Robin Chaurasiya And The Krantikaris

When I listened to an interview of Robin, the first thought that struck my mind was "hats off to this lady". Even you will salute her spirit and enthusiasm after reading this article!

A lady who suffered so much in her own life, yet she had the zeal and zest to work for others in need.

# She was one of the top 10 finalists for global teacher’s prize 2016.

If a common being would have been at her place probably they would have surrendered in front of the orthodox society. But she took the challenges and is still facing many challenges and never gave up the dream of finding potential in the girls about whom society doesn’t care at all.

Robin’s background :
Though her family hails from Indore, Robin was born and brought up in the US and holds a Post-graduate degree in gender studies apart from being a psychology and political science graduate. She needed scholarship for her university, so she had to join the Air force.She was serving in the US Air force.

During that time she also enjoyed doing social works. Around the age 19-21 she had been to East Africa, South America and various countries volunteering with anti-trafficking NGOs. During that time she also came to India for 6 months. She saw there would be 50-60 girls who were taught basics of silai, papad making, achar making and all. She felt that these girls were very passionate about learning new things and she could see tremendous potential in them.

When former Lieutenant Robin Chaurasiya, 29, was expelled from the U.S. Air Force after she declared that she is lesbian, she returned to India and started her own NGO “Kranti".

In 2011, Kranti was started. There were two co-founders one of them was trafficked at the age of 13. At 16, she came to the NGO.

Presently there are 18 girls all aged 12-20. These are all either survivors of trafficking or daughters sex-workers or born in red-light areas.

What is Kranti?
#Kranti means revolution.
Robin says – “Given the right opportunities sex-workers are an asset to the country instead of burden. They are really powerful survivors of everything".

Mission and idea – Revolutionize the sex-works in India, the way society treats them, the phrase they hear all the time like ‘ randi ki beti randi banegi ‘ or ‘ a whore’s daughter will always be a whore ‘,it’s what they have heard their entire life, this is what society expects from them. But, these girls can be an agent of social change. They can revolutionize a lot about India.

Mission statement – We are the girls born and raised in Kamathipura, Asia’s infamous red light area. We are the daughters of sex-workers. We are the survivors of trafficking. We are young women with the potential to change the world.

When asked how willingly did the girls join her,Robin said they were very willing. They want to get out of such things. Their moms are very willing, they want their kids out of such things.

Education and activities at the Kranti school –
Robin says, she tries everything to educate these girls. Nobody wanted to teach them, they have faced a lot of harassment. So the basic thing she wants is to help them develop as a person.

Many girls have mental health issues, emotional traumas, psychological issues.
She says, when you are in a psychological healthy situation you can tackle things. There are girls who are illiterate and few others who are at universities.

One girl Shweta Katti grew up above brothel and won a scholarship to study in Bard college, New York. She is the first girl from India hailing from such background and is now pursuing her dream.

The main moto of educating them is to spread positivity, offer happiness and compassion.

How does she match all the things and make them learn on their own pace irrespective of their backgrounds or education situations?

The most important stuff to work on is –
1) Communication skillsand
2) Problem solving.

Kranti wants to inculcate the qualities like compassion, community organized social changes, happiness, and the qualities that will lead them to a good life.

They have different activities on different days of the week.
Everyday basically three and a half hours is organized such that in the first hour they do meditation, yoga and journal writing and in the second hour creative thinking, puzzle solving, games and news.

Everyday has a different scheme, like
Music Mondays – They listen to music from around the world usually social justice type of music.
Ted talk Tuesday : Talk about refugee crisis like Syrian refugee crisis.They present Ted talks to spread awareness. Here’s a link you can visit to see the story of “Robin Chaurasiya and the Krantikaris ”.

https://youtu.be/8iYbw8BylFg

Thinking Thursdays – On Thursdays they conduct some science programs, experiments or camps.
Working Fridays: They conduct some workshops, go to another NGOs, movies, etc.

What are future plans of NGO?
1) As of now they are facing housing issues, so the primary problem they are looking forward to solve is this. Robin wants a properly well-structured house for her NGO.

2) She wants schools reaching out to all these girls.
3) Apart from house and schooling facilities she says that there should be bookstores ,café ,coffee shops and other necessities available to these girls in Mumbai.

Finally, we provide you with the contact information so that if anyone is interested to reach out and help the Krantikaris develop for a better India they can reach out using the below addresses :

Instagram – www.instagram.com/wearekranti/
Facebook – www.facebook.com/kranti.india/