India Post brings out a set of postcards painted by children in Kamathipura
The Hindu
A postcard-making initiative by India Post helps children on the fringes pay tribute to their mothers: sex workers of Kamathipura
A postcard featuring a woman’s face with a moustache, painted by the 14-year-old daughter of a commercial sex worker from Kamathipura, Mumbai, has a message. A QR code behind the postcard, when scanned, reveals that the artist has depicted the dual identity of women in Kamathipura, who have to play the roles of mother and father to their children.
Another postcard, title Intertwined, features stylised flower stalks, with green leaves and bright red petals. The colours are different but the parts of the plant are intertwined by Nature, each with a specific role to play. Yet another postcard, Innocence, shows a child on a swing, symbolising the innocence of childhood, which the artist says she has always craved.
Ten such postcards made by children of sex workers from Kamathipura, the oldest red-light district in Mumbai, deliver messages of hope, innocence and optimism. The names of the young artists have not been revealed to protect their identity. The set of postcards, which costs ₹180, and contains each artist’s vision in a QR code, was recently released by Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Governor of Maharashtra, at Raj Bhavan in the presence of the children, social workers and officials of India Post, in a massive boost for a demographic that is usually ignored by the public and the system.
The postcards are one of the by-products of sustained intervention by Swati Pandey, Postmaster General of Mumbai region, that has made a difference in the lives of women in Kamathipura.
Poonam Awasti, who works with Apne Aap Women’s Collective, an NGO, says it was a grand gesture of validation for the children and their mothers. The NGO has been closely associated with officers of India Post in their work in Kamathipura. “Each mother in Kamathipura is proud of the 10 youngsters who were invited to Raj Bhavan. Their paintings will travel across the world and it has motivated the children to dream big and empower themselves,” says Poonam.
Swati says it all began in 2021, during a workshop on savings and investment in connection with the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, a savings scheme for the girl child, in Kamathipura. Swati happened to hear the women speak in Bengali. She spoke to them in the same language and the women, though startled, gradually opened up. Swati asked if they were saving for a rainy day or for their children.
“That was in October 2021. I wanted to help them begin banking and save for themselves and their children. That is when they told me they did not like going to a bank or post office because men often look down on them and they feel inadequate and ignored,” she says.