kalighat, kolkata

A girl is born in Kolkata, India. Her family is poor, so they decide to sell her into the sex trade, in spite of her ranking at the top of her class and dreaming of becoming a doctor one day. At fourteen she is now enslaved to a pimp. She spends her days serving clients who often beat her and infect her with sexually transmitted diseases. With decisions about contraceptives in the hands of her customers, she will soon become a mother.

A girl is born in Nepal. A scout visits her village advertising housekeeping opportunities in Delhi. Her family is poor, so they decide she would be better off hundreds of miles away, despite the heartbreaking distance. This girl and this scout never make it to Delhi. Instead they head straight for Kalighat - a red light district in Kolkata - where she is immediately thrown into her new life as a sex worker. After a violent initiation, she is taught complacency through tactics that intimidate and scare. Within the narrow alley ways of Kalighat, she is forced to reconcile the grim and dangerous demands of client, pimps and madams.

These are the women and children of New Light.

new light

New Light is Anchal’s first partner based in the Kalighat red light district of Kolkata, India. Their headquarters are located in the same neighborhood as one of the most sacred Hindu pilgrimage sites, the Kali Temple, and Mother Teresa’s Home for the Destitute and Dying. This is one of the oldest red light areas of Kolkata, housing sex workers from Kolkata, other regions of West Bengal and neighboring countries such as Bangladesh and Nepal. Many of the sex workers living here have been trafficked or coerced into the trade by their families.

The mission of New Light is to promote gender equality through education and life-skill training, thereby reducing harm caused by violence against women and children. New Light, a secular nonprofit charitable trust, set up a creche-cum-night-shelter to protect and educate young girls, children and women at high risk. The program has been operating for the last six years and provides a safe shelter, educational opportunities, recreational facilities, health care and legal aid for the children, girls and women in their community.

Learn more about New Light: www.newlightindia.org

sonali: anchal artisan, kolkata