The Red Light District Told With Dignity

Guest Blogger: Rosa Diaz, 3rd-Year Part-Time Student, OCAC


“Should the borders of our games become the borders of our mind?”
-TATA Institure Student PSA



Some say that India does not look pretty. In fact, if you drive around Mumbai, you are consistently assaulted with the smells of a city and too many inhabitants for its infrastructure. There are stark differences here. You will often see recently constructed buildings that stand in all their modern glory next to a shanty home. Yet, the starker moments are visible when we visit social service organizations in the community that work with the most dispossessed populations.

To put it into context our course assigned readings reflect on issues such as poverty, women empowerment, etc. We also have the privilege to be taught courses in the morning by esteemed faculty of the TATA Institute of Social Sciences. Every day is different and meant to reinforce our learning process, yet nothing truly prepares one for the multiple layers of existing realities in Mumbai.

We learned about power today and the role of a social change filmmaker in relation to its subject. This filmmaker possesses the power to tell someone else's story while holding the responsibility of representing their subjects with dignity. I began to think about our responsibility to India and its people. We are currently in the midst of discovering the many layers that exist within India’s society, but as the fourth day turns into the fifth I realize we have only touched the surface. Which then leads one to ponder how to best tell these stories of India responsibly without misrepresenting them due to borders we have created in our minds.

Every second in India has shifted and/or erased one of my mental borders. A major shift occurred today when we were introduced to Mumbai’s largest red light district.
We had seen poverty....
We had seen poverty....
We had seen poverty....
Or at least I thought we had.

“Na Hi” (No)

We were introduced to a sub alternative reality in India, a reality that is worth retelling with dignity. The foray into the red light district was intimidating given that it was “almost business hours” and the streets were buzzing with energy. We were escorted by Preeti, the director of programs at Kamthipura Municipal School, at an organization that works with children whose parents are workers in the red light district. Walking through the red light district, Preeti instructed us to never make eye contact with men. Preeti was a tiny bursting light of energy, dressed in a pink tunic, and a dimply smile that would more likely make friends of enemies. As she walked through the district, she greeted women yelling across the street, and it was clear that she was in her territory. I was in awe.

Many of the borders of our mind have told us that women don’t have freedom in this beautiful country. However, we fail to see that freedom’s definition is different given each country’s context. This young woman was living proof that India has taken many steps into a direction; where a young Indian woman runs a Night Care and Education Center for children of victims of Sexual exploitation.

The dynamite within her infused the conversation and made us open our minds to a new reality. Children of victims of sexual exploitation were silent victims too. Unfortunately, the problem of sexual slavery and sexual exploitation remains, even with the best efforts to capture all pimps and madams of brothels. The organization was not looking to solve the bigger problem of sexual slavery because India has many organizations working within this arena. Their main concern was keeping the children with their mothers, educating them and providing a safe place to stay at night while their mothers work. They have thought two or three steps ahead to make sure victim’s children do not get trapped, sold, and/or prostituted out to anyone.

The model of this center made sense. However, why were they the only ones to come up with the idea? Why had no one thought about addressing the situation from this humanistic perspective? I wonder how our misconceptions of what we deem prostitution shapes the borders of how we think of victims and their children. India has given me and my classmates much to ponder.

The beauty of India at the end of the day is that people like Preeti exist. Along with her, there are 140 beautiful children who get serviced everyday by this organization. And of the students who have received help from this organization over the last 20 years, 72% of them have gone on to receive their bachelors degree.

The beauty of India seems to be an existing flexibility in continuum's of time and space. It is a place where red light district kids flourish into college going adults. It may not be what we know. But it is beautiful. It is a positive humanistic change, and India is leading the way.