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Apne Aap's Activities at a glance

  1. 1208 women, girls and children are members of Apne Aap.


  2. Apne Aap runs five Community Centers to provide education and health services to women and children in red-light areas and slums in Kolkata, Forbesgunge, Delhi and Bhiwandi.


  3. Apne Aap runs two night crèches at Bhivandi (Mumbai) and Khidderpore (Kolkata) for children of member in Prostitution.


  4. Apne Aap runs soup kitchens in the four red-light areas of Mumbai, Bhiwandi, Kidderpore and Forbesgunge.


  5. Consultations and trainings with Mumbai police to produce training manual to criminalize the Demand for trafficked persons.


  6. Art, narrative and dance therapy project for children in red-light areas.


  7. Exhibitions and workshops to raise awareness on trafficking, prostitution, HIV/AIDS, violence against women and children’s and women’s rights.


  8. Research, publications and documentaries on trafficking, prostitution, HIV/AIDS, and women’s rights.


  9. Three reintegration centers in Bihar, Mumbai and Kolkata to assist women who want to exit prostitution.


  10. Two resource and advocacy centers in Delhi and Mumbai to research and lobby for policy changes to end sex-trafficking.


  11. Open mikes for women in red-light areas to build leadership.


  12. Bal sabhas for children to articulate their needs.

Our Achievements

1. Five Community Centers in red-light areas and slums: activities carried out at our centers for our community members:

  • Nutritional supplement.

  • Educational support.

  • Dance Therapy.

  • Literacy Classes for women in prostitution.

  • Youth group discussion.

  • Vocational Training.

  • Workshops and Trainings for girls and children.

  • Crèche.

  • Health Camps.

  • Mothers’ Meeting.

2. Research and Advocacy:

  • Police training to end the Demand to trafficking.

  • Rallies in communities.

  • Celebration of festivals.

  • Film shows for women and girls.

  • Media work.

  • Research on health consequences of child prostitution, (ongoing).

  • Research on understanding the nature of men who buy prostituted sex ( ongoing).

  • Art therapy project (bookmaking) among children living in red-light areas.

3. Our Publications:

  1. The Place Where We Live Is Called A Red Light Area.

  2. Report of the Workshop on Corporate Social Responsibility: Addressing Trafficking in Persons.

  3. The Selling of Innocents: an Emmy award winning documentary film made by the founder Ms. Ruchira Gupta portrays the trafficking of women and children from Nepal to the brothels of Mumbai. Please contact to order the film .

  4. Posters.

    1. Stop Trafficking Now!.

    2. Did You Know?.

About Our Centers

Bhiwandi Community Center

  • Started on 1st October 2004.

  • Located in the red-light area of Hanuman Tegri, Indira Nagar and Bhiwandi of Thane district near Mumbai.

  • Caters to 53 women, 8 girls, and 49 children.

Activities:

  • Acts as a safe space for the women in prostitution.

  • Different vocational trainings, music and art to heal women’s trauma.

  • Basic Literacy classes to build a life outside the red light area.

  • Women and children are provided weekly free medical check up by qualified doctors.

  • A health card provided to take care of basic medical treatment.

  • Non-formal education, after school support and lessons in music and drawing given to 37 children of the red-light area.

  • Bridge courses given to a few to enroll in mainstream schools.

Forbesgunge Community Center

  • Located in a red light area 10 km away from Indo-Nepal border, Forbesgunge village, Araria district, Bihar. The area has Nutt community who are mainly in the profession of prostitution, dancing and organizing shows in Mela and street s at market place. Our Target group are the women in prostitution, their children and adolescent of their society.

  • Started on Independence Day, 15th August 2004.

  • Caters to 60 women, 45 girls and 52 children.

Activities:

  • School building been provided to the children in Forbesgunje.

  • 60 children in the area had been vaccinated by Apne Aap

  • 72 children of women in prostitution are enrolled in a non-formal school

  • Lessons given in Hindi, basic mathematics, general knowledge, drawing and music.

  • Simple vocational skills provided to the children in the age group of 10 to 15 years.

  • Every Wednesday, the health worker conducts immunization program for infants.

  • On an average 35 women and children attend a weekly medical clinic at Forbesgunge.

  • Already-identified-TB patients being brought under DOTS program.

  • Weekly sexual health awareness program with the adolescent girls and MCH program with the young mothers.

  • Vocational skills training are imparted to the women and adolescent girls at the center.

  • Rallies and celebration of major festivals and National days.
 

Khidderpur Community Center

  • Taken over by Apne Aap in December 2004 from Sanlaap.

  • Located in Munshiganj in the Khidderpur red-light area. Here we cater to two types of community. One is the women in red light area and other is women in slums. The women in prostitution here is mainly from Nepal, Bangladesh, Murshidabad. The slum community has mainly people from Bihar who are daily wage earners.

  • Caters to 47 women, 56 girls and 51 children. 

Activities:

  • Mahila Mandal

  • Kishori Mandal

  • Creche

  • Mothers meeting once a week

  • Weekly meetings of women in prostitution to sensitize on safe sex practices, health, hygiene and human rights.

  • Non-formal education, mime, physical education, recitation, music, dance lessons, after school help, tuition, and adult literacy for children

  • The youth are organized into a youth club.

  • The youth club provides recreational facilities, listeners' service, Information Education Communication (IEC) materials, and life skills education for in-school and out-of-school youth. 

  • Medical camps for youth have been used most effectively to impart knowledge of reproductive and sexual health.

A free eye camp, in collaboration with Dr. G.K.Saraf Memorial Charitable Trust.

Subhas Camp Community Center

  • Located in a pocket of extreme poverty in the midst of a relatively posh area, composed of migrant workers, daily wage laborers and housemaids and women in prostitution.

  • Started in September 2004.

  • 53 women, 42 girls and 287 children attending the center.

Activities:

  • 206 women and girls use the center as a safe haven for relaxing, literacy programs and vocational training.

  • Children are provided after school support and art and craft classes.

  • Training for women in stitching, mehndi application and computers.

  • 34 adolescent girls are enrolled in the literacy classes.

  • 32 in mehndi classes, and 112 schools going girls and 96 boys are accessing after school facility.

  • 11 women are into chalk making.

  • Weekly health clinics, training programs,

  • Screening of films for education through entertainment,

  • Polio immunization by administration of polio drops and subsidized medicine to the patients.

  • Diwali and Christmas celebrated in the center.

Topsia Community Center

  • Located at 1A, Biresh Guha Road, Kolkata, in a leather workers slum and as such women and girls over there are very vulnerable to be trafficked. The women and girls there are mostly rag pickers, and vegetable sellers.

  • Started in January 2004. 

  • Caters to 53 girls, 48 women and 71 children, mostly wives and daughters of relocated leather workers living on daily wages.

Activities:

  • Mahila Mandal for the women members visiting the center.

  • Kishori Mandal for the adolescent girls visiting the center.

  • Nutritional supplement

  • Weekly health clinics for 109 women, girls and children of the community by a professional medical practitioner- please check numbers

  • De-worming and other basic medicines free of cost to the patients.

  • Referrals to its members to visit other medical facilities.

  • Literacy, basic education, training on gender rights, communication, relationship skills and self esteem building is provided to adolescents girls.

  • The girls are trained in functional literacy, fashion designing, tailoring, making paper flowers, candles, jute articles and cooking by professional trainers

  • Providing nutrition supplement to all the girl members.

  • A crèche for 20 children aged 2 to 5 years

  • Mothers’ Meeting

ADVOCACY

Police training to address the Demand to trafficking

Apne Aap has had two rounds of consultations with the Mumbai police to criminalize the Demand for trafficked persons. The consultations will lead to a module and manual that can be used by NGOs and police anywhere to combat the demand for trafficking. Some of the issues that came up in the discussion were:

  • Challenges and ways of criminalizing the demand.

  • Discussion on the ways of using current laws and innovative practices, such as illegal confinement and rape laws – all the different civil and criminal laws – to shut down brothels and address demand in this way. (For example, the Immoral Traffic Act doesn’t address the buyers. When they raid the brothel, they rescue girls and women and take them to the police station.  Then, they let the women go, and they send the girls to the shelters. Police should be arresting the buyers).

  • Address recent attempts to legalize prostitution in India.

  • Planning to document Best Practices on addressing Demand.

  • Introducing methods used by other countries to address Demand.

  • Planning for pilot training and developing resource book to address Demand.

Art and narrative therapy project among children living in red-light areas called The Place where we live is called a red-light area

As part of Apne Aap’s “Think of the children” advocacy project, a series of workshops were designed based on an enjoyable, interactive non-curricular educational program to facilitate children of red light areas to write stories and draw pictures articulating their experiences. Supported by the West Bengal State AIDS Prevention and Control Society, Apne Aap worked with the children of Paschim Banga Krira O Janakalyan Parishad and Deepika Social Welfare Trust, from the red light areas of Kalighat and Sonagachi in Kolkata. The stories and illustrations that emerged from the workshops have been edited and are being published as an anthology. The book will be called “The Place Where We Live Is Called A Red Light Area.”

Our Publications

The Place Where We Live Is Called A Red Light Area:

As part of Apne Aap’s “Think of the children” advocacy project, a series of workshops were designed based on an enjoyable, interactive non-curricular educational program to facilitate children of red light areas to write stories and draw pictures articulating their experiences. Supported by the West Bengal State AIDS Prevention and Control Society, Apne Aap worked with the children of Paschim Banga Krira O Janakalyan Parishad and Deepika Social Welfare Trust, from the red light areas of Kalighat and Sonagachi in Kolkata. The stories and illustrations that emerged from the workshops have been edited and are being published as an anthology. The book will be called “The Place Where We Live Is Called A Red Light Area.”

Report of the Workshop on Corporate Social Responsibility: Addressing Trafficking in Persons

Apne Aap published the detailed report of the day-long workshop on Corporate Social Responsibility: Addressing Trafficking in Persons that it had organized in partnership with the U.S Consulate and The Confederation of Indian Industries to help other NGOs understand concepts of Corporate Social Responsibility. 

Posters

Stop Trafficking Now!

On the 18th of March 2004, Apne Aap organized a function for the release of the anti-trafficking poster “STOP TRAFFICKING NOW.” The Union Minister of State for External Affairs Mr. Digvijay Singh released the poster.

Films

Did You Know?

Ms. Ruchira Gupta, the Executive Director of Apne Aap, is an Emmy award-winning journalist who also made the web film “Did You Know?” on anti-trafficking for a workshop on Corporate Social Responsibility.

The Selling of Innocents

“The Selling of Innocents” an Emmy award winning documentary film made by the founder Ms. Ruchira Gupta portrays the trafficking of women and children from Nepal to the brothels of Mumbai. The film is also dubbed into Nepali, Hindi and Bengali. It is available for NGOs, academics and academia to use for advocacy purposes. For purchase, please send an email to: apneaap2003@rediffmail.com