Location
Sangli
India
Website:
Contact email:
vampraju@gmail.com
Who do you work with?:
MITRA is a collective of children of sex workers. SANGRAM runs MITRA hostel and provides supplementary education classes to children. We work with adult children of sex workers in terms of capacity building to support VAMP.
How are sex workers involved in your organisation?:
While the work with children of sex workers began around 2000, the formal MITRA collective was formed in 2009 by VAMP in collaboration with SANGRAM in Nippani.
Which of NSWP priority areas does your organisation work on?:
Oppose the criminalisation and other legal oppression of sex work and support its recognition as work
Critique the trafficking paradigm that conflates representations of sex work, migration, and mobility
Advocate for universal access to health services, including primary health care, HIV and sexual and reproductive health services
Speak out about violence against sex workers, including violence from police, institutions, clients, and intimate partners, while challenging the myth that sex work is inherently gender-based violence
Oppose human rights abuses, including coercive programming, mandatory testing, raids and forced rehabilitation
Challenge stigma and discrimination against sex workers, their families and partners, and others involved in sex work
Advocate for the economic empowerment and social inclusion of sex workers as sex workers
What are the two main challenges that the sex workers you work with face:
Violence against sex workers is the major challenge that all the people in sex work face. Public nuisance and order laws are used to harass and detain sex workers. This has made it difficult for the community to gain recognition of their rights within sex work.
Describe other areas of your work:
MITRA works on the issues related to children of sex workers. The other area of our work is mainstreaming our issues through advocacy with teachers and heads of education institutions, government officials and political leaders. We closely work with mothers in sex work by helping them in the health and human rights campaign work that they do in the region.
Region: