The Brothel is My Temple 

“God abandoned this place long ago.” That’s what I heard growing up in Kamathipura, India’s oldest and most infamous red-light area. For years, I believed it. How could I not? My home was a 100-square-foot loft above a brothel. My neighbors, my family, my friends – everyone was a sex worker. And all around us, people spoke of sin, impurity, and shame.

But even in that “godless” place, every brothel had an altar – small and dusty, but full of devotion. Every morning, my mother lit incense and prayed to Ganesh. “So maybe God will forgive us and give us a better life next time,” she’d explain.

I didn’t want to wait for another life. At 16, I moved to Kranti, an NGO that empowers girls from red-light areas to become agents of social change. For the first time, I met people who believed we could change this life, not just pray for the next. Soon I was receiving therapy, attending protests for Dalit women, giving speeches about sex workers’ rights, and finally—incredibly—winning a scholarship to Bard College in New York.

I became the first girl from an Indian red-light area to study abroad. CNN and Newsweek featured me. The UN gave me an award. Five-star hotels, the same ones I once stared at from the brothel windows, held fundraising galas in my name. Everyone told me I was “making it.”

But inside, the seeds of shame and unworthiness planted in childhood still bloomed. Fame didn’t erase trauma. Success didn’t silence self-doubt. I left Bard halfway. I was exhausted—physically, emotionally, spiritually. I was diagnosed with Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDRTB), given a 10% chance of survival, and spent years on drug trials in India and Europe. My path to healing was long, quiet, and invisible.

And now, after all that…I’ve come home.

Today, I work as Director of Education at Kranti. Our new home is a four-story building in Dharamshala. We’ve welcomed 30 girls, ages 8-20, from red-light areas across India. They come with the same burdens I once carried: shame, anger, fear, sexual trauma.

But they also carry something far greater: potential. And this is what I want to say to the world – especially to those who care about social justice, equity, and development: the best leaders for any cause are those who come from within that community.

I didn’t dedicate my life to this work because I want to “save” anyone. I AM one of them. I know what it’s like to carry the weight of stigma. I know the smell of brothel corridors, the fear of being sold, the unending quest for a better life. My leadership doesn’t come from pity or charity. It comes from deep love. Endless gratitude. Fierce loyalty to the women who raised me, protected me, prayed for me.

This is why we need to invest in leaders from within marginalized communities. Not because it sounds good on a grant report. But because we understand the path better than anyone else ever could. Outsiders can bring money, programs, ideas—but rarely do they bring lived experience. They see poverty, injustice, statistics; we see family, sacrifice, resilience. They see problems to fix; we see people to empower.

At Kranti’s new Dharamshala home, I see the next generation of leaders rising. Girls who will become lawyers, artists, teachers, scientists. Girls who will return to their communities not out of guilt, but with pride and purpose.

And these dreams no longer feel distant or impossible. Many of the older Krantikaris are now studying in Rome, Paris, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia. For the younger girls, these didis are not far-off celebrities, they are family. They are living, breathing proof that such dreams are within reach. The new Krantikaris don’t just hope they can change the world—they know they can. Because they’ve seen others from their own community do exactly that.

For too long, the world has asked: “How can we help the poor?”

It’s the wrong question.

The right question is: How can we nurture and support the leaders already growing in these communities?

I don’t want your pity. I want your partnership. I want you to believe, as I do, that the next revolutionaries, educators, and change-makers are already here—in brothels, in slums, in refugee camps. Waiting not for rescue, but for opportunity.

I’ve lived this truth. And I’ll spend the rest of my life ensuring these 30 girls, and the hundreds who will come after, get the same chance I did.

Because God never abandoned us. And we will never abandon each other.

About Kranti

Kranti NGO empowers girls from India’s red-light areas to become agents of social change…and happiness! Kranti currently supports 50+ girls & young women who are survivors of trafficking or daughters of sex workers. In the past decade, Kranti’s girls have: become the first girls from India’s red-light area to study abroad, received UN awards for their social justice work, delivered 100+ TEDx and other speeches around the world, and been featured on dozens of international media platforms. They’ve also written, directed and performed their own play in front of 1 million+ audience members, including Google & Facebook Headquarters. In 2017, their play was showcased at Edinburgh Fringe Festival and covered by BBC. In 2016, Kranti’s alternative school was named a Top 10 finalist for the $1 million Global Teacher Prize, and Krantikaris are currently studying in 14 different cities across the US, UK & Europe.

Please contribute here to support Kranti’s work & the Krantikaris’ dreams!