Support Women Forced Into Sex Work & Their Children Fight COVID-19

Current Scenario

GB Road is home to 78 brothels where over 2500 women live along with their children. These women are victims of sex trafficking, abuse, and violence. Due to the ongoing lockdown, some of them left for their homes as business declined, whereas hundreds of them are stuck in dingy brothels as they have nowhere to go. The current times are especially hard on these women as they have no other source of income, negligible savings to fall back on, and little support from family and society to sustain themselves. 

Role of Government Bodies

Within two days of the lockdown, Kat-Katha and a couple of other NGOs came together with the SDM of Karol Bagh to ensure that the sex workers on GB Road have access to enough rations for the coming month. In all our relief drives, the local police and the SDM office support us in the procurement and distribution of supplies in the community. However, the majority of the women cannot avail Government’s subsidized food supply as they do not have ration cards and as of now, there hasn’t been any allocation of public relief funds for the area by the Government. 

Role of Local NGOs & Why Kat-Katha?

In these times, it is truly the onus of local organizations to leverage their deep networks and relations in the marginalized communities to reach out and provide relief support to the most vulnerable people. In a span of over 8 years, Kat-Katha has developed all the prerequisites to bring immediate impact such as a vast network in the community, a dynamic team of 100+ volunteers, and professional rapport with the local administration to facilitate smooth implementation of our plans.

Kat-Katha’s COVID-19 Resilience Project

Experts predict it might take up to 6 months for social distancing measures to relax and 18-24 months for the economic conditions to revive. In this context, persistent poverty and lack of jobs in the near future would mean more women getting trafficked into sex work, lesser paying capacity of customers and more exploitation. Hence, Kat-Katha's Resilience Project is not only preparing to support the community during the lockdown but also for the economic aftermath that follows.

We plan to work through the following initiatives:

1. Karuna Relief Drive

We have mapped close to 800 people on GB Road who need our support and we expect this number to double as the lockdown is relaxed during the next three months. Karuna Relief drive will primarily focus on providing necessary food and medical supplies to all these people. It would be carried out in three phases of which Phase 1 has already been implemented as an immediate response to the lockdown. Phase 2 will be carried out from May to July and subsequently Phase 3, from August to October.

Under Karuna Relief Drive, we are distributing the following supplies.

• Ration Kits: Monthly Ration Kits for every person ₹660/kit for the next six months to ensure food security until economic activity resumes. 
• Infant & Hygiene Kit: Monthly distribution of infant kits ₹850/kit (diapers & baby food) and essential hygiene kit ₹105/kit (sanitizer, soap, masks & sanitary pads) 
• Health Support: Health support of ₹250/family for the next six months to selected families as a lot of women have health ailments like thyroid, diabetes, skin diseases and low immunity due to the nature of their work and long experience of abuse
• Cooking Gas: ₹200/month for refilling cooking gas will be allocated to each person.

2. Livelihood Platform

We plan to set up a Livelihood Training Centre on GB Road which will act as an alternative livelihood platform for the sex workers. Women will get a chance to acquire training in either professional cooking or product tailoring, depending on their interest. From an initial need analysis, we have received an affirmative response from over 40 women.

The plan will be implemented in two phases.

• Phase 1 (During Social Distancing Norms) - Training will be held virtually in the initial months. We are setting up an online learning platform and ensuring smooth internet access for the trainees. We plan to enrol 10-15 women in the first two quarters i.e. Q1, May-July & Q2, Aug-Sept.
• Phase 2 (Post Social Distancing Norms) – We are planning to set up the skill centre on GB Road during Aug-Sept (Q2) and shift from online classes to the offline centre in October. With an operating skill centre on the road, we expect to enrol women in larger numbers in the last two quarters (Q3 & Q4) making the total number of attendees approximately 50 by the end of year. 

We plan to pay all trainees ₹2500/month as apprentice fees which would act as a compensation for their outputs and an incentive for learning. 

We have already partnered with Craftroots and Goonj for selling women’s output in product tailoring. For the culinary business, we have our own successful venture, Maitri Meals.

Finally, to make these initiatives truly a success, we plan to identity Community Leaders who will be responsible for

• Spearheading the mobilisation of their community into alternative livelihood activities. 
• Helping us in execution of need analysis and impact assessment on our relief drives and initiatives in the coming year. 

What Have We Done So Far?

As an immediate response to the pandemic and the following lockdown, we developed and effected the following initiatives on ground - 

• Relief Drive (First Phase): Kat-Katha organized COVID-19 Karuna Relief Drive to distribute ration and hygiene kits to more than 600 people on GB Road for one month’s sustenance. 
• Digital Campaigns: Awareness campaigns to sensitize people on GB Road about the coronavirus pandemic driven by leaders from the community. 
• Need Analysis: Analysis of the situation on the field and designing of a comprehensive plan to support women and children.  

Scope of Impact

• Providing necessities for survival : ration & medical supplies to ~2200 women on GB Road ensuring no woman or child falls prey to hunger or disease
• Preparing the community to face similar adversities in the future by providing alternate livelihood opportunities to the women on GB Road
• Identifying Community leaders who will own and