Providing Life Skills to 300 Girls living in Slums

Dear friends,

Season's Greeting and wishes for a great 2020 to all peaple with world peace.

There cannot be peace with so many people below poverty line with girls deprived of education and health. All of us at Vacha thank you especially for reaching out to help such girls that Vacha works with in bastis (slums) in Mumbai and a neighbouring district. The govt. has a programme of slum demolition in which the old and  legal residents are given small apartemnts of 200 to 300 sq. ft. for a family in  newly constructed builings. The same poor families shift to such SRA (Slum Rehabilitation Authority) buildings. There is practically no orientation and training for a different way of life for the residents.  Families are often very big and they can no longer use the outside space that they did in the original hutment colonies. At times there are even goats inside that they used to tie outside home. The best part is they now have toilets inside the apartment. This helps girls because they need additional access to privacy during menstruation period. The old SRA buildings can be in bad shape due to bad construction and lack of repair work. 

The gorls' situation does not change because of the same old mindsets of there mostly migrant families who bring their ideas from their villages in backward ideas. Noone, not a single organisation has gone in to girls' problems and needs in these housing projects. Vacha has extended its work to cover deprived girls in SRA buildings where they have said in our initial survey that safety is an issue for them. We will continue updating on this work when we report on this project. Work in bastis is going well and the kids are in a great celebratory mood. Christmas and New Year have become part of social life at all levels in Mumbai.

Sincerely,

Yagna Parmar

Co Director