Urmi Basu

Founder

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

Urmi Basu is an Indian social worker and activist who founded New Light, a charitable trust based in the Kalighat area of Kolkata, one of the city's oldest red-light districts. New Light provides shelter, education, healthcare, nutrition and legal support to the children of women in prostitution and to women and girls at risk of trafficking.

Early life and education

Basu was born in Kolkata; both her parents were medical professionals. She completed a master's degree in social work at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai in 1986.

Career

After some fifteen years of professional work, Basu set up New Light in Kolkata in 2000 with her own money and the help of two young people from the Kalighat neighbourhood. The organisation runs a creche and a night shelter, and provides education, healthcare and nutritional support to more than two hundred children.

Basu has spoken about what she calls trans-generational prostitution, noting that a large majority of daughters born to women in the trade enter it themselves, often in their early teens. In 2012 she and New Light were featured in Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, a documentary broadcast by PBS.

Recognition

Basu received the Nari Shakti Puraskar, India's national award for women, on International Women's Day in 2019.[2][3][4][5]

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: