A home for daughters of sex workers: 200 flat-owners have refused

In an incident that exposes inexplicable social stigmas against certain communities, 10 teenage girls were told to leave their rented flat in Mumbai only because they were daughters of sex workers.

Robin Chaurasiya is the co-founder of Kranti, the non-governmental organisation (NGO) which was looking after the girls and funding their education. In an interview with FirstPost, Robin said that the landlord put out the eviction notice two months ago.

MS Pavekar, the landlord of the three-bedroom flat in the Akurli Om apartment in Kandivali which was home to the teenage girls for three years, directly told the girls that they had to move out of the apartment because they were from a lower caste and class, according to Robin.

“He said that the girls don’t fit into the Indian culture,” said Robin, adding that Pavekar, along with some of the neighbours, had also said that the girls were a bad influence on their children.

One of the rooms in the apartment had been changed into a library containing over 1000 books. “We requested the owner to let us keep the books and other belongings of the girls in the apartment for some time. He has not said yes yet,” said Robin.

The girls, with help from the NGO, have been searching for a new shelter since the eviction notice came two months ago. Since that time, they have been rejected accommodation in about 200 flats in the city.

“We’d tell the owners about our NGO. But as soon as we’d show them the trust documents required for registration, they’d reject us,” said Robin, clearly pointing out that the owners would reject accommodation for the girls because of their mothers’ background which would show up because of the trust documents.

Robin said that for the next two weeks, some of the girls would stay with their mothers in the red-light area while others would stay temporarily in small rooms in places across Mumbai.

Robin will soon go to London to raise funds for the girls. She said that the NGO was planning to buy their own permanent home for the girls in about three years. But till that time, the girls would have to find a place available for rent.

This will be a tough task not only because of the social stigma against the girls but also because of the sheer lack of money to pay rent. Robin said that they had recently found a building in Juhu whose owner was willing to rent accommodation to the girls. But the owner, a police officer, has asked for a monthly rent of Rs 1 lakh. Currently, the NGO is trying to raise funds for getting accommodation in Juhu.

According to a report in The Indian Express, the girls study in a civic school near the building. “Even decades after our Independence in 1947, people’s narrow-mindedness hasn’t changed. It’s really sad that they still think that people like us cannot mingle with the so-called ‘normal ones’ only because of our backgrounds,” said one of the girls in the report.

“The sad part is that Mumbai pretends to be a metropolitan city. It’s actually like any other village in India with a backward mentality,” said Robin in the interview.