Project Site Visit: Guria Swayam Sevi Sansthan, Shivdaspur (Varanasi), Uttar Pradesh, India March 2003
Rana Nanjappa – Volunteer, Asha for Education (Central NJ Chapter) . Guria Swyam Sevi Sansthan is an NGO based in Varanasi, India. Started by Ajeet Singh in 1993-94, its objective is to help prostitutes and their children by making them aware f their human and civil rights and offering them the choice of an alternate lifestyle. Towards this end, Mr. Singh has established a school for the children of the prostitutes of the Shivadaspur colony in Varnasi. Guria (or Gudiya) approached Asha for funds to build a school in the colony. After a complete review, Asha Central New Jersey approved a donation of $10,325 in February 2003. Rana Nanjappa, a volunteer with Asha CNJ went to Varanasi in March 200, visited the school and met with Ajeet Singh, the founder. This is his site visit report.
A block of cement on the wall constitutes the ‘blackboard’ for the current school	Guria School in Shivadaspur colony, Varanasi is run for the children of the prostitutes who live and ply their trade in the colony. The school educates the children, builds up their confidence so they may enroll in the local public schools, and gives tuition or supplementary schooling to those who already attend public schools. Thus, the school attempts to minimize and negate the sense of ostracism the children suffer while attempting to join the public schools and even after they do so.
Meet Ajeet Singh, the force behind Guria	Ajeet Singh, the founder of Guria met me at his parents’ house in Varanasi. Two rooms on the top floor of the house make up the office of Guria. He has an assistant who takes care of correspondence, phone calls and keeps up on activities and tracks publicity. A donated computer with Internet connection is in this office. Outside on the terrace was a pile of clothes donated for the children of the Guria School, waiting to be sorted and distributed to the children. Ajeet had me meet his parents, and I had to regretfully turn down their gracious invitation for a meal. We then got on Ajeet’s motorbike and went to the school a few kilometers away. Not having been on a motorbike in many, many years and not quite prepared for the traffic in Varanasi, it certainly felt like a lot of kilometers!
The school was in session by the time we got there. Two of the three teachers were present – teaching four groups of children. There were about eighty children, divided by age and proficiency. The school itself was a bare patch of land – a compound in a panchayat building. A steel gate, always closed for protection, was the only entrance. A huge banyan tree at one end afforded some shade. The youngest students, three or four years of age, were in a small shed used by the panchayat as a godown.
Ah Mathematics – the favorite subject J	The other three groups were by the banyan tree and close to the brick walls of the compound, which gave some shade. The blackboards were large smears of cement on the brick wall. There was a hand pump in the corner. The toilet was the open field across the road. The children were being taught Hindi, English and Math. The students were an enthusiastic group and took their teachers quite seriously. Some of them thought I was a new teacher and came up to me asking questions about their lessons! Some of them wanted me to listen to what they had learnt and sought my approval! Truly involved in learning.
Learning is Fun…lets try!!	The ages of the children ranged from three to about fourteen or fifteen. All of them had notebooks and pencils – donated to Guria by ActionAid and other donors. Guria receives aid from ActionAid, CRY and other private donors to defray their current expenses. Some of the children, particularly the older ones go to the local schools, but attend the Guria School for extra classes – or tuition. The school itself had three sessions per day; two in the panchayat land and one later, on the verandah of a house in the nearby prostitutes colony in Shivadaspur.
I met and spoke to the two other teachers in the school. One was a young lady – a college graduate from Bengal. She was a SOS student herself; that is, brought up and schooled in an orphanage. She joined Guria “to give back what she had got from SOS”. Very dedicated and enthusiastic. The other teacher was a male law graduate, who decided to teach. Both of them are paid Rs. 2000 per month as a salary. The male teacher acknowledged that he spends almost a fifth of his salary for petrol for his scooter. All the teachers were cheerful and enjoyed what they were doing. Guria also has started making cards from recycled paper in an effort to earn money for the cause. “We started card making in 2000 to develop creativity in children, but it is now a part of our effort to raise funds”. The cards made by the children and older women in the colony, are sold by volunteers for Rs. 5 each.
Later, Ajeet took me around the prostitute colony and had me meet some of the ladies. Because of the tremendous help and support he had given them, everyone greeted us with warmth. He also had me meet and have tea with one of the older prostitutes, whose daughter and niece were also in the profession. They talked proudly of their own children who were going to school and would escape their mother’s fate. Ajeet also showed me two plots of land under negotiation for purchase, once Asha CNJ’s cheque was cashed. Even though Guria has FCRA clearance, he said it would take at least two to three months after he received the cheque for the money to be deposited in Guria’s account in Rupees. Ajeet showed me the sketch for the three-room school that he was planning to have built with the help of a “maistry” and local labor.
I LIKE school!!	Ajeet spent a few hours with me the next day, away from the school and talked to me about his philosophy. He said he was not taking a moral attitude on prostitution, but just wanted to give the prostitutes and their families the choice and opportunity to a different way to earn a living. He talked at length about his other efforts to help women in prostitution. He has successfully organized festivals for prostitutes from all over India – where the artistically talented prostitutes come and perform traditional dances and songs. Money collected at these festivals is used to rehabilitate prostitutes.
These festivals have been quite successful and have gained international acclaim and been featured on both national and international TV and in talks and documentaries by Anand Patwardan, Mahesh Bhatt and Sayyed Mirza. He has received support from a number of known film, art and public personalities of India. The National Human Rights Commission and the National Commission for Women have recognized Guria’s efforts. In his office I was impressed by the press coverage his work has received over the years. But running through all his talk was a sense of frustration that all his efforts were taking so much time. And he kept saying “ Why can’t everyone see how much help is needed?”