Story behind "The Saharsh Project"

It all started some 3 years back when I stumbled upon a Ted talk video by one Ms. Sunitha Krishnan who is an anti-trafficking crusader who saved over 11,000 girls from the brothels, prostitution rings and slavery across India. After watching her talk, I delved deeper into the subject, read many articles, viewed many more videos to realize that trafficking is the third biggest organized crime in terms of valuation after drugs and arms trade and in every 8 minutes, a girl is kidnapped, abducted, sold or married-to-sell in India.  Only 30% of cases are reported so we can understand the gravity of the situation. My stomach churned and throat choked at all these pieces of info but could do nothing.

Another day, another context: I took upon myself an interest to learn more about villages where my parents were born. While I couldn't get statistics of those exact villages, it came like a shocker that Warangal district in Telangana had long been a hub for human trafficking and it had been an epidemic in remote hamlets and tribal villages which mostly get unnoticed by mainstream media or administration because most of the cases go unreported.

I was first clueless when I learnt that most of the trafficking victims were those girls who dropped out of studies at around their 8th or 9th grade. I couldn't comprehend the direct correlation between dropping out from studies and getting trafficked. After some more studies and contacting few more on the ground NGOs, the picture was clear.

Lack of amenities (toilets, sanitary facilities) caused some girls to drop out after 8th or 9th grade while poverty and lack of funds to continue studies caused many other girls to drop out. On an average 9 out of 10 girls drop out before fishing 12th. Even Mid day meal, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan schemes by government couldn't motivate girls or their parents.

This is a very vulnerable situation for a 13 or 14 year old naive girl with no education and coming from an economically poor background. She would be a victim to one of the following cases

1. Child marriage at 13-14 (This is the best and safest case)
2. Parents unwittingly get her married to a trafficker in disguise who plunges the girl into the dirty quagmire
3. Girl who doesn't have a guardian around is a susceptible target for forcible abduction
4. Girl migrates to town to work as a bonded labor or domestic help and is still vulnerable to trafficking

First Step Forward: Though we can't fight and eradicate the trafficking rackets altogether, the least we can do is to attempt to eliminate the root cause at least in some cases. That is by supporting, guiding young girls and not allowing them to drop out during that tender age. "The Saharsh Project" took it's birth from this desperate thought.

As a part of this project, our main aim was to address the twin issues of lack of school facilities and poverty among families with young girls. As a first step, we identified 3 schools to improve infrastructure and 50 kids who are above 8 years old and who lost their earning family member to whom we could support morally, emotionally and financially. "Saharsh" means 'with happiness'. We hope to bring some happiness in a handful of kids to start with.

Requesting your emotional support to the movement: I was overwhelmed when some dear friends volunteered to donate to the cause. While wholeheartedly accepting their good wishes, I had to politely refuse money because The Saharsh Project is not registered as a charity and hence can't accept monetary donations. Moreover we could pool in funds from our corporation's social responsibility arm and are self-sufficient at this point.

But we desperately require your help in two other ways. First we need volunteers, who could report to us about any girl (or a boy) who lost parents and left with no option but to drop out of school. And we need volunteers to authenticate the need and keep fraudsters at bay.

Secondly, we need volunteers who could develop friendship and foster a guiding relationship with the kids. We receive periodic progress reports, their letters, wish-lists from these kids. We would love to have any volunteers who could respond to their mails, say a few words of encouragement, provide career guidance, talk to them and motivate them in achieving their career goals so that they don't get distracted but believe we all are behind them to share their joy or pain. We would also want to drive the same point home to their parents (or guardians) as well.

We don't aim to create any revolution with this, but want to see some (if possible, all) of our girls grow up to transform into responsible, informed, self-reliant and happy women.

PS: Those who are interested in volunteering or getting associated with our initiative may feel free to add to Facebook or LinkedIn profiles that you work as a "Campaigner" at The Saharsh Project and also invite your like-minded friends,relatives and acquaintances to do the same.