In the past 23 years, these women from Ahmednagar have contributed more than Rs20 lakh for various causes; Mumbai's Food Army too keeps up their good work
Commercial sex workers in Ahmednagar have contributed Rs1 lakh in aid of the flood victims in Chennai. On Tuesday, the cheque of this amount was handed over to district collector Anil Kawade for the Prime Minister's Relief Fund.
There are about 3,500 CSWs in Ahmednagar. Although their financial condition is not anything to talk about, about 1,200 of them came forward and collected the amount, some by giving their day's earnings and others by slashing a day's meal.
Motivated by professor Girish Kulkarni, founder member of NGO Snehalaya that looks after the well-being of such women and runs schools and hostels for their children, this group of women had first donated some amount of their income to help the victims of the 1993 bomb blasts in Mumbai.
Prof Kulkarni stated that what is of importance is their feeling for others. "This help comes from women who themselves are in no great situation. They suffer throughout their life. They belong to that section of the society where they are not accepted by others; they are rather targets of criticism. It
is quite admirable that these women look beyond what society has given them and want to give to the society," he said.
In the past, these women have contributed towards the funds to help victims of Kargil war, the earthquake in Gujarat, Tsunami, Oddisha storm, drought in Maharashtra, floods in Leh and Uttarakhand and other such disasters. In the past 23 years, they have contributed more than Rs20 lakh for various causes.
"Once one of these women read in the newspapers that a son a poor domestic help had passed the exams to study in Texas University, US, but he did not have the required amount of money. The group of women then collected Rs35,000 and handed it over to the boy and his mother. What is most appealing is the fact that in spite of being in a dismal situation themselves, where they don't even earn enough for a decent living, these women show that humanity is alive," states Kulkarni
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