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Escaping Mumbai’s red light Zone,Teenager flies for US degree

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Mumbai : Shweta Katti grew up in Mumbais red-light district, Kamathipura. Born to a devadasi she dreamed of travelling abroad and getting an education. Her immediate goal is to study psychology, with the plan of helping women who have been traumatized by conditions of sexual abuse.

A dark childhood

Her mother was forced to move out of her small village in Belgaum in Karnataka to Mumbai due to poverty. During her childhood, Shweta and her mother lived above a brothel, tolerating an alcoholic and abusive stepfather.

After moving to Mumbai, her mother had a live-in relationship with another man, who accepted the child and gave her his surname. As Katti reminisces about her formative years, she has a faraway look in her eyes. “Growing up in Kamathipura wasn’t easy. My father was an alcoholic, so my mother used to work in a factory. I studied at the local municipal school. I had to reach home before 8 pm, as the streets would be crowded at nights teeming with customers. There were frequent police raids and I would often see sex workers running in nighties to escape the cops. When I was 10 years old, men would proposition me.”

However, she adds that life in the red-light area was also replete with some good moments. “As my mother would work from 9 am to 7 pm, the sex workers would dress me up for school and take care of me once I returned,” she smiles.

Dreams come true

Newsweek magazine named Shweta one of “25 Under-25 Young Women To Watch” along with Malala Yousufzai for her efforts to uplift young girls who are marginalized. Being brought up in Mumbais biggest red-light area, Kamathipura, did not discourage Shweta from dreaming big.

Today, this 19-year-old has not only completed her graduate education, she is poised to study psychology in New York so that she can return to Kamathipura to help women overcome the trauma of sexual abuse.

They have offered her a $30,000 scholarship that covers her tuition fees for the year, as well as half her accommodation cost. If Chaurasiya is to be believed, this would make Katti the first girl from Mumbais red-light district to travel to the United States for education.She will begin her term at Bard in September this year.

Kranti

Robin Chaurasiya, an American of Indian origin, and Trina Talukdar, along with Chaurasiyas partner Katie Pollom, started Kranti, a non-governmental organisation that works towards the rehabilitation of girls from Mumbais red-light area. Shweta Katti is one of them.

Katti was introduced to Kranti when she was looking for a place to study for her Class 12 exams. Over the year and half since she is been with them, she has become the face of the NGO, travelling around the country, addressing conferences and promoting Kranti.

A better life

Katti has charted out her future plans clearly. She confesses that after returning to India she plans to run a therapy centre for sex workers and their children. Ask her about her current frame of mind, and she says, “I want to enjoy my life and lead it the way I want to. But most importantly, I want to give a comfortable life to my mother, who is the most significant person in my life.”

Shwetas success will be an inspiration for literally millions of young women. Directly confronting the social stigma associated with Indias exploitative sex-work industry, Shweta is living proof that no persons worth and potential need be limited by their gender, caste, complexion, parents occupation, or where they come from.

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