Education India Project #24686

Preventing Inter-Generational Prostitution

by Apne Aap Women Worldwide Trust

Project Report | Jan 3, 2017
Activities Report- Oct, Nov and Dec 2016

By Khushboo Mishra | Project Leader

International Day of Girl Child

Grassroots Work- Delhi

October 2016

International Day of Girl child

Location- MCD Primary School, Old Roshanpura

Participants- 70 Girls

Classes- 4^thand 5^th standard

Details- To mark this day in our calendar, we handed out white sheets to each group ( every group consisted of 8-10 girls ) along with the water colours. We asked them to draw and colour the way they want, but each girl need to make her own self on the sheet provided to every group.

The girls were not provided with paint brush, encouraging them to use their fingers and hands. The little girls initially afraid to spoil their hands with colours ,started to paint with joy, expressing their innocence on hands as well as sheets . All the sheets were filled with images of kites, flowers, female figure, hand impression, animals , books etc.

Next, once each group completed their art works, we asked if they are proud to being a girl. To which, all children replied yes ,waving hands in the air and hugged each other.

On International Day of Girl Child, some of girls also shared future dreams. Tanya, from a singhi caste expressed her desire to become a doctor.

Later, Apne Aap encouraged small girls to help and motivate each other in academics and other activities. So, every girl could grow into wonderful bright women, who would make societies and build nation. Without foundation, a wall can’t be build. In a similar manner, every girl need to be provided with right education and opportunities, so that she could make her own self and coming generations too.

Focus Areas

v Team Work

v Confidence Building

v Creativity

v Peace Culture

v Motivation

Birth Anniversary of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam

Location- MCD Primary School, Old Roshanpura

Participants- 100 Girls

Classes- 5^th Standard

Details- Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam said “ You have to dream before your dreams can come true ”. Keeping his words of wisdom in mind, Apne Aap celebrated birth anniversary of Dr. Kalam in the school. The day was celebrated as reading day for the children.

We need them to give opportunities. And Also, the dreams. The small children need to be inspired . They need mentor, to guide them and to acknowledge the right work done and right direction for the wrong done.

On the day, Apne Aap members together with children read many chapters and poems from the textbooks provided to the students from the school. The favourite poem which was based on “Teamwork” was recited 7-8 times by everyone along with the performance.

Without Balloons and sweets, birthday is incomplete. After reading chapters and recitation of poems, children came forward and started plumping balloons while enjoying candies distributed by Apne Aap.

Focus Areas :

v Reading

v Team Work

v Future Dreams

v Confidence

Dussehra Celebration

Location- Community, Dharampura

Participants- 120 Children ( Including boys and girls)

Details- Dussehra is a festival that marks the “ Victory of good over Evil “ and is celebrated in entire country with a lot of fervour.

In the community, where the custom of inter- generational prostitution is persistent. A community where a girl is aware of her “responsibilities” put on her because she is born in Perna, a de-notified tribe or ex- criminal tribe as they are popularly known.

Sapera, who earn livelihood by snake shows or monkey shows which is banned in India. Now, left with the only option to survive, to play drums at the weddings and other functions, which is also seasonal.

Singhi, who sell toys , pick rags, clean ears and mend shoes. These are the only options available to them to put food in the stomach.

In this community: child labour, child marriage, unemployment, poverty , lack of education, lack of opportunities etc are at peak.

Apne Aap organised few games for the children in community, where one of our staff member acted like a Raavan.

The first game organised was “Lemon Spoon Race”. In this Race, children between the age group 9- 15 years participated.

The top three winners were presented with small gift packets, consisting of stationary and eatables.

The second game organised was “Frog Race” where children between the age group 7-12 years participated.

The winners were presented with small gifts, consisting of stationary and eatables.

Focus Area :

v To end caste discrimination

v Confidence Building

Diwali Celebration

Location- Community, Dharampura

Participants- 70 children (Including girls and boys) and 12 Women

Details- In India, Diwali is considered a festival of lights, sweets, rangoli and prayer. Festivals always play an important role to bring people together of different religions and different cultures across the globe.

The festivals help end discrimination and raise voice through different customs.

Apne Aap had organised a rangoli making program to celebrate diwali in the community. The children were divided into 2 groups so that everyone could participate

The first group of children making their rangoli with powder colours, diyas, and flowers. There was no caste discrimination. Children from all three caste and age participated.

The second group of children working on the rangoli with colours, diyas and flowers. This rangoli shows that art is not only for females, boys too can make beautiful rangoli.

The community women spent some time together on the occasion of diwali. The mothers were encouraging all children to make beautiful rangolis giving small ideas in between.

Focus Areas:

v To end caste Discrimination

v Confidence Building

v Creativity

November 2016

Leaf Painting

Location- MCD Primary school, Old Roshanpura

Participants- 70 Girls

Classes- 5^th Standard

Details- Apne Aap conducted leaf painting workshop at the school. In the workshop, all the children were provided with green peepal leaf and were asked to design it.

Here, instead of paint brush, Apne Aap provided match sticks. The aim was to design leaf with a match stick.

Art is an important part to express oneself.

According to a scientific study; art increases empathy, tolerance and feelings of love. It is also believed that art lessons make children better students of life.

Art has also been used since decades to express patriotism and justice. Apne Aap regards art as of the medium to end sexual violence against women and girls .

The girls made backgrounds on leaf, using different colours with their hands. Golden, blue, red, black were few colours.

Suhana, age 9 belongs to Perna. Apne Aap helps provide her with art and craft workshops in school. So that, she do not drop out like other girls of her community. The girls need to more opportunities to regain control over their lives.

Focus Areas :

v Creativity

v Confidence

Robotics Workshop

Location- Community, Dharampura

Participants- 4 Girls

Name- Sunaina, Shivani, Balma, Tanya

Details- Apne Aap enrolled 4 girls from the community for Lego Robotics workshop sessions.

All the four girls study at government run nearby school. The girls are from Perna, Sapera and Singhi Caste.

The girls travel from Najafgarh to Nehru Place to attend the classes after school hours. The time distance is around 1.5 -2 hours for one side.

This workshop not only teach them robotics, but curiosity and interest in science was also observed among these girls.

The workshop also serves as exposure for the girls from this community. These kind of workshops provide the girls with the opportunity to interact with people outside their own caste and community.

Focus Areas:

v Learning

v Exposure

v Confidence

Birthday Celebration of Science Graduate Student

Location- Community, Dharampura

Participants- 70 children (including boys and girls) , 20 women and 5 men

Details- The young science graduate, Rajat Taneja, Celebrated his 25^th Birthday at the community.

Apne Aap always tries take more people to community in Najafgarh. It not only give community people chance to interact with people outside the community, but also give inspiration to children to study hard and achieve something in life.

The young boy celebrated his birthday was something very new in the community. Community people liked it very much. Many children shared their dreams and Rajat showed them the way, i.e, education.

The community children sang their favourite Bollywood songs and few did dance on the day. Rajat, being a science graduate and planning his career into education line interacted with the students in holistic way, answering all education related questions of mothers and children in community.

Sapera Caste Man Prepares for Government Exam

Location- Dharampura

Details- Virender, 26 year old man started to prepare for government exam. After much encouragement , he completed his 12^th standard and filled a form for SBI Clerical exam.

Virender is married and have three children. Apne Aap has helped him and his family to acquire the government Ids. He is able to receive all the benefits through the caste certificates and other documents which he was not able to enjoy earlier.

December 2016

Self-Defense Training

Location- MCD Primary School, Old Roshanpura

Participants- 100 Girls, 10 teachers and school Principal

Classes- 5^th Standard

Details- Apne Aap believes that girls need to be self- empowered in every manner. She should know how to safeguard her own self. Thus, we keep organising self- defense training after every 3 months.

In the self- defense training, Mr.Ajay along with his team visited the MCD Primary school to share his knowledge with the girls.

He shared with them various “do and don’t” while travelling or when out of home. For instance, Mr. Ajay said “When you are travelling in metro with family, and you miss the metro. Do not panic. Go to ticket counter or customer care and inform them. They will help you contact with the family”.

In the next session, girls were taught the simple hand techniques related to defense.

Mr. Ajay, along with his team member showed Apne Aap girls self- defense techniques. What if someone holds you on neck or if someone tries to get hold with hair? He showed what to do in this situation to the girls and teachers

The training session was concluded with the information regarding “Good Touch and Bad Touch”.

Ms. Shakuntla, School Principal also added few real life examples in the conclusion.

Focus Area :

v Self- Defense

v Knowledge

v Confidence

Visit of Students Opposing Slavery group

Location- MCD Primary School, Old Roshanpura and Community, Dharampura

Participants- 100 Girls

Classes- 5^th Standard

Details- StudentsOpposing Slavery (SOS) is an award-winning youth education program for students dedicated to continuing Lincoln’s fight for freedom by raising awareness about modern slavery within a high-risk population – teenagers.

Started in 2012 by four teenagers who believed that they had a responsibility to do what they could to end slavery in their time, SOS has flourished under the auspices of President Lincoln’s Cottage. Today, SOS is a growing network of young abolitionists from around Washington, D.C., the nation, and the world who are working together to end slavery.

SOS member interacted with school girls and shared her everyday routine and lifestyle . The girls were enthusiastic to know more about United States.

Priya , age 13 , wants to travel US . She shared her dream with SOS.

Apne Aap girls sang national song Vande Mataram for the visiting group.

SOS member shared the importance of education and encouraged girls to study hard to fulfil their dreams.

SOS Team interacted with Principal, Ms. Shakuntla and teachers of MCD Primary School.

The exchange of ideas in education system was shared between the two.

SOS Team interacted in community with the women.

Aarti, from Sapera caste, showed pictures of her daughter Prachi, who studies in Shanti Gyan International School with the help of Apne Aap.

Focus Areas:

v Exposure

v Exchange of knowledge

v Exchange of Ideas

v Confidence

v Motivation

Robotics Workshop Sessions

Location- Community, Dharampura

Participants- 4 children

Name- Priyanka, Neha, Suhana and Aryan

Leaf Painting Workshop

Diwali Celebration

Self-Defense Training

Robotics Workshop

Discussion on Importance of Education

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Oct 26, 2016
Fail Forward Contest Report/Update

By Co-authors: Juanita Kakoty & Alison Adams | Juanita- Doc. Specialist, Alison- US Associate

Fail Forward Contest & Project Update

Apne Aap International Report

Submission: Oct. 26 2016.

Apne Aap Women Worldwide is an Indian anti-sex trafficking organization that was started by Ruchira Gupta and 22 women in prostitution from Mumbai’s red light area in 2002. What started as investigative journalism on trafficking across the Indo-Nepal border became a life-long battle for Ruchira when these 22 women, whom she tracked down from Nepal to the brothels of Mumbai, asked her to help them. ‘Apne Aap’ means self-empowerment in Hindi, and Ruchira thought it is self-empowerment alone that can help improve the situation of these prostituted women.

Over the years, Apne Aap has empowered prostituted, at-risk of being trafficked and marginalised women and girls from red light areas as well as certain caste communities in India suffering from inter-generational prostitution by mobilising them to campaign for and gain access to their rights in the form of education, healthcare, safe space, government documents, government subsidies, legal rights, and friendship networks. To date, the organization has touched more than 20,000 lives, both directly and indirectly, in Bihar, West Bengal and Delhi.

At Apne Aap, we have realised that change is possible only when it happens from within. That is, change has to be at the level of grassroots, and that it is this which impacts policy changes as well. So we create leaders from within the community.

To share a recent case, Apne Aap's community leader, and also a prostituted woman, fought tooth and nail against the pimps to save her daughter from being forced into prostitution. A Panchayat (an unelected village council) was called urgently at Dharampura, in Delhi NCR, to decide whether Rita's (name changed) daughter should be prostituted or not. Despite receiving threats of parading them (mother and daughter) naked in the village as a "punishment", Rita determinedly stood for her daughter's right not to be prostituted. And she won her daughter's freedom. After almost five hours of intense grilling by the Panchayat (group of 15-20 elderly people), it was concluded that the girl should not be forced into prostitution.

Rita has been born in the Perna community, a caste in which inter-generational prostitution prevails to date. That is, prostitution in this community is the only means of livelihood where men of the family pimp their own women. Rita, as a child bride, was pushed into prostitution after the death of her husband. But when her daughter fell in a similar situation, she fearlessly fought against a tradition, with the support of Apne Aap activists. This is for the first time that the Panchayat has taken a decision against a tradition. It is a small, but significant step in ending oppression and violence against women.

Currently, with Apne Aap's assistance, Rita has enrolled her two daughters in a residential school. She is among the few courageous ones in her community, who chose to educate her daughters, rather than prostitute them in the name of marriage.

Rita’s case highlights how it is important to create safe spaces for women from such situations or communities so that they do not get trapped into a cycle of abuse and violence prevalent in their communities. We learnt it after years of struggle in the field to help women get out of prostitution.

Today, Apne Aap creates these safe spaces in the community, at community centers by using a room at someone’s house, or by putting the most vulnerable girls in residential schools away from their threatening environment.

In Bihar, Apne Aap started a residential school in 2007 at Simraha in partnership with the Government of Bihar where 50 percent seats are reserved for daughters of prostituted women or girls from caste communities where there is inter-generational prostitution.

We look at prostitution not as an outcome of choice but as a lack of choice. In India, most of the prostituted women and girls are from the freed/denotified tribes or backward caste communities, which have a long history of neglect and poverty. Among such communities where we work in West Bengal, Bihar and Delhi we have seen how education can make a difference, how with education communities are changing; provided education does not just mean literacy; but it is approached more holistically as right exposure and access to knowledge systems which can lead to self-empowerment.

We work with what we call the 10 ASSET APPROACH. We approach a community and try and build a relationship with it. Our main intention is self-empowerment of the women and girls of the community by helping them acquire ten assets - a safe space (where they can escape to, be themselves, talk about their fears and issues); education; self-confidence; political bargaining skills; government identity documents (IDs); government subsidies; loans and bank accounts; legal support; vocational skills; and a network of at least nine friends (which includes Apne Aap and other organizations that we connect them to). This takes time, about 3-5 years for a woman to acquire all the assets.

We aim mostly at prevention and very little rehabilitation considering our resource constraints. Apart from our intervention programmes in the community, we run advocacy programmes where we try to influence policies. For instance, in 2013, due to Apne Aap’s efforts, trafficking was listed as a criminal offence under Section 370 of the Indian Penal Code. In fact the draft language submitted by Apne Aap is the language accepted in Section 370 with very minor changes. This has (a) formally introduced the definition of sex-trafficking in the Indian Penal Code and (b) has made clear that the consent of the victim is immaterial in determining the culpability of the pimp or the client.

Our advocacy strength comes from our involvement at the grassroots level. We have learnt that for effective impact, changes at the level of policies and the field should go together and one should draw from each other, and not be far removed from each other.

Through Apne Aap’s efforts, 30 home-based brothels have been shut down in Forbesganj (Bihar), and about 57 brothels have been shut down in Munshiganj (Kolkata). Prostitution survivor leaders trained by Apne Aap have helped put many pimps behind the bars.

At Apne Aap, as we fight to dismantle the system of prostitution, we are happy that we have been able to enroll children of prostituted women in Delhi, Bihar and Kolkata for the first time in schools and boarding schools. These are first generational learners in a country that became independent 69 years ago, and will hopefully shape better futures and choices for their communities.

Apne Aap appreciates Global Giving’s approach to failing forward. When one fails, it is too easy to simply give up. We take failure as an opportunity for growth, we see our challenges as a chance to learn about how we can improve the next time round. We are an organization working to dismantle a very complicated and tough world- the world of sex-trafficking and prostitution. In our years of work, our staff members have often been threatened and have had to face confrontations with traffickers and pimps in the communities we work in. We do not see this as a reason to shy away from our work, it rather empowers us to keep going and try harder. It is very scary at times. Yet, no matter what bumps we may continue to face on the road, we know that we are fighting for a worthy cause and that we must let nothing get in the way of us trying to achieve our mission.

Although our project is new to the Global Giving platform and hasn’t received that much attention yet- we are not letting this get us down. We are instead, trying extra hard to spread the word about our project page and enlist in all the Global Giving campaigns, contests, and opportunities that we can. We hope that as we continue to publicize our Global Giving project page, that we will be able to connect more of our regular supporters to it. We have been speaking regularly with the GG team who have been extremely helpful in helping us find more ways to get our GG project page out there. We are remaining proactive in our efforts.

Thank you Global Giving for this opportunity to share Apne Aap’s story with you. Thank you for giving us a platform to share our work with your community.

No matter if we’ve failed previously, we know one thing- we are going to continue moving forward until we live in a world where no woman or girl can be bought or sold.

Links:

Organization website

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