Children of Mumbai sex workers to perform at Brave Festival in Poland

From left Rupesh Tillu Manju Vyas and Kalyan Choudhury with the girls at Apne Aap Womens Collective Kamathipura PicAtul KambleTenyearold Shilpa daughter of a sex worker has never stepped out of the narrow confines of Kamathipura Therefore last week when Manju Vyas CEO of Apne Aap Womens Collective AAWC a citybased antitrafficking organisation told her that she would be travelling to Poland Shilpas first question was whether it was located close to Dadar Using a world map we helped them understand their current location and the country they would be heading to says Vyas a member of the NGO that seeks to empower sex workers and prevent the cycle of intergenerational prostitution among their daughtersThis June Shilpa and five other children from Kamathipura will attend the 25day Brave Festival in Poland that aims to introduce integrate and start a collaboration of artistic groups of children from different countries We have been teaching theatre to the children at AAWC centres in Kamathipura and Khetwadi since 2012 Gzregorz Bral founder of the Brave Festival had known about the project and decided to visit us last year He was so moved by their performance that he extended an invitation to the festival says Rupesh Tillu a fellow with Clowns Without Borders Sweden an organisation that offers humour as a means of psychological support to communities that have suffered trauma It was founded in 1996Humour to the rescueWhile the theatrical piece is rooted in reality Tillu wants it told minus the sobs Through a clowns perspective we will talk about what it means for a girl child to grow up in a redlight area like Kamathipura The idea is to inject humour into the piece because theres enough misery in their lives already adds Tillu who has been clowning for over 10 years The first time the children performed for an audience was in 2016 in a community hall in the area The children asked for their mothers to be present By the end of the show everybody was crying tears of joy the kids their mothers and us The mothers couldnt believe that their children were this talented recalls VyasIn the last two weeks Vyas along with other members of AAWC has been doing the rounds of government offices to get the childrens passports processed Acquiring documents and dealing with ambiguous family backgrounds have made their job far from easy We faced tremendous resistance from the families regarding the idea of going to Poland Many sex workers have livein partners who claim to be the father of the children and they take all decisions One man refused to allow the child to go He wanted to know how much she would be paid for it We had to make him understand that theres no money involved and its only for the welfare of the child says Vyas The age of the children at the centre ranges from eight to 15 While four girls out of the six live at the centre the remaining are enrolled for daycare only We first seek the mothers consent Once they realise that our intention is to protect the child they agree she addsClowning A creative outletKalyan Choudhury a 32yearold clowning artist and Tillus exstudent and colleague who visits the centre twice a week to provide drama lessons says theatre has played a cathartic role in the lives of the girls While some were violent initially others shied away even from speaking It took me months to break the ice with them he says The trick he soon realised was to shower them with affection Pampering thawed all the resistance because I learnt that all they need is love and attention Theres nobody to care for them he says He gives the example of nineyearold Sana who did not utter a single word for several months at the centre Ultimately I asked her to sit back and watch the others perform Slowly the shyness waned and she began to participate in the activities Today shes one of the most confident and talkative girls around he laughsNames of the girls have been changed to protect identityCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news current affairs from Mumbai local news crime news and breaking headlines hereDownload the new midday Android and iOS apps to get updates on all the latest and trending stories on the go