driver and her mother, Zarina, is a house wife. Aliya has one brother. Her parents did not receive a strong formal education.

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 Aliya hails from such a disadvantaged background, she can dream of a stable future because she studies at the Ghatkopar Study Center run by the Sahaara Charitable Society. The foundational pre-primary teaching provided at Sahaara’s balwadis (Indian pre-schools) will enable Aliya 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.

Aliya is a smart, quiet child with good recall skills and a hunger to learn more. She can recite alphabets, numbers, and nursery rhymes. She loves playing indoor as well as outdoor games and enjoys expressing herself artistically. She is very sociable with the other children and loves sharing her 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 Aliya 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 Aliya.

Thank you, Venkat and Linda, for your gift to Aliya!