Priti And Praveen Patkar: Their Unmeasurable Love For The Children Of The Red Light District

Nothing is impossible for Priti and Parveen Patkar. Both of them work for people who lived in a whole different world than the one we live in. A child from that world is so insecure that he prefers to remain anonymous rather than be associated with it.

The couple who decided to dedicate their lives for others, Priti and Praveen Patkar; Image Source: Loksatta

A woman with a golden heart who has dedicated her entire life to providing social service for people who are not even considered members of decent society.

Though we live in this world peacefully, there is another world as well: the world about which no one wants to talk about. It is forbidden to even discuss them in a decent society. The place where if a girl goes, willingly or unwillingly, she is never again accepted, even by her parents, and she lives and gets buried there as well, namelessly.

The place is Kamathipura, one of the largest human trafficking places in Asia during the 80s and 90s India. It is located on the outskirts of the city of dreams, Mumbai. Who knew the city of dreams also had nightmares like Kamathipura? The people belonging to this place were not even considered normal citizens. Many girls every year get kidnapped and are forced into the flesh trade.

In this viscious world, a meek girl enters, Priti Patkar. The girl, born and brought up in Mumbai, decided to study social work and come to the place where humans are treated no less than animals because of her project. Looking at these women, she realises how hard life can be. This girl decides to help in whatever way she can.

An 18 or 19 year old walks in the streets of Kamathipura. A 14 lane area, with each lane having two to three buildings, and each building inside that, many brothels. The women were living in the pigeon holes, which had only one bed. This disturbed the mind of young Priti. She was supported in this campaign by her teacher, Praveen Patkar. She got married to him later and served their lives in this noble cause.

Priti was shocked to the core when she saw the lives of the children of prostitutes there. It was surprising to see that a municipal school was located in the middle of those 14 lanes and not a single child from the red light area was attending school.

She found three groups of children. One who was solely dependent on their mother was daily put to sleep under the bed by some drugs, and the mother provided the service there. The other group were a few 4 to 9-year-old kids who ran errands for the customers there. The last came the little older ones, age group 10-15, who were running behind taxis and rickshaws to invite the customers to their mothers or their aunts.

Priti and Praveen were determined to change the lives of these kids and wanted to give them the future that every kid deserves. But the fight had just started. Both of them had to go a very long way to protect these kids.

The children born there were assets to those who perpetuated viscous cycle of human trafficking. Kamathipura was then the only place where the birth of a girl child was celebrated no less than a festival. Yet it was for all the wrong reasons, and the boys born there replaced the older goons or pimps, and so it went on.

The first obstacle was to convince the women of the red light area that they are trust-worthy and will take good care of their children. Though the women agreed to Priti and Parveen Patkar’s proposal, they wanted to be a part of their kids' lives. The children needed to be away from the area in the evenings as the business starts at that time. Both of them decided to run a night care centre in Kamathipura. Purchasing the land and working on the construction was expensive as well as time-consuming. They had to move as fast as possible, so they came to the conclusion that they should get rooms in the municipal school after the school ends.

It was around the same time when the rights of children were discussed all over the world, but the children of prostitutes were not considered children. It was a lot more difficult to convince the educated officials than the uneducated prostitutes about the welfare of those children.

Facing all these hardships, both of them succeeded in setting up the world’s first night care centre, which took care of the children's studies as well. Thankfully, it was a huge success, and they ended up setting up some other night care centres as well. They not only made the lives of these children beautiful and made them live with dignity, but also the mothers were rescued as well.

Both of them founded an NGO called Prerna in 1986, which worked against human trafficking and rescued a lot of women and children. They both have come a long way and have to go a long way as well. Their story just doesn't end here.