NeemsThe Brothel They Didn't Choose (LINK)
March 30th 2008 11:23
“What’s done to children, they will do to society”- Karl Menninger
“Born into Brothels- Calcutta’s Red Light Kids” is a powerful documentary which follows a New York based photographer- Zana Briski as she immerses herself into the lives of several remarkable children who live in the red light district of Kolkata (Calcutta), India.
The community featured in this documentary are caught in a perpetual vicious cycle that spawns generations of children who grow up knowing only violence and degradation towards women and children.
India is a nation which is still sadly ruled by discrimination of social status, class and caste. Together with poverty these communities are battling deplorable circumstances which seem a never ending battle.
Born into Brothels gives a heart-rending insight into the lives of a few children whose fighting spirits are so evident yet slowly eroding as they are sucked into a dangerous world where their destinies are determined by the desperation and helplessness of their parents. They are exposed to a life children should never have to experience and are robbed of their right to innocence.
It’s these attitudes and emotions photographer Zana faces as she tries to enrol the children into various schools, which refuse to accept their applications based on the fact that they are children from a prostitution background and their parents are deemed criminals.
It's frustrating to see the very institutions that can help these kids escape the cruel world they were born in, refuse to give them that chance to be free.
Through determined perseverance Zana manages to find one school that recognises the children’s right to an education, only to find the battle has taken a new turn when some of the children's parents refuse to let them attend or change their mind after enrolment.
Lack of birth control and the spiralling population means more mouths to feed per family, which places huge pressure upon the shoulders of the older children to go out and earn extra money for support. The young girls in all probability will be forced to join their mothers in selling their bodies.
Although their parents may be fully aware that providing their children an education will in turn bring even more money for the family and ensure their offspring a better future, the immediate need for money outweighs any good reasoning they might be given.
The parents in this red light district are surviving by doing what they have been taught by the generations before them, and they in turn, will teach the generations that come after them.
While severe poverty continues to be the strongest reason behind their attitudes, corruption and a general disdain by people in the upper echelons of Indian society for those who lack money and status continue to force these people to feed the savage cycle into which they were born.
It’s a huge problem. And it’s a heartbreaking one.
The difficulty is, I can sit in the comfort of my suburban home and vent my frustrations at the parents in these communities, but I have never had to go hungry, I’ve never been starved for love, I've always had a roof to shelter me from the rain and I've never been denied the simple rights of dignity, opportunity, respect and the chance to dream and achieve those dreams.
I have never walked even a minute in their shoes and I will not pretend to know how they feel. I write this, because perhaps someone of high importance and power may stumble upon this article, watch this documentary and want to do something to help.
These kids don’t deserve to be denied a future and forced into a profession that turns them into social pariahs. They should not have to accept that they have no right to dream. Not when we live in a world where it’s possible to help them.
"We live in a society in which the most important predictor in where you're going to end up—in terms of class and also wealth—is your parents' class and their wealth."
— Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labour for the Clinton Administration
We need to want to live a world where this shouldn’t be true. Our children are after all our future.
Surely, there can be no greater reason?
Neema Mohan, March 30th, 2008- ©
“Born into Brothels- Calcutta’s Red Light Kids” is a powerful documentary which follows a New York based photographer- Zana Briski as she immerses herself into the lives of several remarkable children who live in the red light district of Kolkata (Calcutta), India.
The community featured in this documentary are caught in a perpetual vicious cycle that spawns generations of children who grow up knowing only violence and degradation towards women and children.
India is a nation which is still sadly ruled by discrimination of social status, class and caste. Together with poverty these communities are battling deplorable circumstances which seem a never ending battle.
Born into Brothels gives a heart-rending insight into the lives of a few children whose fighting spirits are so evident yet slowly eroding as they are sucked into a dangerous world where their destinies are determined by the desperation and helplessness of their parents. They are exposed to a life children should never have to experience and are robbed of their right to innocence.
It’s these attitudes and emotions photographer Zana faces as she tries to enrol the children into various schools, which refuse to accept their applications based on the fact that they are children from a prostitution background and their parents are deemed criminals.
It's frustrating to see the very institutions that can help these kids escape the cruel world they were born in, refuse to give them that chance to be free.
Through determined perseverance Zana manages to find one school that recognises the children’s right to an education, only to find the battle has taken a new turn when some of the children's parents refuse to let them attend or change their mind after enrolment.
Lack of birth control and the spiralling population means more mouths to feed per family, which places huge pressure upon the shoulders of the older children to go out and earn extra money for support. The young girls in all probability will be forced to join their mothers in selling their bodies.
Although their parents may be fully aware that providing their children an education will in turn bring even more money for the family and ensure their offspring a better future, the immediate need for money outweighs any good reasoning they might be given.
The parents in this red light district are surviving by doing what they have been taught by the generations before them, and they in turn, will teach the generations that come after them.
While severe poverty continues to be the strongest reason behind their attitudes, corruption and a general disdain by people in the upper echelons of Indian society for those who lack money and status continue to force these people to feed the savage cycle into which they were born.
It’s a huge problem. And it’s a heartbreaking one.
The difficulty is, I can sit in the comfort of my suburban home and vent my frustrations at the parents in these communities, but I have never had to go hungry, I’ve never been starved for love, I've always had a roof to shelter me from the rain and I've never been denied the simple rights of dignity, opportunity, respect and the chance to dream and achieve those dreams.
I have never walked even a minute in their shoes and I will not pretend to know how they feel. I write this, because perhaps someone of high importance and power may stumble upon this article, watch this documentary and want to do something to help.
These kids don’t deserve to be denied a future and forced into a profession that turns them into social pariahs. They should not have to accept that they have no right to dream. Not when we live in a world where it’s possible to help them.
"We live in a society in which the most important predictor in where you're going to end up—in terms of class and also wealth—is your parents' class and their wealth."
— Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labour for the Clinton Administration
We need to want to live a world where this shouldn’t be true. Our children are after all our future.
Surely, there can be no greater reason?
Neema Mohan, March 30th, 2008- ©
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