Salomi loves to play with the other children!

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.

Three year old Salomi Gupta hails from the Ghatkopar red light area, one of the innumerable poverty stricken red light pockets in Mumbai. Her father, Rakesh, works as a rickshaw driver and her mother, Mumtaz, is a house wife. Salomi has one brother.

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 Salomi 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 Salomi 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.

Salomi is a quiet child who has a hunger to learn more and more from her teachers. She is very sociable with the other children and loves sharing her toys with them. She prefers to play indoor games and enjoys the lessons taken in the pre-primary 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 Salomi a firm educational base that will help her break out of the poverty cycle and fulfill her dream of a stable future.

Your generous donations, Manish and Dale Brian, will enable Sahaara to provide a year of pre-primary education to Salomi.

Thank you so much for your gift to Salomi!