The pain I saw this week was unbearable. I am completely overwhelmed by the amount of sorrow, poverty, and hopelessness that millions of Indians live with daily. In poverty, these people are completely helpless. There are those fortunate ones that receive help from various NGO’s all around India, but there are so many more that never get a chance for a better life. Their lives are unfairly impossible, and there is nowhere for them to go. They are stuck in poverty that fosters extreme illnesses, diseases, depression, malnourishment, and heartache.
The women at Kamathipura, which is the red light district in Mumbai, are incredibly unstable. Many of them are alcoholics, suicidal, and mentally unstable. An estimated 85% of the prostitutes have Tuberculosis, and 50% have HIV/AIDS. These women have been trafficked from Nepal, South and North India, or choose this lifestyle to provide for their families. The women, men, and children live in smaller than 5x5 rooms sharing the space with everyone around them. Babies and children sit in the same room as their mothers, only separated by a curtain while they service the clients. There are many brothels surrounding Kamathipura in Mumbai that keep younger women and children, starting at the age of 12 (and rarely, but sometimes 9 year olds) to 25. These brothels are closed to the outside world, and only the client and brothel keeper are aloud inside. The only contact these victims have to the outside world is their clients. Unless the police choose to bust the place, the women are kept hidden.
Prostitution and sex trafficking is illegal in India, and yet it is still rampant all over India. There is a police station in the middle of the red light district, and the police only handle cases that are brought forth to them. Otherwise, this infamous 14-lane prostitution community carries on daily in bright daylight. The Indian government and police force are highly corrupted, and it seems there is no way of changing these systems.
These poor people need help, and they cannot even run to their own government or police that is supposed to protect them for refuge. They have nowhere to go unless someone reaches a hand out to them. I am determined to make changes in India on the governmental level after my post-graduation, because it is extremely wrong that these people have to endure constant suffering. There are many Social Workers in India and many laws being passed against human trafficking and prostitution, but an even bigger change is needed. India’s mindset needs to change.
The government and police need to be trustworthy and reliable sources of protection, and punishment again offenses need to be more consistent. India needs to be cleaned up too. The animals need to be taken off the streets, such as cows, dogs, goats, chickens, etc. All the trash in India needs to be picked up off the ground, and a better system needs to be implemented for waste. Children need health and sex education earlier than college age, so that they are aware of hygiene, diseases, and sex and sexually transmitted infections. Laws need to be followed, especially by those who are supposed to uphold them (i.e. the government and police). The streets need to be restored and the food health standards need to be increased.
There are so many changes that need to occur in India, and it is overwhelming. I am at a loss of where to start, but I am very thankful for existing NGO’s and organizations such as UNICEF that are working towards ending poverty, prostitution, and child abuse (child labor, trafficking, and sexual abuse).
I applaud your desire to help the people of India, but there are different approaches. India can't be forced by outsiders to change, at least, not since 1947. Indians must be involved in improving their country as well. Even the poorest of the poor can self-advocate; they are not helpless!!! In the long run, it's also more effective.
ReplyDeleteFor example, Sonagachi, the red-light district of Kolkata (a much poorer city than Mumbai), has a HIV infection rate of around 5%. While that's still an epidemic level, it's 1/10 the rate of Kamathipura's. This is largely because sex workers in Sonagachi have formed collectives, and work with NGOs to spread messages promoting condom use and public health awareness. This partnership exponentially increases the effectiveness of the NGOs (and sex workers tend to listen to other sex workers more closely than to foreigners who don't even speak Hindi).
No one in their right mind will argue that sex work is an enviable profession, but there needs to be a viable economic alternative if one is to work towards "ending prostitution." Otherwise, it's just throwing money away...any mother who has left sex work in the past will return to the life rather than see her child starve.
I am currently in the process of considering setting up a restaurant which revolves around the sufinyan music and use rehabilitated sex workers as staff. I wish to bring out the plight of these women in a skit through music explaining to the outside world that prostitution is still rampant and help is indeed needed.
ReplyDeleteWe have a old factory very close to kamathipura which is consider to make into a restaurant for this purpose. A choreographed musical show showing the history and current plight of the women.
This is still very much in a conceptual stage and am looking for more information and support to know whether or not something like this can work in a city so hardened like Mumbai.
kelly
ReplyDeletei hope you had a good trip. Next time please remember that no country is perfect. I am not sure where you are from but let me tell you having worked in the area of sex work for years, prostitution is worldwide. That said nothing justifies it. There is change and it takes time. If you open the curtain of your house and your eyes you will see the exact same thing in different forms around you. So dont not make India sound worse than it is. What i find peculiar about travelling people who take these 'trips' to India, is that they believe they have a right to say anything without prodding into the substance. your lines are extremely offensive. The animals need to be taken off the streets, such as cows, dogs, goats, chickens, etc. All the trash in India needs to be picked up off the ground, and a better system needs to be implemented for waste. We have a system of waste disposal maybe you just dont know it. It doesn't surprise me, because ignorance seems to be the thing with people who travel to India from outside. Next time spend years here and then pass your comments. Not all you say is wrong but some of it is lack of research and of course exposure. Its extremely offensive. We dont need your advice. But take mine, clean your own mess before launching an attack on others.
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@ titi - This is the very same problem about India that causes it to have such gaps between the rich and poor. Regardless of what you were before, just get off from your so called 'proud' and defensive state of mind and accept that people want to help india with the best of intentions, regardless of where they are from. So shut up and get real and open your damn eyes to the suffering in india. We all want to help, but people like you are the cause of such delays.
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