It was not a conventional career path but Priti Patkar, a gold medalist from The Tata Institute of Social Sciences, has dedicated her life to protection, abolition of intergenerational trafficking into the sex trade, rescue of children and women victims of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. Laying the foundation of Prerana, an NGO that works in the red-light districts of Mumbai, in 1986, she went on to pioneer pathbreaking social interventions like world’s first Night Care Shelter in the midst of a red light area, first Institutional Placement Programme, first comprehensive Education Support Programme for children living in red light areas, first Network of Anti Trafficking Organizations and first comprehensive programme for AIDS Affected Children.

Her intervention under Children Affected by AIDS programme was adjudged and documented by Washington University as one of world’s 7 best interventions of working with AIDS affected persons. Author of 7 books and several research reports, her organization Prerana has to its credit the largest number of legal interventions and writ petitions in the country to protect the rights and dignity of the children and women victims of child sex exploitation and trafficking.

Having held many distinguished positions and designations, Priti is also a recipient of many prestigious awards.

As a student she visited the red light area once and it affected her so much that she began to visit regularly after completing her studies to listen to one of Mumbai’s most marginalized groups - prostituted women. She was dismayed by their plight and the sense of entrapment as they knew no other means of living. Children of prostituted women grew up to become prostitutes and pimps without being aware of any other possibilities.

Not the one to be discouraged by set notions, however hardened by time they may be, Priti decided to dedicate her life to the cause of bringing much required change in this neglected stratum of society.

The key to Priti’s success is her sociological realism. She understands that threatening those who control and protect the business is not the best approach. She is also well aware that her clients constitute some of India’s poorest, most illiterate and dependent. Being a realistic person, she worked on practical problems like building night shelters for children so the children are not dragged into the ‘business’ for lack of places to keep them or people to watch them. As a simple and effective solution, Priti opened her first night care centre in Kamathipura. Today, the organization she cofounded with her husband Pravin Patkar runs four shelters. They offer comprehensive child care to needy children on a 24X7 basis. Kids receive meals, healthcare, education, and a safe place to play. Their mothers can also avail medical care and vocational training. Priti opens up avenues for alternate options for those who are conditioned to believe there is no other way out.

“Way back in 1986, human trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of children were decades away from becoming mainstream issues. The first UN Protocol related to human trafficking was only passed in 2000,” Priti says.

Always being ahead of times, Priti still strives to innovate. “It is important for activists to network to combat perpetrators’ conspiracies,” she feels.

Since they are fighting intricate crime syndicates with the resources, manpower, and motivation to evade police, Priti trains police officers to recognize traffickers and adapts her model to keep pace with new developments. An advocate of improved legislation, she believes in solutions that work.

The results are there for everyone to see, hundreds of children are now out of the shackles of caste and circumstances, having freed their future generations as well.

“I have to take as a starting point the felt needs of my clients, very much taking into account their pride, and fears, which include losing custody of their children. The mothers who reject foster parent arrangements because they would undercut their ties to their children favor boarding schools as a solution,” Priti lets on.

Helping them getting an education and a relatively stable and healthy environment is not as simple as it sounds. Priti and hear team struggled and succeeded to open the doors of the city’s boarding schools for poor children, some run by government, many by private and religious agencies. She has faced and overcome a lot of resistance due to stigma attached to these children by spending a good deal of time educating these institutions and their constituencies. Her dedication has brought results and all Kamathipura children are attending school now.

Literally meaning “inspiration”, her organization Prerana and Priti have taken up this task to keep experimenting and demonstrating practical, feasible ways of giving the downtrodden a new lease of life.