Krishna Mondal

Founder

Krishna Mondal is the founder of New Light (2000)[1], an Indian non-profit working on women & children, anti-trafficking and education from Kolkata.

Krishna Mondal is one of the founder trustees of New Light, a charitable trust working in the Kalighat red-light district of Kolkata. She helped set up the organisation in 2000 with Urmi Basu and another resident of the area, starting with a seed fund of about ten thousand rupees.

Mondal lives in the Kalighat community in which New Light works and has been closely involved in its protection and rescue work with women in prostitution, trafficked adolescent girls and their children.

Career

New Light began in 2000 on the terrace of a temple inside the Kalighat red-light district. Its stated aim is to promote gender equality and to counter violence and abuse against women, girls and young people, and it works against child prostitution and trafficking for the sex trade.

The trust runs a creche and night shelter for children of women in prostitution and for girls rescued from red-light areas, together with education support, healthcare, recreation and legal aid. Mondal is described by the organisation as a figure of protection within the community, intervening in rescue operations and supporting women and their children in leaving the sex trade.[2][3][4]

New Light

New Light works in Kolkata's Kalighat red-light district, running shelter homes, schooling and daycare for the children of sex workers so they are not left alone or drawn into the trade themselves. Founded by Urmi Basu, it also runs health and HIV-awareness programmes and vocational training for young people ageing out of its care.

New Light reports the following, on its own site: