NEW DELHI, July 22, Reuter - Indian welfare officials on Friday announced plans to create hostels for the children of prostitutes to shelter them from a world of crime.

"We will give land rights, construction grants and running costs to voluntary agencies prepared to run the institutions," said V.P. Suri, New Delhi's director of social welfare.

"It is important that we create a completely different environment for these children where they can grow up knowing there is an alternative to crime," he said.

Formerly, the father's name had to be given when a child was registered for school.

Welfare officials said that although some children got into schools by giving false names, a red-light district address would often reveal that their mothers were prostitutes and condemn the children to a life of ignorance.

Schools have now been told to accept mothers' names alone for registration. But the officials said prostitutes' children were still shunned by schoolmates.

This leads those who get into schools to perform badly and drop out early with no qualifications and no chance for jobs. They take refuge in the sordid world into which they were born, the social workers said.

"We want to get them out of there, get them educated, get them a job," said Khairati Lal Bhola, an activist whose prostitutes' rights group claims 100,000 members across India.

"I can't bear to see those kids pimping for their mothers, dealing smack (heroin). But what option do they have?" he said in an interview.

Suri promised that his social welfare department would bear 90 per cent of the cost of a hostel, at first housing around 60 children, if Bhola could come up with the rest.

But that is proving difficult. The 2,000 prostitutes who support Bhola's work in Delhi cannot contribute. Of the average 25 rupee (two dollar) fee they charge, they are left with 7.5 rupees (45 cents) after the brothels have their cut.

Bhola hopes greater public awareness of the plight of prostitutes and their families will bring in the money needed to get the hostel project going soon.

"People need sex like they need food," he said. "If there were no prostitutes, watch out for your sister, your daughter, your mother.

"They are an essential part of society, and we must not treat them as pariahs."