The Challenge

In the western Indian state of Rajasthan, in the middle of India's tourist triangle, just 100 kilometres away from the pink city of Jaipur a community has beaten all of modernity's quests to preserve an abysmal practice: to force all its girls into sex work. Girls as young as 10 years old, dressed in bright clothes and amateur make up, stand outside single-room shacks lining the road. iPartner India is supporting these girls by providing them an opportunity to study and pursue their dreams.

The Solution

iPartner India does a lot of work in the anti-trafficking domain with collaboration from multiple partners across India. In 2017, we got reports from our partner organisation in Mumbai, India that during rescue operations a high percentage of young girls who were being rescued from brothels in Mumbai belonged to a district of Rajasthan, India. On further investigation, we gathered that most of these girls came from a particular community who pimped their daughters in the name of tradition. The ideal preventive measure to break the cycle of trafficking is to ensure that the girls from the community are able to pursue their education.

iPartner India through a prevention model "Rakshan" (means 'Safety' in English), is working with the entire ecosystem in 28 villages to save the current and next generations of vulnerable girls from trafficking while providing major focus on education of girls (Prime beneficiary) to bring about change and promoting the holistic development of the community. iPartner India has designed a campaign named #Educate Her Empower Her, which is drawn out of Rakshan to promote the education of vulnerable girls through scholarship programs. For the next two years, our focus will be to raise and invest more funds towards the #Educate Her Empower Her campaign. We aim to support education of more than 100 girls who are likely to drop out from school and will be forced into child labour, child marriage and sex work.

The girls will be supported for two-five years so they are able to complete their high school/senior secondary schooling, their undergraduate degree or their post graduate degree. The selection criteria for the girls are as follows.

• Girls from resource poor backgrounds

• Girls of Commercial Sex Workers

• Girls with outstanding performances

• Girls highly vulnerable to trafficking

Many young girls have shown interest in pursuing education but have been unable to do so due to the existing socio-cultural belief system. Through your support we aim to empower these girls to make choices and decide their own future.

Support Needed

Your support will cover the admission, tuition fee, and other expenses of the girls for regular schooling. For some girls, who are most vulnerable, it will also cover the boarding and lodging. iPartner India with family's consent would be admitting these girls to the boarding schools to help them continue their education and save them from pimps.  The progress of the girls who will receive scholarship for school/university admission will be measured through periodic interaction with the scholars, their teachers and via six monthly progress reports. The same will be reported back at the end of each year.

Expected impact of the project

It is assumed that given the right opportunities, the selected girls through the education program will be able to not only excel in their respective classes but will also strengthen their fight against the existing injustice prevalent in their communities. The reputed educational institution selected for the studies of these girls, will equip them with skills leading to their holistic development. As a two-pronged approach, the project will work directly to build the leadership skills of girls on one end while also developing them into role models fighting for the rights of the vulnerable.

Stories of change

Nitika belongs to a community which is known to send their girls into the sex trade as soon as they hit puberty. Nitika’s mother is a commercial sex worker and she is the only daughter in the family. This means that the burden to sustain the family after her mother retires will be on her. She has three brothers. Nitika’s mother has been wanting to send her into sex work but she is determined to not enter the sex trade. She topped her grade 10 exams and wanted to pursue science but was unable to do so due to lack of financial support. She also won the Gargi Award, an award given by the state government to the best performers in the state. She recently appeared for her grade 12 exams and scored an outstanding 95%. Through the support of donors, Nitika is now pursuing her graduation from a reputed institute in Rajasthan. She wants to become an Indian Administrative Services Officer and help other girls from her village in breaking this cycle of sex work and prostitution.

The brave girls are attempting to break the existing socio-cultural traditions, but in order to do so, they need some support. Your support will enable these girls to dream bigger.