Mumbai:
A group of 13 girls from Mumbai's largest red-light area, Kamathipura, will undertake a five city tour to the US beginning May 12 to perform a play, titled Lal Batti.
The girls, aged between 10 and 20, are daughters of sex-workers, are from Kranti, a Non-governmental Organisation that provides shelter and support to such children. Through the play, they aim to break stereotypes and show the world that they are no different and deserve to be given the same opportunities as others.
The play has already been performed at over 50 venues, it depicts how life was to them - being brought up in brothels, the challenges they faced and the struggles they overcame. The group will now travel to New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
"We wish to change the mentality of people regarding sex workers through our play. Also, many children who are acting in the play and who have faced child abuse are trying to showcase their condition through this," Bani Das, Co-Founder of Kranti, told NDTV.
A Kranti member said, "Before I joined Kranti, I was staying at a place where they always used to give me a negative feedback about my dreams and aspirations. So there's a scene in our play which is inspired by my experience where a girl says she wants to be something and receives a reply that they do not think about what is out of their league."
"Most of the people would give sympathy after watching the play but they will not respect you from their heart. And I believe that sympathy is nothing if you cannot respect anyone. So it's nice that when we people start talking about our bad experience, the other people get confidence and they start sharing their experiences too," added another member of Kranti.
Theatre Consultant Jaya Iyer who has been helping the children perfect their performance said, "They have gone through a lot of training which is healing... There is a lot of confidence in the way they relate to their body and they are not inhibited. But at the same time attention, focusing and sharing stories can be very challenging for them."
The girls draw inspiration from a 19-year-old who became the first from a red-light area in India to study abroad. They, too, yearn for such an opportunity and hope that more opportunities would open up for them after by performing in front of an international audience.