April 2002

Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these (Matthew 19:14, NASB).

Dear Friends in Christ,

I would like to introduce you to Bischi. She is 9 years old and ranks in the top five students in her class in school. She can sing all the latest Hindi film songs and can dance all the film dances. Isn’t she pretty? In this picture she is engaged in her job, babysitting. In another three years or so, Bischi will be engaged in the work of the mothers of the children she looks after—she will become a prostitute.

Bischi lives in the red-light district in Sangli. The Sangli-Miraj area has over 5,000 prostitutes and has the second-highest HIV infection rate in this state of Maharashatra, next only to Mumbai (Bombay). The prostitutes are forced to live in the confines of these red-light areas. Their pimps do not let them leave for any reason. If they were to leave the red-light district, they might not return and then their managers would lose a source of income. Market vendors come to their area to sell rice, vegetables and grains, and their saris and other personal items are purchased for them by their managers.

How can these young women get caught up in such a profession? Some of them were devdasi. These are girl children given by their parents to the temple gods in hope that their parents might produce a son. The priests in the temples use these little girls and then cast them aside after a few months because these are used up and more little girls have arrived. They end up as prostitutes. Another source of prostitutes is young mothers whose husbands have died or abandoned them. These are usually girls without education, training, and skills of any kind. They may have several children and they are forced into prostitution in order to feed and clothe their children. Whatever the reason, theirs is a profession of demeaning reputation, of beatings and illness, of continuous child bearing, and of despair without end. They live without joy, without future, and without hope that anything will ever change, for them or their children.

There is a pastor in this area who is dedicating his life and energies to improving the status of these young women. He is establishing crèches (pre-schools) in these red-light districts, where the women and children can hear the word of God, where they are taught Bible verses and choruses. He is buying sewing machines and trying to get help in teaching the women skills, such as sewing, making plastic bags, weaving baskets, making certain edibles that can be sold in the markets. His hope is to give the women skills by which they can earn a living outside the walls of the red-light area. He has arranged for a number of boys to go to boarding schools outside the district, where they will not be subjected to the environment of their mothers. He is also starting a hostel for girls so they too can moved from the immoral milieu in which they live. Getting little girls outside the red light district is much more difficult because the pimps look upon them as future sex workers. This pastor has been threatened by the pimps on more than one occasion, threatened to be beaten, to be killed, to be maimed. But he continues because he truly believes that these children are worth saving and that the kingdom of God does belong to them. He believes that the mothers can be given hope that in the next life, the life with Christ, their tears will be wiped away and there will no longer be any death; there will be no more mourning or crying or pain. And they shall not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall illumine them.

In Christ,

Judy & Paul Jewett