A cultural buffet for the children of Calcutta's sex workers

But climb up a dark, narrow staircase, wet with monsoon rain, and you step into a completely different world. Children here squat on the mat and are busy painting landscapes, their colours joyful and abundant. Art college students and teachers are at hand to guide them. Soon the class is over and the dance teacher takes over—the girls of the group break into an impromptu dance number the moment the teacher switches on Tagore’s Tasher Desh on the record player. The boys, in the meantime, are busy practicing their mime numbers. Welcome to a happier world amidst filth and guilt—all these are children of sex workers in the area.

The guiding force behind this non-formal learning centre is Jabala Action Research Organisation, an ngo working with Calcutta’s deprived children since 1995. Even the organisation’s name is significant—Jabala was a single mother in the Mahabharata who taught her son Satyakam never to lie. These children are no different. One look at them and it is hard to believe that there are so many wrongs in their life. Like other children of their age, they too crave for material things—like space for a study table in their house—and for parents who could take them out for holidays. But they are not complaining. Take, for instance, Bula, a class IX student. "I want to become a dance teacher," she says, trying hard to hide her dimpled smile. Or, Abir, who wants to become an artist one day. Says he: "There are difficulties, but we must overcome them." Jabala has given expression to countless such dreams, after taking many children under its wing from the pre-primary stage. Says Baitali Ganguly, secretary and a founder-member: "It is love and acceptance these children crave for."

Like many other similar projects involving sex workers, Jabala too has its roots in the hiv/aids intervention programmes of the ’90s. The organisation’s low-profile journey began half-a-decade ago with the premise that since those who are already in the profession don’t have an option "to go back", rehabilitating their children was the alternative so that the second generation is not caught in the same web. Says Ganguly: "The programme helps develop the finer human instinct which would automatically reject all that’s ugly and unwelcome. You can call it cultural therapy." With minimal resources, Jabala started with an experiment to gauge whether personal involvement, rather than financial largesse, could effect change. Performing art as a means to express the latent love for beauty was encouraged since the beginning. And today, the experiment has borne fruits—the children are often invited for performances and some of them have even appeared in TV shows. Many of these children regularly contribute poems and stories to magazines and their greeting cards have many ready corporate buyers.

Jabala’s motto is simple—to give these children a normal childhood in normal houses. The children look forward to the weekend picnics to the park and the museum and the ‘phuchka’ (golgappa) they are treated to on the way back. Inspired by the results, and the changes in the lives of many, Jabala has now started working in two other red-light areas on the same model—empowerment by encouraging of creative expression. It is also keen to start a crisis intervention centre, a shelter for troubled children, a halfway home where a child is safe from abuse.

The scars of the past may still be fresh in their mind, but these children are already dreaming of a promising life. And their confidence cannot be mistaken for anything else. "We want to do something," is their collective assertion. Jabala can be contacted at: Jabala Action Research Organisation. 9, Bank Colony, Dhakuria, Calcutta 700031; Phone: 4833408; Fax 4648902; e-mail: jabala_j @hotmail.com