Ending child prostitution in Benaras, including second generation servitude in the sex trade

How do you keep a prostitute’s child out of the business? The brothel owner, the Madam, accomodates the entire pregnancy of her earning asset, the prostitute. She is the one who will hold the baby in her lap while the prostitute is servicing the clients inside. The child grows up considering the Madam of the house like his mother. The prostitute sees this and her ties to the brothel, her sense of debt to the Madam of the house are further strengthened. She will not try to run away, leave the place where she is working.

Towards the end of the day, before food is served, children finally sit down in rows to meditate - they go from clapping, singing, laughing to restul meditation.

Photo credit: Guria India

How then is one to keep her child from entering into the same profession: a prostitute if the child is a girl and a pimp if he is a boy. This is a conundrum because pressure is brought upon the mother to facilitate this transition for her children. Though she may be resistant to the idea left to herself, she may be forced to give in because she does not see a way out. Isolated and surrounded on all sides by ‘well-wishers’ like the Madam, the traffickers, the pimps, a woman may very well allow her children to follow in her foot-steps.

Once a girl is a teenager, she is a potential earning asset for the brothel and can be recruited. In the process, she may well be moved/sold to another place, distant from her mother’s place of work. Isolation is always an effective strategy to gain compliance. Being by yourself is equivalent to being helpless in most cases. This is where NGOs like Guria step in by being present on the spot, on location, in the red light area where it is possible to disrupt this cyle of exploitation.

Beauticians doing hair and others making mehndi (henna) designs on paper and on willing hands at the non-formal education center. All the children have lockers where they keep their own precious things.

Photo credit: Guria India

Guria works in two ways: by prosecuting brothel owners who are currently employing child prostitutes & by ensuring that the children of the prostitutes get an opportunity to study and have some healing from the trauma of witnessing their mothers who are employed in the trade. Both aspects of this job are very difficult to ensure.

Closing brothels where children are employed can only be done by going about it systematically: first gathering evidence (which is done at great risk to one’s own life and well being), then involving the police to conduct a raid which would take the girls out. These girls are then re-habilitated back to their families preferably (because the Shelter Homes are notorious) where they are set up with a means of livelihood so that the family is not again in great need. Girls receive counseling as well as their family members.

This beautiful stage was constructed by the children to represent a city.

Photo credit: Guria India

Since brothel owners are part of a criminal nexus, the people who are responsible for closing their brothels receive threats and may be killed. This is a risk that has to be carried by the people who take up the onus of closing brothels which employ children. However, this has been Guria’s work from the very start and continues till today, at (literally) risk of life and limb.

The second part of the job involves rehabilitating the children born to prostitutes in the red light district. Sivdaspur is the red light area in Benaras. Currently, it is 100% child prostitution free - the only red light district in all of India which can claim this distinction. This has been achieved thanks to Guria’s efforts. The intention is definitely to keep it this way. However, prostitutes in Sivdaspur may choose to have children, either one or two. This desire for children is a normal, human desire.

The shuttered door of a brothel that was running child prostitutes in Sivdaspur, Varanasi. It was finally closed after ardous efforts by Guria.

Photo credit: Guria India

The Madam of the brothel will allow the woman to have children. Thereafter, the mother will send her children to school and just like any mother, she does not want her children to follow in her foot-steps. With the assistance of Guria, she knows that she will be helped in sending her children to school.

351 children were admitted to schools whose education was sponsored by Guria. Apart from these 351 children, there are also many self-sponsored children whose parents agreed to pay for their education after being motivated by Guria. Most children of school-going age, in Benaras’ red light area, now go to schools, either government run or private.

By the end of the mediation class, some of the children - especially the little ones - fall fast asleep, after a whole day of studying and playing.

Photo credit: Guria India

Perhaps, just as important as formal schooling, is the non-formal education center being run by Guria within Sivdaspur since 1994. Scattered throughout this article are pictures of the center. It is a place that is largely a refuge for children who are otherwise exposed to so much in their homes and their neighborhoods. They know and understand their mother’s source of income that they too are dependent on; they know how society at large will look upon them. These are not easy things for children to process.

At Guria’s non-formal education center, a range of activities from dance, singing, playing, art therapy (clay work, bead-making, painting, handicrafts, hand-made cards, etc.), computer classes, theatre, photography, videography, sports, gardening, feeding birds, meditation, exposure visits, picnics, beautician training, sewing, meditation, laughing/shouting clubs - all these are part of providing a release to the children . It is a place where children are able to get together. They come after school and stay for hours on end, taking charge of their own routines and activities. The long summer holidays are also spent here and always, but always there is a great deal of reluctance to go home on the part of the children.

Drawing class in progress. Each child made their own individual unique creation - not just in drawing class but in all the handicrafts that I saw.

Photo credit: Guria India

This then is how child prostitution was brought to an end in Benaras by Guria’s efforts. This, however, is not a situation that can be left alone. It needs to be monitored and maintained over time. Otherwise, it would be all too easy for child prostitution to creep back in. This is also where an effective government would step in to maintain law and order. But as we have seen, the police and the judiciary are part of the criminal nexus; government bodies disinclined to enforce law and order. NGOs like Guria are necessary to maintain the humanity that should define our society, but is often - too often - lacking.