She was born to a bar dancer. At age 8, she was sexually abused by her step-father. In 2009, bar dancing got banned in Mumbai, rendering her mother jobless. She started servicing customers at home which made Sheetal Katti furious. What added to her misery was the constant sexual abuse by her step-father and a bad relationship with her mother.
But life had something good planned for 22-year-old Sheetal Katti, now the first woman from a redlight area to have travelled abroad for higher education. She is pursuing her passion of playing drums. “When I was a child, one thing that used to excite me was the beating of drums during Ganesh Chaturthi. I would groove to its beats. My mother was a talented dancer and I wanted to dance too. But she didn’t allow me to live that life. So I opted for playing drums. Kranti fueled my passion and I went to the US to study at the levine School of Music on a scholarship for a year and a half. I currently work as a drum circle facilitator in a company called Taal in Pune. I also host therapy workshops for underprivileged children from Flow NGO,” Katti tells you.
Before coming to Kranti, Katti went through a rough phase. It all started when her grandmother was sold to a brothel by her husband. She got addicted to alcohol and drugs. “My mother was born there and instead of sending her to school, she was made to work as a househelp. My mother was a talented dancer. With the help of a friend, she got into bar dancing. She later got married to my father who cheated on her and married some other woman in his village.
“My mother took a divorce and I was born as a premature baby. While growing up, I would see her going with her customers to earn extra. She too got into alcohol and drugs. She started remaining disturbed mentally,” Katti says.
To keep Katti away from bar dancing, her mother sent her to a hostel school in Goa. “I used to study till second standard in one school and then switched to another. Everytime I changed my school, I had to start from Class I. After some time, my mother got married to my stepfather and my younger brother was born. The step-father used to show a lot of love for me. little did I realise it was leading to sexual abuse,” Katti says.
When she was eight, she was sexually abused by him for the first time. He used to go to Goa to bring her back to Mumbai. “When he used to come to take me home, we used to stay for a night at a hotel as it used to get very late. Twice during those nights, I woke up with no clothes on my body. I didn’t know what he used to do with me. He would touch me inappropriately. It used to pain a lot and then I realised this was not the way to express love. There were other uncles who also abused me but I never told anyone. I just used to pretend was sleeping when it happened. By the time I turned 11, I started running away from people, especially my step-father,” Sheetal tells you.
As her mother loved her step-father Sheetal did not tell her anything. But all hell broke loose when her step-father left her mother and younger brother. “My mom and I started having fights. One day she threw me out of the house and I had to stay at her friend’s place. This friend would deprive me of food if I was unable to finish work. She beat me up a lot. I had no education. I thought of becoming a bar dancer or just getting married,” Katti says.
She returned to her mother’s house and soon her step-father returned too. They put her in a Christian hostel.
“There they had strict rules. We could not talk to other girls or be friends with boys outside. I got admission in Class VII. I did not meet or talk to my mother for four years. I felt like an orphan. My teachers used to discriminate against me a lot. When I was in Class X, there was a boy who I used to like. After knowing my story, he helped me get in touch with my mom who was then living with another uncle. I requested her to take me back. The hostel got to know about this boy and stopped my schooling. I so desperately wanted to study further and do something in life,” Sheetal recalls.
She stayed with her mother for five months but she too did not let her join a school. “There was a lot of anger in me for my mother. My peer group was doing well in life and getting good education but I was deprived from that. For every small thing I had to struggle a lot — be it for food, shelter or education. There was very little money to run the house and my uncle would fight with my mother,” Sheetal says.
It was when two of her friends joined Kranti and introduced me to it too. Her life transformed after joining Kranti. Here, she not only got an education but also pursued her passion of playing drums. She has given performances at various places in the US.
“At Kranti, what impacted me the most was the therapy workshop that helped me let go of my past and accept my mother as she is. I never used to express myself to my mom and share my background with others. When I saw other girls like me sharing their stories of and pain, I opened up. It encouraged me a lot,” she says.