Amrapali Utkarsh Sangh

*Genesis

“Vimlashram”, the brain child of Mr. Ram Ingole dates back to the year 1980. In those days the commercial sex workers at Nagpur locality called Ganga-Jamuna were facing a lot of hardship from the local anti-social elements and police. After an unceasing plight of 12 years struggle from Nagpur to Surat, Mr. Ram Ingole and his team could restore human dignity for these commercial sex workers. It was conceived that if the habits and tendencies as well mind set of CSWs are changed, they won’t drag their innocent children into this flesh trade. Then there was a big question: Who will take care of the children of CSWs? After frequent meetings and deliberations, the rehabilitation centre named as Vimlashram came into existence in the year 1992. Later in 1993 the like-minded people formed Amrapali Utkarsh Sangh and got it registered as the legal entity.

*The Crusader

A restless energetic teenager Ram Ingole was drawn into a struggle for the people unknown to him and to the outer world at large. The police action to evict the CSWs was in process at Ganga-Jamuna’ of Nagpur. Way back in 1980, brutal police action was initiated against the CSWs without any plans for rehabilitation, either of the women or their kids. Young Ram opposed the police action on the principles, on which he opposes the recent action too. His approach to this age-old social problem is that ‘the woman in this trade dies hundred times a day to make a living’. She is not in this business out of her own volition. If these ladies are removed from here, they will establish their business somewhere else, in different localities. The malaise will spread which is now confined to a particular place. Such activities from one place can be closely monitored.’ He won the battle then. It was a long, arduous struggle.

The struggle exposed another problem in the system, what about the kids of CSWs? No CSW intended to have a child in the first place. They were all unwanted. But once born they would all end-up in the same business, female as a prostitute and male as a pimp. This was more dreadful to young Ram than the eviction of CSWs. What about their education? No CSW ever thought of educating her kids. She never believed that any school would ever give admission to her kids. Young Rambhau, hardly in his twenties, still not familiar with nursing a child took full-fledged custody of one, then two, four kids. The number went on swelling fast. He was mother, father, nurse and everything to those unfortunate kids. He not only provided food and shelter to them, he put them into descent schools.
Today, three of his 'daughters’ and two of his ;sons’ are engineers and employed with dignity.

Rambhau has a strong belief and a sense of practical action that the kids should have a bright future and lead a free and self-reliant life. Rambhau continued his work against police brutalities, goon attacks and survived to live his dream to create a better world for the kids of CSWs and extended his arms to protect other destitute children, particularly of stone quarry workers in Panchgaon area at the outskirts of Nagpur.

He established a residential school called ‘Navin Desai Residential School’ at the nearby foothills. Here too, 239 students studying in 1st to 9th standard are living and learning. They too are given best possible education, curricular as well as extra-curricular. All his projects are run under the aegis of Amrapali Utkarsha Sangh (AUS) which is registered as an NGO under appropriate laws of the land. AUS works within the laws of the land with a goal to profess and practice human values towards wellbeing of humanity especially the disadvantaged through education with a difference.

Considering social value of the AUS, govt. has granted it permission to receive foreign charities. The charities from domestic donors are eligible for appropriate exemption under S.80G of the Income Tax Act.