Early in the morning I was able to visit Starfish, one of New Light's newest projects. Or Fish Star as my Italian volunteer friend called it.
“HTS – Operation Starfish” was launched in October 2013 in Sonagachi, one of the largest sex worker districts in Kolkata. The name Operation Starfish is borrowed from the Hawaiian folktale.
A man was walking along a deserted beach at sunset. As he walked he could see a young boy in the distance, as he drew nearer he noticed that the boy kept bending down, picking something up and throwing it into the water. Time and again he kept hurling things into the ocean.
As the man approached even closer, he was able to see that the boy was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach and, one at a time he was throwing them back into the water.
The man asked the boy what he was doing, the boy replied, "I am throwing these washed up starfish back into the ocean, or else they will die through lack of oxygen. "But", said the man, "You can't possibly save them all, there are thousands on this beach, and this must be happening on hundreds of beaches along the coast. You can't possibly make a difference."
The boy looked down, frowning for a moment; then bent down to pick up another starfish, smiling as he threw it back into the sea. He replied, "I made a huge difference to that one!"
Starfish now cares for 30 children from 2 to 6 years old. The primary objective is the welfare of toddlers whose needs are largely neglected. Most sex workers sleep late in to the morning and the children wander the unsafe streets of Sonagachi uncared and unsupervised.
The most vulnerable of these children are enrolled in Starfish, which focuses on providing basic schooling, promoting school going habits and on preparing the children to join the mainstream schools at the right age.
There’s always a teacher here and a couple house mothers. Urmi Basu, the founder of New Light intentionally hired on retired sex workers to work as house mothers for Starfish. New Light has a history of working in the Red Light District but is still relatively new to the Sonagachi community. This creates a level of trust between New Light and the mothers. They’re more likely to place their children in Starfish, knowing the women who are helping run the program.
The children will first give you quick shy smiles. But you sit right next to them, you ask them their name-tomar nam ki?- and you tickle their bellies and their smiles aren’t quite so shy anymore. Soon they’re crawling all over you and asking you your name and touching your hair and they can’t stop smiling. George and I (the other volunteer with me at this time) went out and got all of the children popsicles, which they absolutely loved. I’m sure it’s rare that they ever get something like that.
And it is just so humid and hot here that the popsicles soon started dripping all over the place which the children thought was hilarious. They ended up forming a little circle so all their popsicles formed a puddle in the middle of the floor. Wish I had been able to get a photo of them, wish you could have seen how they would keep looking at the spreading popsicle puddle on the floor and couldn’t stop laughing. Then they would look at you and start laughing all over again.
I had a hard time leaving all these little ones, a very hard time.
In the afternoon I was able to visit Kalighat temple, which is in the middle of the Red Light District. You don’t see many places across India dedicated to kali but in Kolkata, you’ll find them all over, as Kolkata .
At Kalighat temple you’re not allowed to take photos inside but I was able to take photos outside.
I was able to take my shoes off outside the temple and walk in and lay flowers inside as an offering to Kali.
When you first walk into the area where the temple is there are men trying to sell you flowers, when you walk into the temple they’re always asking for more money and there was a man who led us out of the temple, still trying to sell us flowers and asking for more money.
I’m curious what it’s like for people from Kolkata, to visit the temple. To simply go through, honor Kali without disruption and leave… But I still loved being there, to be able to honor the warrior goddess. Especially at a time in my life when I need to draw on some inner strength, that inner warrior goddess in me:)
And currently it’s monsoon season here so walking back was an experience. Streets will become flooded in just a few hours. The street we had walked through earlier had become completely flooded. We ended up having to take our shoes off and roll our pants up to simply to walk down the sidewalk.
We were at the New Light shelter in the evening. New Light tries to mainstream the children into public schooling as soon as possible. In the evening though, at all the shelters, they also provide additional tutoring and lessons for the children. The children many times may have started school late or have no support system at home. This additional tutoring gives them additional confidence in their abilities, in themselves, in what they’re capable of.
These children have so much life in them. The environment they have to grow up in can be incredibly unforgiving and harsh but you wouldn’t know it spending time with them. They want to laugh, to be held and spun around, do handstands with you and show you all their dance moves.
One of the young girls I got a chance to speak with this night is only 12. She loves to come right up to you, ask you what your name is and start talking away. She walked out with us, her younger sister snug on her hip, head on her chest. As we were walking out she was still teaching us Bengali and reminded us she was going to quiz us next time she saw us. We stopped at the corner to say goodbye. And on the corner was her mother, who works as a sex worker. Her mother is just as invested as New Light is, in her daughter staying at the crèche cum shelter and in her staying in school.
This sadly, is a common story at New Light. It’s difficult to see, close to impossible to see any woman, any person who sells their body for a living, any person who doesn’t believe they have any way out of this harsh life.
New Light serves as a place dedicated to both rescue but also to the next generation. It’s a hard truth, without New Light this young girl would most likely end up in the same position as her mother.
It's a testament to New Light, the safety they're able to provide for these children in this environment.
For some children crèche cum simply serves as a safe place for them to go during the day and they’ll go home at night. But for others it serves as a shelter at night as well. It’s the young girls especially that they encourage to stay overnight. This young girl is one of the young ones that spend the night at New Light.