General

Snehalaya in Ahmednagar in India – engaged for women an children and LGBT communities affected by poverty and sex industry

by Milena Rampoldi
By Milena Rampoldi and Denise Nanni, ProMosaik. In the following a
detailed interview with the organizsation Snehalaya
in Ahmednagar in India. Would like to thank Joyce Connelly for all the
information and photos.


On the website the program of the organization is announced:
“We have come a long way since 1989, when we
started education programmes for a handful of children of sex workers and
palliative care for people affected by AIDS. We now serve over 29,000
beneficiaries each year running 16 key projects across four key
areas, education, healthcare, rehabilitation, and awareness, that help our
beneficiaries thrive in life.
Our services are primarily for Women & Children and LGBT
communities affected by poverty and the commercial sex industry.  We help
to fight HIV and AIDS and to end human trafficking, improve education for
deprived children and campaign for justice to bring rescue, rights and
rehabilitation to those that need it. ​We
never give up because we know, first hand, just how resilient our beneficiaries
have to be, we’ve been there every step of the way….​
  
Tell us something about the history of Snehalaya.
Snehalaya was founded in 1989. It’s impossible to answer this without
speaking about our founder Girish Kulkarni. Now an esteemed scholar, recognised
by the nation and the Indian President for giving a voice and platform for
change to India’s hidden population, it is Girish Kulkarni’s vision that
inspires Snehalaya in all our work.
He in turn is inspired by Swami Vivekananda’s belief that “They alone
live, who live for others; the rest are more dead than alive!” and Mahatma
Gandhi who said “Be the change you wish to see” and reminded us to always think
of the last person in society, in Girish’s case this was the sex worker…
At 14-years old Girish turned up to his school friend’s home.  He
did not know until he arrived that his friend and her mother were living
and working in a brothel, in shockingly violent conditions. The brothel
keeper was displeased by his visit and in a rage, inflicted indescribable
abuse on the girl and her mother, making Girish stay to watch. Appalled by the
brutality he had been forced to witness, the young Girish made a promise to
himself.  He resolved there and then to devote his life to ending the
atrocities faced by trafficked and enslaved women and children in India.
At 21, witnessing another sex worker being tortured, Girish took action
thinking ‘what is this was my mother, grandmother or sister?’ and brought the
woman and her children home to his parents’ house where they were given
shelter. This was the start of Snehalaya as we know it today. From there he
introduced daycare for the children of sex workers who were often forced to
witness their mothers at work and were following them into the same trade.
Realising that they were even more vulnerable during the night he then
introduced night care at a center which he built by hand himself with help from
his friends on a piece of land donated by another supporter.
From then onwards Girish and team have always looked at the root causes
of trafficking into the sex industry expanding into slum education, setting up
the first Childline in India, providing long-term shelter to the children of
sex workers and alternative options and information on their rights. When
little knowledge of AIDS and how it spreads was available, Snehalaya offered
sex workers free sexual health checks and started a Death with Dignity programme,
literally picking the dead bodies of AIDS victims up off the streets and opening
one of the first hospital dedicated to the treatment and palliative care of the
HIV/AIDS casualties that others refused to touch.
The journey has never been easy, winning the trust of the sex workers
who had learned to trust no-one took time, the brothel keepers and pimps didn’t
appreciate Snehalaya’s interference and the corruption surrounding the industry
was rife – many people questioned why the team was bothering with them at all.
Snehalaya took them all on, avoiding to give or take bribes or use violence in
their movement to ensure that women and children were able to live their lives
free from ‘inequality, cruelty and discrimination.’

What are the main activities of your organization?
We have come a long way since 1989, when we started education
programmes for a handful of children of sex workers and palliative care for people
affected by AIDS. We now serve over 29,000 beneficiaries each year running
16 key projects across four key areas, education, healthcare,
rehabilitation, and awareness, that help our beneficiaries thrive in life.
Our services are primarily for Women and Children and LGBT communities
affected by poverty and the commercial sex industry.  We help to fight HIV
and AIDS and to end human trafficking, improve education for deprived
children and campaign for justice to bring rescue, rights and rehabilitation to
those that need it.
​
Our core mission remains to work with sex
workers to help them stay healthy and ensure they are aware of their rights and
offer them alternatives to sex work. We also continue to provide shelter for
their children, providing them and education and vocational skills to help
break the cycle of second generation prostitution, we have reduced this to 70%
but our target remains 100%. Through our network of peer educators who were
once sex workers themselves we are trusted partners of the women and together
we have ensured there are no underage sex workers in our district, we have also
reduced STs by 80% and there is 100% condom usage among sex workers. We also
have two former sex workers on our Board of Trustees, ensuring their community
is represented at the highest level within our organisation.
Our shelter home accommodates 250 children, half
of whom are affected by HIV/AIDS and half who are the children of sex workers,
girls rescued from the trade or refugees of natural disasters.
To help reduce trafficking and recruitment of
sex workers we work within the poorest communities in seven of our city slums
offering education, health camps, self-help groups and extracurricular
activities to the people living there. Be empowering the women and children in
these recruitment areas for opportunists including money lenders and pimps we
are stemming the flow into the sex trade as well as improving their
socio-economic status.
All of our projects come under four main themes
– education, healthcare,
rehabilitation, and awareness:

HEALTHCARE PROJECTS fulfil a high
priority need in preventative healthcare and testing for high risk groups and
non-discriminatory treatment and medical and palliative care for people living
with HIV and AIDS (PLHA). Working independently and with government agencies we
make life-saving treatments more widely available and also provide essential
psychological support and educational programmes. Our innovative peer educator
programmes have seen a vast improvement in the reduction of STDs amongst sex
workers, a reduction in unwanted pregnancies, and an increase in the survival
rates of PLHA.

Caring
Friends Hospital & Resource Center
There are over two million People living with HIV and AIDS (PLHA)
in India and Maharashtra ranks as the second highest state in total
numbers. Snehalaya is home to the only hospital specialising in the care
of patients affected by HIV in our state and we offer treatment and dignity to
those that others turn away. PLHA require a range of specialised HIV services
including care, treatment and support. The progression of the infection and
consequent weakening of the immune system also makes them vulnerable to
opportunistic infections (OIs) such as tuberculosis (TB).
Our first hospital opened its doors in 2008 and have since treated over
25,000 in- and out-patients. We have recently expanded our facilities to open
the first 50-bed hospital providing free or subsidised healthcare and
counselling to PLHA and their families which will improve the lives of
thousands more patients. Including a surgical unit over 25,000 it will provide
life-saving surgery to those who face discrimination and refusal of treatment
based on their HIV status in our local hospitals. Other improved facilities
include pre- and post-natal care, respirators, X-ray and laboratory testing
facilities.



Snehjyot TI1 & TI2
Ahmednagar has a high military and migrant worker presence, is on a
busy transport route and is severely affected by droughts. All of which
contribute to high levels of prostitution and human trafficking and ultimately
the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV and AIDS.
There are constant challenges when dealing with trafficking and prostitution in
India, especially when it comes to minors. Hundreds of thousands of children go
missing and are sold into the sex trade every year.
We currently have over 3,000 registered female sex workers, men having
sex with men (MSM) and LGBT community members accessing our services and are
continuously reaching out to more. Our regional clinics and health camps
distribute condoms and conduct sexual health education and sexually transmitted
infection (STI) testing without judgment.
We rely on a network of peer mentors, recruited from our local sex
workers and MSM communities, who play a key role in our outreach health work
and education projects. We also rescue and rehabilitate trafficked
and forced sex workers providing a safe haven, free counselling, legal aid,
vocational training and alternatives to sex work. Through advocacy and
awareness drives we are also challenging the culture of violence that surrounds
this community.
This grassroots approach has drastically reduced the rates of STIs in
the district by 80%, making it now one of the lowest in India. We can also
confirm that thanks to counselling and awareness raising that there are no
underage sex workers in our district.

Snehabandhan
Tamasha is a hugely popular traditional Maharashtran theatre with
singing and dancing performed by local theatre groups. Jamkhed in Ahmednagar
District is one area known for this art form and When the curtain falls, the
crowds flocking to the nightly performances are increasingly demanding
after-show entertainment in the form of sex workers.
Our newest project has been working within the area to build the trust
of this vulnerable and closed community. We have over 400 performers currently
registered with us accessing free condoms, sexual health clinics and testing
and other support services, while also working with us to prevent underage
prostitution. We are also hoping that our educational outreach and
rehabilitation will reduce the
number of sex workers and ultimately bring an end to the sex trade associated
with Tamasha theatre.

EDUCATION has always been at the heart of what we do, and we believe that by
investing in it we can tackle the major issues that face our society. We
believe that everyone, no matter their background or social standing, has
the right to education. Through targeted programmes and campaigns we highlight
the importance of education in raising people out of poverty, reducing child
trafficking and prostitution and destigmatizing class, disability
and gender divides.

Snehalaya English Medium School
Our English Medium School was set up in 2010, primarily to provide
education to our Rehab Center children who were struggling in mainstream
school as their HIV medication and restricted health affected their
concentration and attendance. Our curriculum accommodates their special needs
and focusses on play-based activities and interactive learning through sports
and the arts. We have also opened our doors to children from our slum and local
communities, many of whom have been excluded from other schools or faced
bullying due to their backgrounds or social standing, with the aim of improving
social integration and acceptance.
We provide education up to 7th standard for 222 children aged 5 to 15,
and have capacity to build this right up to 12th standard, after which they
will be encouraged to continue onto higher education. By understanding and
adapting to their different needs we are seeing improved academic performance
from our children.

Balbhavan
Urban slums are breeding grounds for serious social issues like child
labour, malnutrition, child marriages, addiction, HIV-AIDS and human
trafficking for sexual exploitation. The children living in our city slums are
often exposed to domestic violence, peer pressure and violent community brawls
and often lack the attention of parents who are burdened with their own
struggles for survival and rely on their child’s labour to supplement the
family income.
Our Balbhavans are unique models of social change for children living
in seven of Ahmednagar’s slums and another in Pune. Based in community hubs our
staff are positioned to get to the heart of the issues and provide solutions.
They conduct regular surveys identifying issues such as children missing school
and work with them and their families to encourage them to get the education
that will be key in breaking the cycle of poverty.
Playgroups, after school tuition for older children, health check-up
camps, self-help groups, education on the consequences of addictions and child
marriage, and sports and cultural activities all help build communal harmony,
health, hygiene and educational attainment.
Over 700 children are currently attending our extra-curricular classes
and to date over 20,000 slum-dwellers have enjoyed access to our other support
services.

Case study

IT Center
Less than 1% of rural households in India own a home computer with
internet access. With IT skills being a growing and necessary requirement for
government and other professions, our IT Center allows those without a computer
the facilities and training courses that will enable them to apply for these
skilled jobs. We have been providing subsidised and free computer education to
young people from red light districts, slums and rural areas, women in our
rescue shelter and people from other lower socio-economic backgrounds since
2009 and many of our graduates are now successfully employed.
​Our classes cater to all levels, from the basics of word processing
and creating an email account to more specialised courses in photoshop and
computer aided design. Students can also undertake the state certificate in IT
which qualifies them to apply for well-paid and secure government positions.



REHABILITATION PROJECTS are a necessary step for our beneficiaries, many of whom have
survived incredibly dangerous situations that have caused untold physical
and psychological harm. The resilience of the human spirit is remarkable,
inspiring us to tackle the social issues that create and perpetuate cycles of
harm and pioneer strong social change.
When AIDS first hit in the 1980s we offered ‘death with dignity’ as
people fell in the dust.  Now, we are proud to promote ‘life with
dignity’, treating all of our beneficiaries with respect and without judgement.
While our core mission is to support those rescued from the sex industry or
with HIV related needs, we have extended our services to other marginalized and
vulnerable groups, who left unaided could fall into these target groups.

​​Rehab Center
The children of commercial sex workers living in red lights areas are
often denied a childhood as they are exposed to their mother’s profession and
associated addictions, violence and child labour. While girls are groomed in
the business, boys often become pimps.
Our flagship project provides foster care to 250 children of sex
workers, minors rescued from the sex trade and children orphaned by and/or
living with HIV. Unfortunately, many of our children arrive in poor health due
to poor nutrition and lack of understanding of how to administer ART
effectively. Our ‘Home of Love’ offers shelter, education and vocational
training as well as an on-site school and HIV Hospital with free and closely
monitored ART. It is also home to our long-term women’s shelter and head
office.
Our children live happy, active and healthy lives, attending school
and evening revision classes and taking part in extra-curricular sports,
cultural programmes and recreational activities. They are able to access
counselling and play their part in a democratic child parliament that allows
them to raise any issues and play an active role in managing their home
environment.

GKN
Despite the fact that for many of our children we provide the only
family they have ever known, we are only licenced by the government to look
after them until they reach age 18 when they are considered to be adults. While
we aim to place as many as possible in college, back with their relatives or in
suitable employment with accommodation provided, for many this is not an
option.
Our GKN Center, a few kilometres from our Rehab Center, provides
short-term dormitory accommodation and food for over 18s who have secured
employment in local industries. Live in staff provide support and pastoral
support as the youngsters learn how to become independent adults.

Biofarm
Encouraging sex workers to leave a profession where they earn quick
money and have developed addictions to alcohol and tobacco is difficult.
Despite the challenges their profession brings and the social stigma attached
to it in many cases they cannot see an alternative. People living with HIV also
face prejudice and their ART medication weakens them, making holding down a job
and providing for their families extremely difficult.
Our Himmatgram or ‘Hamlet of Courage’ stands in 25 acres of arable
land on the outskirts of Ahmednagar, complete with its own poly tunnel, well
and reservoir. This biofarm has become a community for former sex workers and
HIV+ beneficiaries ready to make a new life for themselves and their families.
Here they learn how to become self-sufficient in a rural setting, gaining
skills in organic farming, crop rotation, irrigation and dairy farming.
Our live-in project manager ensures they receive all the support they
need to farm their own produce with the excess going to supply our Rehab
Center. He also counsels them through their transition to rural life, medical
treatment and respite care – the farm has become their family home.

Childline
Over 100,000 children are reported missing every year in India with
45% remaining untraced. Abductions and kidnappings by family and non-family
members, child marriages, runaway, trafficked and lost children are among many
more cases not even reported.
​We were the first toll free telephone line and listening service for
children to call in India and are still recognised as the number 1 best managed
service in the country’s national network of 499 Childlines. ​​Over 300 calls are received from our district every day, from children
themselves or concerned adults who consider a child to be at risk.
Our team responds swiftly to investigate every call, working with
local emergency services to rescue any child in danger. We are unique in also
conducting day and night patrols of transport hubs, buses and trains passing
through our district, temples and other areas where runaways or abducted
children and abandoned babies end up. Our extensive network of volunteers also
plays an essential role in reporting those in vulnerable situations and helping
provide vital outreach work auditing health and education facilities in slum
areas and raising awareness of the 1098 number.
​We have taken on nearly 9,000 cases since 2003, including a landmark
case which exposed 20 high profile figures as paedophiles: all were prosecuted
and all received double life sentences.

Adoption Center
It’s unknown exactly how many babies are abandoned each year in India
but it is known that over 90% of them are girls. Babies are abandoned for many
reasons: victims of rape or unmarried mothers fearing recriminations, being
unable to financially support a child or simply not wanting another girl in the
family.
Many babies are left at our center, but our Childline team and
volunteers also bring us babies found abandoned in public places, sadly
sometimes they are found too late. Many of the infants who survive are very
fragile and/or premature and require hospitalisation and intensive care.
Fortunately, most survive and we start the process of searching for their
family and if found counsel them on the next steps. Our adoption process finds loving
families for those unwanted and we’re with them every step of the way ensuring
a safe and smooth transition to their new home.
​Since we opened our doors in 2004 we have successfully rescued and
saved the lives of over 500 babies, adopting them under a government approved
and accredited process. We have also played a key role consulting on the
government’s proposed new adoption guidelines.

Womens’ refuge
​According to India’s National Crime Records Bureau a crime against women is recorded
every three minutes, two women are raped every 60 minutes and a young married
woman is found beaten to death, burnt or driven to suicide every six hours.
Violence against women includes
foeticide, infanticide, medical neglect, child marriages, bride burning, sexual
abuse, forced marriage, rape, prostitution and sexual harassment at home and
the work places and their abusers include in laws as well as partners.
The first free telephone helpline in India for Female Sex Workers
(FSW) is now open to all women and our short and long stay safe houses provide
legal aid, refuge and alternatives to those experiencing harassment,
discrimination and domestic violence. Telephone counselling offers legal advice
and support, our short-stay home gives women medical care, shelter, counselling
and guidance to deal with the immediate issues and we also provide long-stay
alternatives, including vocational training and education, for those unable to
return home.
​In five years, we have provided safe haven to over 1,000 women in
Ahmednagar and have recently opened another shelter in Pune.


AWARENESS PROJECTS are pivotal
in raising the plight of our beneficiaries, challenging social
stigmas, raising funds, recruiting staff and volunteers, and holding
government and judiciary to higher standards. In addition to our regular
grassroots outreach we have hosted a number of awareness raising campaigns, and
established a network of advocates and partners around the globe. 
Our campaigns have raised awareness for women’s
education, violence against women, human trafficking, and HIV and AIDS. We
are currently challenging the recent changes in adoption law (CARA) which has
drastically relaxed the background checks of prospective adoptive parents,
putting children at risk of trafficking and abuse.  

Yuva Nirman
The youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow and young Indians have
an increasing social conscience that we want to encourage and support.
Twice a year we welcome the next generation of social workers and
activists to attend a three-day conference to learn more about our work and
discuss social issues. High profile guest speakers, such as Anna Hazare,
inspire and debate their work with attendees covering subjects as diverse as
human rights law, violence against women, child protection and the power of
social media. The programmes not only raise important issues in our wider
community, they also encourage social work as a subject and as a vocation.
​These are complemented by one-off activities such as environmental
clean ups, rallies and aid work following natural disasters. In 2015, a small
team of our youth volunteers were among the first on the scenes distributing
relief, clothing and blankets to victims of the Chennai floods. 
Through this programme we have already engaged with over 5,000 youths,
some of whom are have gone up to set up their own projects supporting our
beneficiaries.

Radio Nagar
In rural India, radio remains the most popular media directly reaching
out to our target communities. Radio Nagar is the first community radio station
in Ahmednagar, broadcasting in our local Marathi language 24/7. Through
entertaining features on local and topical issues and popular Marathi and Hindi
music, we reach and serve the people of Ahmednagar giving them a community
focused forum.
Broadcasts focus on and raise awareness of our work and wider social
issues, allowing us to promote our helplines and services as well as debating
issues affecting our listeners. Guest interviews, talk shows and phone-ins,
events coverage and shows hosted around our campaigns raise our profile and
showcase local talent. Youth-led programmes build greater social awareness
within their own peer groups, building on our ​400,000 listeners within a 25km radius.

Earth Studio
Our on-site vocational training center provides a creative and
rehabilitative space for our beneficiaries to learn and build upon their
artistic and commercial skills. Bringing out their creativity through art and
taking part in group work also provides a sense of belonging and something to occupy
their minds. The space in our Rehab Center is one of the most relaxing places
on campus, surrounded with beautiful and colourful Ganeshas, jewellery, bags,
block printing clothing and clay work.
While the therapeutic benefits of making the items pays dividends, our
beneficiaries works are also available for sale providing them a small income
and the experience in managing budgets, production and marketing.

Case study

Smile project
It’s reported that Indian girls typically miss
around 20% of the school year due to menstruation and many women remain
housebound during their monthly cycle. It’s proven that access to low cost,
locally appropriate sanitary products improve women’s health, nutrition,
wellbeing, school attendance bringing long-term health, social and economic
benefits.
Our small Smile manufacturing plant produces maternity and regular
sanitary pads for our own beneficiaries with the surplus available to be sold
to local markets. The hygienic production facility in our Rehab Center uses
locally-sourced materials and is run by a project manager who supervises staff
made up of our older girls and residents of our women’s shelter. Being able to
produce these products ourselves saves considerably on the expense of
purchasing them and the income the workers receive is helping them to become
financially independent.

Agricultural Training Center
Covering a largely
rural district, many of our beneficiaries come from farming communities and
have been forced to seek our support due to the impact of drought or economic
migration. Therefore, we have partnered with Syngenta Foundation India (SFI),
which works to develop Indian agriculture and the welfare of farmers, with an
Agricultural Training Center providing sustainable agricultural employment for
young people.
The center delivers
employability-orientated training for farming technicians through a 45-day
residential Agriculture Technology Assistant (ATA) course. Students will learn
how to apply the rapidly emerging technological developments that are helping
to increase productivity in agricultural and related fields. Located adjacent
to our bio-farm, class-based learning is complemented with practical sessions
in the field. Backed by the Government of India, the aim is to create a new
generation of agri-entrepreneurs and agriculture technology assistants with the
functional knowledge and skills to apply agricultural technology in rural
farming communities.
What are the main
difficulties that people with affected by AIDS have to face in India?
There is still a huge stigma attached to HIV/AIDS in India which
manifests itself in many ways. Despite the vast number of people living with
the condition, there is still a lack of education and awareness about it.
People living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) are still outcast from their families and
communities, we have many stories of women and children seeking refuge with us
because their families and employers have abandoned and refused to support
them.
We also admit many to our hospital in critical health, not because they
don’t have access to the life-saving ART medication (it is provided by the
government) but because they or their families don’t know how to administer it
properly and they have succumbed to opportunist infections as a result. This
stigma also applies in hospitals and clinics where PLHA are either refused or
given substandard treatment through fear of infection and ignorance of the
facts surrounding the condition.
In a country where marriage
plays a huge role PLHA face difficulties in finding partners which is why we
arrange an annual matchmaking event for them, helping them to find partners
also living with HIV/AIDS. To date we have matched 38
couples.
Infection continues to rise because women cannot refuse sex with their
husbands who may be having sex with other partners of prostitutes, they also
cannot ask them to wear condoms.

In what ways do do raise awareness about health issues and how civil
society has been responsive so far?
We provide free condoms to all of our sex workers and have an extensive
outreach programme to help educate all levels on society on the realities of
HIV/AIDS and to bust the myths surrounding it. This is conducted by our field
workers and peer educators.
Our annual AIDS week activities engage with local educational
institutions through poster competitions and talks to young people and we
always secure a lot of press coverage.
We work in villages where education on health is more limited conducting
health camps and awareness raising activities.
Our Himmatgram and vocational training education offers alternatives to
sex workers at high risk of infections.
Our radio station, Radio Nagar broadcasts within a range of 25km
reaching an audience of 400,000 listeners. Their regular programming includes
many interviews, discussion and myth busting around health issues and promotes
our activities, events and broader work. We also work with local newspapers and
television companies to promote our work which regularly features in their
publications and broadcasts. Our youth camps twice yearly also cover health
issues in their programmes.
Our Childline and Snehadhar (women’s shelter) teams have a regular
outreach programme working within schools and colleges to spread awareness of
various initiatives, including sexual health and HIV/AIDS.
Fortunately, there has been a gradual shift in the mindset of society in
regards to PLHA thanks to Indian government support and awareness raising and
the work of NGOs. By being more open we have seen a 20% reduction in people
stigmatising them in the past three years and instead seeing them as victims
rather than untouchables. Government benefits and incentives including free ART
medication, the Sanjay Gandhi Nirardar Yojna scheme which pays PLHA Rs750
monthly, housing schemes and 50% discounts on public transport means more
people are accessing support and the public are becoming more aware of and
sympathetic to the condition.

Do you cooperate with local authorities and institutions? If yes, how?

We work with several government agencies and organisations including
NGOs. We work with high risk and other groups including medical officers,
counsellors, other relevant professional and project staff and key influencers,
hosting focus group discussions, counselling, 1-2-1s and seminars about health
issues. We offer free healthcare, shelter, counselling, moral support, support
networks and information for those infected. We also establish and run advocacy
groups with legal advisors, the police, local leaders, supporters, donors,
medical officer, government officers and women’s groups. Our work with sex
workers is supported by the Maharashtra State AIDS Control Society (MSACS) and
our project was recognised with an award for our outstanding work in HIV/AIDS
education and prevention on World AIDS Day 2016. 

Related Posts

Afghanistan – eine muslimische Mosaikgesellschaft

August 22, 2021

Afghanistan and its annihilated future

August 18, 2021