Telecon with Ajeet, Gudia 
                  June 24, 2003

Attendees: 
      Hansa Shah (Asha Princeton) (HS)
      Rana Nanjappa (Asha...) (RS) 
      D.P. Prakash (Burlington) (DP)
      Venkata Pingali (Asha "Unembedded") (VP) 

Notes: Venkata Pingali 


DP gave an overview of Sanctuary and reminded Ajeet of the 
Asha India conference at Timbaktu, India. 

DP: The idea is to see if there are common issues across organizations
    that deal with children of sex workers. Some outcomes include: 

    (1) This work with sex workers is life-threatening. Support of 
	various forms can be provided. 
    (2) Common action items can get backing from volunteers world wide
    (3) Best practices can be identified.         
    
AJ: [Ed. Agrees]. There is a lot of confusion [about this domain] and
    if the same thing is said by many people from different places, it
    provide sanctity to what we say. It will help clarify the problems
    to general public. 

    
DP: We want to have an informal meeting of projects that deal with 
    children of sex workers at Asha India conference at Assam this
    December. We have 6-10 projects. Can you come? 

[Ed. Ajeet agrees] 

HS: Do you have concerns about working with other projects? 

AJ: Not really. Organizations have a right to be different. But people
    are hell bent on calling women in prostitution sex workers and 
    want to legalize the trade. The reality is that they are forced 
    [by circumstances etc.]. It is a human rights issue. Legalizing 
    will dilute the point (exploitation) and the system will 
    continue. 

---------------------------

VP: What are something that we can help you with? 

DP: To explain VP's point: 
    
    (1) Whats the important thing that you need support for? 
    (2) How can we support education for children within this
	community?  

AJ: Three major areas (in the order of priority) 

    (1) Women in the business: Give them education, health, loans
	etc. Try to end the dependence on the racketeers. There is
	pressure from gangs and 

    (2) Prevention: Everybody is well connected. We need to involve
	the civil society for this. Two things: 
    
	(a) Within the redlight district: Empower the women to break
	    the power structure. They should prevent new women from 
	    entering. 

	(b) At the villages: Some villages are more prone to
	    traficking than others. 

HS: Regarding Bedia. Can you share your experiences? How much
    resistance did you face? How did women react? 

AJ: They understand but it is too late for them. They have little 
    liberty. They cannot leave the business because their relatives 
    are themselves running the business. I was not judgemental when 
    I entered Bedia. I have not invested any money. I am just living
    there. My stay is important for getting close to people. How did I
    approach them? 
	     (1) Education
	     (2) getting close to women. Eat/play/talk to them. 

VP: Are they aware of your objective? 

AJ: Yes. We organize cultural festivals respecting their tradition. 
    [On one such occasion] we showed them our centre. They are aware. 
    They want more and more programs and the entire village prepares
    for such programs. We dont ask about the roots of their
    tradition. 

RJ: You mentioned that you need support for the festivals. 

DP: Are you an Asha Fellow? 

AJ: No. Not now. There was funding only for 2-3 months or so. 

DP: Are you well supported now otherwise? 

AJ: Yes. ActionAid India is paying me. I need support for the
    festivals. AID India (Harish from Austin) promised support for 
    two out of the eight festivals. 

DP: VP can you work on a proposal for a festival? 

VP: Yes. 

VP: Ajeet, are there other areas of collaboration with Tomorrow's
    Foundation and TRY? 

AJ: The group at Sonagachi [Tomorrow's Foundation] can help trace
    girls. 

DP: We can help get online to get in touch with other organizations. 
    Do any of you want specific groups to participate? 

HS: Mathamma project in Chittor might be interested. There might be
    more. We will write to them. 

AJ: We can make action items at the conference.

Action Items: 
-------------
Sanctuary Group: 
 (1) Contact other groups
 (2) Facilitate the attendance of Ajeet and other groups.  

Pingali: 
 (1) Computer support for Ajeet
 (2) Festival proposal