Reading For Pleasure NGO

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COMMUNITY CLASSROOMS INSIDE RED-LIGHT AREAS

Apne Aap’s mission is to end sex-trafficking by breaking the cycle of inter-generational prostitution among de-notified criminal tribes, where prostitution is passed down from mother to daughter. They have been functioning since 2000.

They educate children in community classrooms inside red-light areas to prepare them for formal schools and then help them with homework. They have created libraries in the red-light districts of many cities in India.

To make sure children have access to books they have created libraries with rotating books in their community classrooms in the red-light areas of Kolkata, Forbesganj, Bihar, Najafgarh, and east Nizamuddin in Delhi.

They also run a mobile library out of a Maruti van that is taken to different slums and red-light areas across Kolkata.

They hold reading circles where women and children sit together and read together with the community members.

They have educated 4625 children through schools and 582 children through college. They are the first generation in their families to get an education in 150 years.

74 children have regular access to book due to the mobile and community libraries. 7338 children have learned to read in the red-light areas of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bihar. Overall, 1189 children have been saved from sex-trafficking through advocacy and legal support with the police and courts.