TIGblogs - Mahesh

Aasara means support or shelter or help to them who want to change the branded life.

Out Of The Flesh Trap
SP Mahesh Bhagwat has shattered the Dommara tribe’s tradition in Andhra Pradesh of forcing their girls into becoming prostitutes. Nandini R Penna reports.
The hi-tech state of Andhra Pradesh has recently been identified as a high supply zone for sending girls for sex trade all over the country. According to statistics, 45 per cent of the prostitutes in New Delhi, 28 per cent in Mumbai and 80 per cent in Goa belong to this tech-savvy state. And one such area where this ‘supply’ leaves the Andhra Pradesh shores is from the temple town, Yadigirigutta in Nalgonda district, which is just 60 kms away from Hyderabad. The sex workers, known as Venkatasanis who belong to the Dommara community, are spread over the tribal regions of Telangana, including Warangal, Nizamabad, Medak, Karimnagar and Nalgonda in Andhra Pradesh. Women from this community have been sex workers for generations and the men of the community are generally their pimps. Traditionally, even thinking of any other profession besides prostitution is considered a sin for the 150 families living there. Policing TraditionIn the face of this age-old tradition, policing this practice has been one of the major problems faced by the police and social workers of the state for a very long time. But Mahesh Bhagwat (IPS), Superintendent of Police of Nalgonda district, Andhra Pradesh, and winner of the coveted ‘International Community Policing Award’, has taken up the challenge to rehabilitate women forced into this flesh trade. Says he, “In a raid conducted in the vicinity of Yadigirigutta, around 98 prostitutes were arrested. We spoke to the women and many of them told us that if given a chance, they do not want to be sex workers.“What was more horrifying was that though there were at least six to seven able-bodied male members in each household, they were all dependent on the women. These men do not want to work and getting their women into prostitution, is definitely an easy way of acquiring money.” Help At HandIt was only after that raid that Mahesh started ‘Project Aasra’ to fight and eradicate this problem. Says he, “This problem needed a humanitarian approach and that is when ‘Project Aasra’ came into being. ‘Aasra’ means shelter and that was what I wanted to provide — a safe place for these women so that they could live a decent life without harassment from pimps and others.” Joining hands with him were NGOs DRDA (District Rural Development Agency),

Panchayati Raj, Women and Child Welfare Department, LABS (Livelihood and Business School, which belongs to the famous Dr Reddy’s Labs), State Bank of Hyderabad, Red Cross and the BC (Backward Class) Corporation, and a shelter was made to house these women. With Rs 3.5 lakh from DRDA’s ‘Indira Kranti Patham’, the rehabilitated women were given vocational training in making agarbattis, leaf plates and small leaf cups to serve prasadam at the famed Yadigirgutta shrine of Narasimha Swamy. All these products are then supplied to the temple under a buy-back scheme.
http://www.savvy.co.in/display_Standard.asp?section=savvyspecials&subsection=exclusive&xml=October2005_exclusive_standard39

It's not the activity of rascals that destroys our society but inactivity of good people.
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