Sonagachi is the biggest redlight area in South Asia. It is located in the North end of Calcutta. It houses nearly 10,000 sex workers.

The Center is located at 400 Rabindra Sarani, on the premises of the Young Stars Club, adjoining the mausoleum of Muslim saint Sanaullah Gaji Pir Baba ( Sona Gaji) after whom the area Sonagachi is named.The Center has been established for the children from the poor economic families living in the locality.

Poverty is the key factor of the educational achievement gap between the children of the locality and children from higher economic, compounded by the following factors:

• These children are mostly first generation learners. Their mothers work in the evenings and due to the nature of their profession, have less time to monitor the children’s school work. The children usually hang around their mothers during the peak business hours in the evenings. Exposed to lifestyle aberrations of observing alcohol and drug abuse, lack of self esteem in their mothers, keeping up to time schedules which do not match with the “normal” functioning of the society, they inevitably lose interest in academic achievements.• The critical factor determining whether a child becomes a reader and a learner is the child’s access to reading materials. The data collected by MSIHA staff in the locality reveals a profound gap- out of 38 households’ surveyed only one family had a book, apart from standard school text books.• Lack of family stability and child rearing practices of mostly single mothers who lack basic education due to their displacement from the “traditional” families.• Lack of higher educational expectations from the educators of the formal schools where children from poorer families attend.• The expected levels of standard at the Secondary School in India are quite high, as compared with rest of world. Especially for children who want to achieve in the field of mathematics and science, like in most of the developing world, they need a good background in mathematics, science and English to be effective candidates in a highly competitive job market. Lack of high quality educators and teaching materials weighs down heavily on the children as the foundations of their education remains handicapped. • The access to Computers as a learning tool is non existent, the reason again being lack of funding in the schools.

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