12 Girls From Mumbai’s Red Light Area To Perform A Play Across The U.S

These girls are from one of Asia’s largest red-light districts, Mumbai’s ‘Kamathipura’. They are the daughters of sex workers, and have faced pain and abuse for as long as they can remember. Most of these girls have never even met their fathers. They are young girls whose ages are between thirteen and nineteen. Many of these girls have faced sexual abuse from their own family members since they were little.

This is the amazing story of these girls from the red-light district who want to change thousands of people’s mind sets about them, their moms, and their community.

What do they want to do?

These brave girls want to bring change through theatre. They want to share their stories of growing up in the red-light district to raise awareness of sex workers’ lives and their daily struggles. They have written, directed and acted in plays about the situation of people in their community.

Why do they want to do this?

One of the girls mentions that she wants to do this because she has always been told that “A prostitute’s daughter will only be a prostitute”. These girls have never even had a chance to dream about becoming anything else. They have been under constant abuse and all they could look forward to is, doing what their mothers did. They want to take a step forward to change all that for them as well as all their friends living in the red-light district.

How do they plan to do this?

Robin Chaurasiya is the cofounder of Kranti, a non-governmental organisation working to educate and empower trafficked girls and daughters of sex workers in Mumbai. Kranti is helping these girls to travel to the U.S in May to perform the play ‘Lal Batti Express’. The nearly hour-long play depicts the trials and tribulations faced by sex workers, their children and others in the red-light area. The narrative is based on the girls’ lived experiences. The girls, in the 14-19 age group, will perform the play in New York, Washington, Las Vegas, Chicago and San Francisco.

Pinky Sheikh, 19, who plays the role of a woman running a brothel, says theatre has given her confidence a new boost in a life otherwise sprayed with anecdotes of stigma and obscurity. While she was studying in a Marathi-medium school, she recounts, she was often spoken to with contempt and reminded of her background. “They were rude to me and would make me sit on the last bench,” she says.

Why do they want to travel to the U.S to perform?

The Red-light district was their entire world so far. After partnering with kranti was the first time these girls ever got to travel in their lives. Their world grew to include all of Mumbai and slowly India. It turns out that the play was so awesome, they were asked to perform it in over 50 venues in front of over 1,00,000+ people. Traveling helped them broaden their worldview and now their personal stories will help broaden the worldview of their audience.

How you can help these brave girls dream beyond the red light?

All of their transportation, food, lodging and sightseeing will be donated by individuals and companies in the USA. But they are fundraising for the things that people can’t donate: visa applications, theatre props, venue fees, etc.

You can support the Lal Batti Express to carry their voices all the way from Mumbai’s red-light area to stages in the US.