Educating youth of Red light area, New Delhi

GB road is one of the largest red light areas in the country famous for sex trade and trafficking. It has a large and strong nexus of pimps and traffickers, forcing innocent and vulnerable girls and women for sex trade. While the women in sex work are into the business, it is their children and growing teens vulnerable for trafficking. 

To stop and prevent the second generation teens from entering sex trade and offer livelihood opportunities to the youth living within and nearby area, Aide et Action, an International NGO with the support of Microsoft initiated iLEAD Youthspark centre that provides livelihood training to the dropout youth in GB Road. The coordinator for the centre is Mrs Neelam Singh, a post graduate in Social Work playing a very key role in motivating youth to enroll in iLEAD. 

 The place where the centre is being operated is unsafe and uncertain for women, as there is risk for uneventful situations, says Neelam. The road from where I enter the lane is usually jam-packed with traffic. Women living nearby the area travel outside only after covering their body with Burqa (clothing that cover the human body except eyes).

 “At the age of 40 plus years, I felt uncomfortable with the looks of men, as they misinterpreted for a sex worker due to the environment in GB Road. This made me wonder how girl students will feel to come to the centre”, she says. 

 Whenever, there was community mobilization drive, parents were interested to enroll their wards in the course, but would taken aback after knowing the name of the location and cancel the admissions. They used to narrate stories of GB Road and the kind of impact it can have on their children, she says.

“Initially I was bold and firm about my decision to work in GB Road, but after facing few experiences, I was unsure if my decision was right”, says Neelam. I spoke to my husband, family who encouraged and supported me to stop worrying about the stigma and work for the betterment of the society, she adds.

“It was around that time, I made a bold decision to keep things aside and seriously work for the society and bring a change in the community”, says Mrs Neelam. I heard many stories where people work in the remotest areas of the country, and kept moving. 

“I visit homes of the youth nearby GB Road, interact with parents and motivate them to send their children to institute. After seeing the confidence and understanding the advantages of the iLEAD centre, parents started sending students to us”, a change that overcomes stigma, she says. 

The real challenge comes in convincing the parents who are into sex trade as they don’t want their children to be identified as children of sex workers. “A lot of counseling was done to parents and children after which they finally realized the advantage of joining in the centre”, she says. This stops the youth from entering second generation sex work and choose a livelihood option that provides them a dignified life, says Neelam with a gleam in her eyes.