Women’s Week 2020: The Right to Identity

Sushmita* has three children and lives in the Kamathipura red-light area. She shared that at a very young age she ran away from her village in West Bengal with a boy who had promised that he would marry her. A few days after she ran away, he sold her to a man who then sold her to a brothel-keeper from Sonagachi in Kolkata. She has since been moved and has lived in five different cities, and finally, five years ago she moved to Kamathipura.

Her three children live with her in the brothel, they are all enrolled in school and attend Prerana’s Night Care Center.

During one of the initial ‘Mother’s Meeting’ held, the team discussed and shared the importance of having identity documents in place for both the mother and child and ensuring the details are the same. When speaking to Sushmita she shared, ‘None of my children have birth certificates, even I don’t have a birth certificate. When I was born no one cared about these things, I don’t think anyone from my village also has a certificate.’ During her visit to her village, she was able to procure the birth certificates for her two younger children, but couldn’t procure the same for her older child.

She shared that through an NGO she opened her bank account, but the name registered with the bank account was different from the one on her Aadhar card.

‘Didi, none of the names on my documents match my children’s documents.’

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Manoj* is a 13-year-old boy who attends our Night Care Center, he has also been an active member of the Prerana Choir. In 2017, Manoj was selected to attend a cross-cultural music and performance workshop which was to be held in Canada. To travel to Canada, we began the process of getting Manoj’s passport made. The team shared the list of documents that Madhu* his mother would be required to submit to make his passport. Our team submitted all the initial information required and received an appointment with the passport office.

Our social workers accompanied Madhu and Manoj to the office but were denied entry as they had no ‘relation’ to the child. The social workers spoke to the officer at the gate and shared about the work at Prerana, mentioning that Manoj was a beneficiary, Madhu also requested that the social workers be allowed to no avail.

Madhu was flustered and once inside requested that at least one of the social workers be allowed to accompany her as she couldn’t understand what they were asking. Eventually, the officer allowed a social worker to enter. At the first desk, the social worker presented Manoj’s documents. The officer at the desk on seeing the Madhu and Manoj immediately asked the social worker why a passport was being made for the child. The social worker shared about the upcoming visit and presented Prerana’s brochure to the officer, on noting that we work in the red-light area, the officer quickly assumed that she was a prostitute. He went on to ask our social worker “Why does a woman like this want a passport for her child? What is the need?” The social worker once again reminded the officer that the child would be visiting Canada for a few weeks as a part of a cross-cultural visit. He ignored the comment and scanned through the documents.

As per the list of documents required, Madhu had all of Manoj’s documents in place though his birth certificate was in Gujarati. On seeing this the officer stated that they would not be able to accept the application as the birth certificate was not in the English language, adding that as Manoj’s father’s name was on all his documents and hence the father’s documents and consent would also be required to make the passport. Madhu informed the officer that the father had passed away. The officer said a death certificate would have to be submitted.

Madhu and Manoj left the office feeling disheartened, she shared “Didi, Manoj’s father killed himself at our home in Gujrat, the doctors there said they couldn’t give a death certificate as it was death by suicide, how can I then submit a certificate we don’t have?”

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Fatima* informed the team that she wanted to get an Aadhar card made for her son Aman*. The team shared that she would need to submit her Aadhar card and a few other documents. She didn’t have an Aadhar card.

Fatima lives in the Falkland Road red-light area and has been living there for the last 15 years. She was trafficked and sold into the area. Fatima doesn’t have any of her documents, no way to prove her identity. In hopes that she could get an Aadhar made for her son, she went to a local private document maker (not sanctioned by the Government) to get her pan card made. She paid Rs. 1000/- for this.

Using her pan card, she visited the local post office to get her Aadhar Card made, the officials there did not accept the pan card stating that they require an address proof and identity proof of her husband without which they would not be able to make her Aadhar Card.

On speaking with the team she shared “Didi, where am I going get the documents they want? I live in a brothel, madam (brothel keeper) won’t give me any proof. How do I ask my aadmi for his proof?”

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The women living in the red-light areas are almost always victims of commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking. They have none of their belongings, most women don’t even have any documents to prove their identity. In cases where they have been trafficked from other countries, they wouldn’t have any proof.

Women in the sex trade are constantly given different names. If they have an aadmi he would insist that they take his last name, that his name is added to the child’s name. This can cause issues when the aadmi leaves.

A mother recently said “People say there’s nothing in a name. Insan mahatva ka hota hai (a person is important). But in today’s world, there’s a lot in the name!”