Empower Girls from Mumbai's Red Light Area

You can’t begin to imagine how much has changed since the last time I wrote. You could probably say we’ve been to hell and back…or the moon and back…maybe they’re the same thing??

For those of you who follow us on social media, you’re probably aware of the fact that in April, we were forcefully evicted from our shelter home where Kranti has been working/living/learning out of for nearly four years. Yes, this is our EIGHTH eviction. And every single eviction had a different reason. The first was because my story was all over the news and the neighbors didn’t want “girls like that” living with “normal families,” so they evicted us. Another was because someone didn’t want so many Muslim girls living in their Hindu home. 

This eviction, however, had nothing to do with us. Our landlord hadn’t paid the bank, so the bank came with police and court officials to seal the flat. Given less than 15 minutes to pack, we left the home with a few sets of clothes, and we split up across the city. Some girls went back to their mothers in the red-light area, some went to stay with friends and family within the sex worker community. For weeks, we lived without our clothes, medicines, or ID documents. After our situation was published in the local media, many generous people came together to help provide emergency food, clothes, and toiletries for us, but we continued to miss school, classes, and therapy sessions. 

After weeks of searching for the ninth Kranti home in Mumbai, we finally made one of the biggest decisions of our lives. With endless hopes, prayers, dreams, and ambition, we decided……to buy our own home!!! As you probably know, Mumbai is one of the cities in the world with the most expensive real estate and there is no way we can afford to purchase even one-bedroom flat in the city (normally about $1 million) so we decided we are moving to another place in India that we feel deeply connected with - Himachal Pradesh. Everyone at Kranti has attended workshops, trainings & retreats in Himachal over the past few years, and we all fell in love with this area.

The home we’ve decided to purchase is a 4-story, 10-bedroom, 12K square foot home! While it needs a lot of work, repair, and TLC, we are preparing it to welcome 15-20 more Krantikaris next year. We JUST raised enough to make a down payment of $185K and we have one year to raise the remaining $250K before the home officially becomes ours.

Your support and contributions are crucial as we work towards this goal, creating a space where Kranti can continue to thrive and make a difference in the lives of the Krantikaris. Every contribution counts, and together, we can turn our dream into reality.

Thank you so much for being part of this incredible journey!