The Dark Realities of Women Trafficking VI: Snehalaya
NewsBharati 05-Aug-2024 16:31:55 PM
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Snehalaya : A Ray Of Hope by Savita Kajrekar
The conversation between the author and Dr Girish Kulkarni who is the founder of 'Snehalaya' is summarised in the article. As a student when the school, Girish hardly had time to cover the approximately 1 km distance. He found a short route to reach on time, but it would pass through a red light area. This made him aware of the problem and its complexities. When he talked to the women ( some sex workers), they wanted him to take their children and do something for them. It started with taking 2 kids in a park to play, within 4 months the number was 80.
Snehalaya is situated in Ahmednagar, which belongs to drought-prone area, a city with heavy transport, and migrant workers. It is known for women trafficking also and as a result the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) . Thus the foremost need was identified as health care, HIV positive women needed treatment and nourishing food. Initially, his family accepted 2 positive women and started working, in 1992 Snehalaya could get a piece of land.
A well-equipped hospital is run now which provides free of cost treatment and care for HIV patients, even neonatal care too is provided. Sexual health education and counselling is also a part of it. Dr Girish shared his observation that this has influenced the spread of STDs and no underage girls are found. Distribution of condoms, health education for sex workers and STD testing camps are conducted. Local sex workers play a significant role in helping it succeed.
There is a hostel for HIV-positive children, where treatment, good food, education along with vocational training, value education, and life with dignity are available which translates into a healthy ecosystem.
In 1997 the first helpline for children started. More than 300 calls are made on the helpline every day and are responded to quickly to rescue the child in danger. It has a good network of volunteers who help in many ways, right from awareness campaigns to helping abandoned children.
The number of Child trafficking in Maharashtra was around 10'000 in 2016, but many cases are not even reported. Abandoned infants, too, in a way belong to this category, where more than 90% are girls. 'Snehankur' ( a government-approved adoption centre ) takes care of such infants and even psychological support is provided to the expectant mothers in the difficult phase. Vocational training is given to mothers to be able to lead their lives independently.
It claims that it succeeded in preventing second-generation prostitution up to 70%.
'Balbhavan' activity helps in preventing runaways and trafficking.
Creative and outdoor activities, medical support along counselling is a part of rehabilitation. Of course, rescue and shelter is also available. Formal education and vocational training according to the potential and aptitude gives them opportunity to get proper foundation for future life.
Himmatgram is a project spread on the 25 acres of land with a biofarm. It helps the inmates to learn to sustain in the rural set up. It has been empowering the people with HIV.
Dr Girish stated that the government committees should be made active and should be able to fix accountability of the guilty.
While discussing the role played by many factors,he felt uncontrolled urbanisation migration,disturbed human relations and diminishing value system are the main reasons. Individual centric attitude too has resulted in the indeferent attitude of people in general that harms the social fabric.
The issue is very complex,there is no simple solution to it. The society has to fight it on many fronts.
Ashray : short stay home ,the article is based on the interview of Jyoti pathania by Asawari Bapat.
Established in 2002, this is a sanstha where women in difficulty can stay up to 3 years taking the children along with them.
Usually most of such cases are closed by counselling, very few reach the court. Even rape cases to do not easily reach courts. Such cases become a matter of defamation or stigma for a family ,so some sort of escape routes are found. Very few are registered.
Even when some places like parlours or spas are raided,the rescued women too face difficulties and unfortunately mostly women are found to be responsible for pushing girls into it. At some point they too are victims of the system. This is a means of earning money. These things make the problem more complex.
When the girls come from other states, social workers and police visit their homes,if they succeed to get the address. They judge whether the circumstances are favourable for the rehabilitation. If not found to be satisfactory ,the girls are sent to shelter home for rehabilitation. Many are not ready to furnish the address easily. Girls come for the neighbouring countries also.
Rehabilitation by offering skills training is too not an easy task. There are many difficulties like capital for some sort of small enterprises, marketing network, availability of space and many more. The attitude of society towards such things too should change.
Jyoti Tai observed that these women certainly want to keep children their away from this,so institutions like night creche are essential. Hostels are even better and counselling children about the nature of mother's profession too is needed. She could remember many examples of children who are settled well in their life.
Of course she insisted on developing an effective system for all this. Gender sensitisation is also emphasised by her,and of course a network of social organisations. Our society has to develop proper attitude to deal with such complex issues.
The conversation between the author and Dr Girish Kulkarni who is the founder of 'Snehalaya' is summarised in the article. As a student when the school, Girish hardly had time to cover the approximately 1 km distance. He found a short route to reach on time, but it would pass through a red light area. This made him aware of the problem and its complexities. When he talked to the women ( some sex workers), they wanted him to take their children and do something for them. It started with taking 2 kids in a park to play, within 4 months the number was 80.
Even during his college days, he had friends from the red-light area, who couldn't invite him home. When he could visit a home, he found that his friend's teenage sister and mother were sex workers. They always faced intimidation and constant plastering from the people around them. Of course, there was barely any help from the police, on the contrary, a sex worker who went to get some help was raped and robbed. As a consequence they all organised a rally to protest, it worked.
In 1989 Dr Girish started working for the sex workers and in 1991 Snehalaya was established. ' Every woman and child should have the right to a life free from inequality, cruelty and discrimination', is the guiding principle. Health care, Education, Rehabilitation and Awareness are focused.
A well-equipped hospital is run now which provides free of cost treatment and care for HIV patients, even neonatal care too is provided. Sexual health education and counselling is also a part of it. Dr Girish shared his observation that this has influenced the spread of STDs and no underage girls are found. Distribution of condoms, health education for sex workers and STD testing camps are conducted. Local sex workers play a significant role in helping it succeed.
There is a hostel for HIV-positive children, where treatment, good food, education along with vocational training, value education, and life with dignity are available which translates into a healthy ecosystem.
In 1997 the first helpline for children started. More than 300 calls are made on the helpline every day and are responded to quickly to rescue the child in danger. It has a good network of volunteers who help in many ways, right from awareness campaigns to helping abandoned children.
The number of Child trafficking in Maharashtra was around 10'000 in 2016, but many cases are not even reported. Abandoned infants, too, in a way belong to this category, where more than 90% are girls. 'Snehankur' ( a government-approved adoption centre ) takes care of such infants and even psychological support is provided to the expectant mothers in the difficult phase. Vocational training is given to mothers to be able to lead their lives independently.
It claims that it succeeded in preventing second-generation prostitution up to 70%.
'Balbhavan' activity helps in preventing runaways and trafficking.
Creative and outdoor activities, medical support along counselling is a part of rehabilitation. Of course, rescue and shelter is also available. Formal education and vocational training according to the potential and aptitude gives them opportunity to get proper foundation for future life.
Himmatgram is a project spread on the 25 acres of land with a biofarm. It helps the inmates to learn to sustain in the rural set up. It has been empowering the people with HIV.
Dr Girish stated that the government committees should be made active and should be able to fix accountability of the guilty.
While discussing the role played by many factors,he felt uncontrolled urbanisation migration,disturbed human relations and diminishing value system are the main reasons. Individual centric attitude too has resulted in the indeferent attitude of people in general that harms the social fabric.
The issue is very complex,there is no simple solution to it. The society has to fight it on many fronts.
Ashray : short stay home ,the article is based on the interview of Jyoti pathania by Asawari Bapat.
Established in 2002, this is a sanstha where women in difficulty can stay up to 3 years taking the children along with them.
While running a counselling centre it was observed that when some women are obliged to leave their home, they need some place where they can get legal advice. There are various reasons that they are compelled by the situation like domestic violence, disputes at home or ill treatment by step parents. Sometimes lured by fake promise of employment,disturbed families with constant alterations and neglected child are also significant reasons. In such cases there is an entry of a lover and a run away proposal which results into deceit. When police find such girls they are referred to Ashray,after securing the legal permission.
Even when some places like parlours or spas are raided,the rescued women too face difficulties and unfortunately mostly women are found to be responsible for pushing girls into it. At some point they too are victims of the system. This is a means of earning money. These things make the problem more complex.
When the girls come from other states, social workers and police visit their homes,if they succeed to get the address. They judge whether the circumstances are favourable for the rehabilitation. If not found to be satisfactory ,the girls are sent to shelter home for rehabilitation. Many are not ready to furnish the address easily. Girls come for the neighbouring countries also.
Rehabilitation by offering skills training is too not an easy task. There are many difficulties like capital for some sort of small enterprises, marketing network, availability of space and many more. The attitude of society towards such things too should change.
Jyoti Tai observed that these women certainly want to keep children their away from this,so institutions like night creche are essential. Hostels are even better and counselling children about the nature of mother's profession too is needed. She could remember many examples of children who are settled well in their life.
Of course she insisted on developing an effective system for all this. Gender sensitisation is also emphasised by her,and of course a network of social organisations. Our society has to develop proper attitude to deal with such complex issues.
Prof. Vidya Deshpande
Professor Vidya Deshpande has had a journey of more than four decades in the field of education. Her main expertise is in the subject of Philosophy, and she has worked as a teacher of philosophy and logic with Nowrosjee Wadia college for 36 years. She has been associated with the Janakalyan Blood bank for last for 38 years and has also carried out the responsibility as a management committee member of Karve Stree Shikshan Sanstha for 10 years. Her special fields of interest are Philosophy of social sciences, school education, development of skills for self reliance, and top up skills to make students profession ready,