Building a Campaign
       Interactive session with Alok Goswami, Sanlaap 

[Ed. There was an initial round of introduction followed 
by some quick comments by Alok.]

The first right of a child: Love. The first qualification to work for
a child: I should feel for the child.  A child does not have any
nationality or religion.  Children are children.  We should not brand
children into street children, sex-worker's child etc. 

My experiences with Sanlaap:

The genesis was in mid-80s, initially there were 4-5 women and I was
the sole male.  I was working in the corporate sector.  Whatever I am
today it is because of the society so we have to do something for the
society.  We decided to work on women and child issues because they
are deprived the most in our society.

To build a successful campaign:

1. It should come from within- if you want to work with the child then
   you should love the child.  You should feel from the child and
   realize that children can not be branded.
2. Identify the problem
3. Identify the resources you possess
4. Survey 
5. Identify the area where you want to work: Rural vs Urban
6. Mobilize the community- police, youth,

Where do we want to work? Rural Vs Urban

A basic survey needs to be done.  We collected survey sheets from
other groups and modified it.  We went to 14 red light areas: What do
they have, what they do not have, health status, hygiene, their status
in the society.  The first thing we felt was that the pain. Our
direction was decided.  We were going to work on the issue or
prostitution for it is the worst kind of violence.

Chandralekha (Rah/Asha): In her village, poverty drives most of the
parents to send their child /girls into prostitution. Education is
important for eradication of prostitution.  When the girls are
educated, they will be able to protest about the violence.  In my
village when a girl was educated till Inter (Standard 11), she was
able to tell her parents that she did not want to enter into
prostitution.  Therefore education is very important for girls.

Rambabu (Rah/Asha): Education is important but a campaign is also
needed.  It can not be just in one village.  There has to be wider
campaign to involve every one.  My mother was in the profession.  When
I was in college, people/students used to point out that I was the son
of a prostitute.  What could I do?  We talk amongst ourselves and we
would like to talk to other and I am sure a solution would emerge from
all this.

Mr. Manavade: When prostitution is a social evil, why there is no law
to make it illegal or make it a crime?

Harleen Wallia: It is one of those grey areas in our legal system : It
is not declared illegal but neither does the law say that it is
legal. Because of the people involved in it, may be that is why GoI
has not thought of making it a crime.

Aparna: I wanted to relate my experience. We talk to the girls going
to school.  These girls are very vulnerable and therefore needed to be
involved in the campaign.  Media is also an important component. The
headlines sensationalize the issue instead of showing it as a crime.
The media needs to be sensitized.

Ajeet: I think we are tolerating the system.

Kamini Kumar: The school teachers need to be convinced.  Once we were
able to convince the teacher, we saw that the teacher herself reported
to us a case.  Teacher unions, school inspectors need to be convinced.
We get better response once we have convinced these authorities.  The
media glamorizes the film world.  The girls from the richer families
run away from home they want to become actors/models. And they get
trafficked.

Monica: How do you draw a line between the negative role of the police
and the positive role of the police.  How do you work with them when
they have such a negative image?

AG: We cannot work without the police.  We have found more helpful
police than unhelpful ones. But they have many constraints including
number of police deployed for the population.