“I have been in Sonagachi for 25 years. I rent this room for 114 Rupees a month. This is my home.”
Champa Das has invited me into her home. Champa Das has been a sex worker all her adult life.
Sonagachi is one of Calcutta’s largest red light districts – narrow alleys, lined with small ‘apartments’ and corner stores form a confusing and nightmarish maze. The buildings lean into the street, the roads are crowded, it’s hot. The city seems to want to eat itself. Everyone in our small group is tense. Champa Das’ decision to grant me access to her life has not been taken easily. Sonagachi is one of the very few places in India where women have a higher street profile than men. That’s because most of them are prostitutes. 9000 women, many of them trafficked into the country from Bangladesh or Nepal, work in Sonagachi. 60.000 more sex workers area active across Calcutta.
In overcrowded India things don’t come in small measures. Two and a half million women and children (around 500.000 prostitutes in India are under 16) are working in the country’s sex industry. More than 5 million people are already HIV positive. Governments, both local and national, do little to tackle the increasing risk of a large-scale AIDS epidemic.
Large red light areas like Sonagachi are at the center of a problem that may soon spiral out of control and affect millions of people in Bengal and the neighboring state of Bihar. Sex workers are socially shunned and prostitution is illegal, which makes the women in Sonagachi extremely susceptible to extortion, blackmail, rape or murder by local gangsters, pimps and the police. Along with the government, the media chooses to ignore the enormous scale of the industry.
Champa Das lives in a tiny, 2 by 7 meter corridor-like room. The room is divided into three partitions. The second partition has a real bed and a TV. We sit under the TV. The wall is painted an ugly green. Young men pop their heads through a hole in the opposite wall at regular intervals. There’s no privacy.
Champa Das points to an adjoining cubicle behind her, “I rent that room for 8 Rupees a day, to make some extra money.”
Sex in Sonagachi can be had for as little as 10 Rupees. Champa Das points to her front door. There, another bunk has been set up to make another potential 8 Rupees a day. There is little room for personal belongings. Champa Das is a devout Hindu and small statues of Ganesh line the walls.
“I have to pay extra for the TV.”
Suparna Tat is sitting next to me on the bed. Champa Das sits on the narrow bit of floor next to the bed. Suparna Tat has been a field worker and program coordinator for The Durbar Samanwaya Committee (DMSC) for a year. She has a degree in anthropology. Suparna Tat is conducting an ‘exposure visit’. I am being ‘exposed’ to Sonagachi.
The DMSC, also called Durbar, an organization representing sex workers in India and across the world, was founded in 1992 and receives large donations from the national government and foreign donors to fund AIDS prevention programs. The aim of the organization is to promote reliance, respect and recognition amongst sex workers.
Suparna Tat is a good translator. She sits cross-legged, playing with her mobile phone while talking to Champa Das. In the light of the neon overhead our host’s scars become clearly visible. Champa Das’ arms are lined with old cuts and her face is battered. Suparna Tat has never been a sex worker.
Champa Das remarks, “The lady who owns this building rents out ten rooms like mine. Each woman in each room sublets part of the room to another sex worker. These flyers come for the day, from another part of town. In the evening they go home, some to their families.”
Champa Das curses her landlady.
Suparna Tat does not translate. “It was a dirty word, I cannot translate it.” She laughs uncertainly. “I cannot even say it.”
Half eaten plates of food are stacked on the floor next to unwashed cooking pots. Outside, the alleys team with rats and shady young toughs. Women lean into shadowy doorways, tucking in their saris, scanning the passers-by. Sonagachi is a hard place, forgotten by day, remembered by night by India, by Calcutta, by thousands and thousands of men who come to the area, pay a quarter Dollar for sex and return to their lives, as if nothing had happened. But things are happening. India is top of the global list of quickly rising AIDS statistics.
French writer and activist Dominique LaPierre has been running aid projects in Calcutta for 20 years. The best-selling author of ‘The City Of Joy’ is clearly worried about the sex industry in India.
“We are facing big challenges. Leprosy, and more recently, AIDS, has begun to seep into all levels of Indian society. The sex trade in Mumbai and to an extent in Calcutta is flourishing. These cities have large populations of itinerant workers who all take the diseases they have been infected with back to their villages and families. AIDS is like a time bomb.”
Calcutta is a city crowded with millions of men from the hinterlands of Bihar and West Bengal. Builders, construction workers, rickshaw pullers, even taxi drivers in Calcutta are mostly from out of town.
The DMSC, which claims to have 60.0000 members, is running a ‘comprehensive health development program centering HIV/AIDS’. That’s what the pamphlet reads that Debashish Chowdury, the organisation’s monitoring officer, presses into my hand as we return to the Union’s offices.
Champa Das has no worries about condoms. “Thanks to the DMSC, we get condoms very cheap, 5 condoms for 2 Rupees. But the clients, at least three quarters of them, won’t use them.”
Komala Das and Rahma Sahni, Champa Das’ neighbors, agree. “ If we force them to use the condom, they will just go next door. There are so many women working here, and in the end, everyone is prepared to work without protection for fear of losing trade.”
In 1999 the DMSC claimed that 90% of clients used condoms. These days the official figure is 65%. Sanjay, a middle-aged pimp who controls a small group of women in Sonagachi, laughs at the statistics, “That would be great. Unfortunately the scale of the trade makes things like this hard to enforce.” It’s hard to verify figures like this independently, but sex workers all over Calcutta tell a different story.
Champa Das receives very little information. “Some sex workers are tested for HIV. If they are positive, they are not told of the results. They live with the disease, not knowing they are infected, because the DMSC is worried that HIV positive women will be ostracized.”
Given the conservatism, the public double standards and secrecy surrounding AIDS/HIV, the epidemic is likely to get much worse. According to DMSC, HIV positive cases in Sonagachi have risen from just 1% in 1992 to 9% today. In Mumbai (formerly Bombay), figures run as high as 70%.
It’s been a long journey to Champa Das. Not only is Sonagachi a prison no one can leave; it is also difficult to get in. The risk to go and talk to sex workers without outside help is considerable. Armed youths make direct contact with women living in the area difficult. The alternative to get access is an organization like Durbar. To see Champa Das involves getting permission to work in Sonagachi by the DMSC in the organisation’s aircon office, then having it abruptly withdrawn by case-workers as soon as we hit the narrow alleys of Sonagachi.
Eventually I am told I am not allowed to talk to anyone other than women directly involved in the organisation’s projects. I have already experienced exactly the same strategy at the hands of another organization purporting to help women in Calcutta. Journalists are regularly invited by aid organizations working in the sex trade, then blocked to see anything but the organization’s own projects. Sonagachi, it transpires, is firmly in the hand of the DMSC.
On a small square, an argument develops amongst the case-workers. The entire community of Sonagachi has the opportunity to witness the stand-off.
Back in the office of the DMSC, money talks.
Debashish Chowdury is standing in front of me, his hand open, demanding 30$ cash from myself and the photographer, for the ‘exposure visit’ we have just experienced. Suparna Tat has bowed out of the picture and disappeared into the air-con part of the building. Today, the DMSC office is almost exclusively staffed by efficient looking young middle-class men like Debashish Chowdury. He apologises again, “I am sorry this document was not shown to you prior to your exposure visit and I must insist you pay.”
The pamphlet, entitled ‘Welcome to Sonagachi’ outlines the DMSC’s objectives (many) and achievements (barely tangible). The document is badly written and carries no contact information. No address, no phone or email contacts, nothing.
In the last paragraphs of the pamphlet, the DMSC states that ‘we have decided to request our esteemed visitors to support our program through token donation. To systematize the process, Durbar (umbrella of sex workers different organizations) decided to put charges on exposure visits.’…..‘The charges fixed for this exposure visit is Rs. 1,000.00 (Rupees One thousand only) per person.’….‘This charge will include only project briefing and visit to a near-by field for a half a day program. This will not include food and travel expenses.’….‘Cars may be rented from our Project for visiting far-off field visits.’
A 1000 Rupees would go a long way with Champa Das. So would the 50 Million Rupees that the UMSC, a subdivision of the DMSC has in the bank, for a rainy day, apparently. Debashish Chowdury shows me some recent press clippings his organization has received. Melinda Gates, the wife of the world’s richest man, has been to Sonagachi. She left 200 Million $US in India to fight AIDS. Will it help in the hand of people who promote a red light area like a zoo? Melinda Gates thinks that India’s pop stars and cricket players will change the nation’s perception on HIV.
Debashish Chowdury is getting agitated by my questions, “You are misunderstanding all this. You cannot make a statement about Sonagachi after only an hour in the field. Many of the women here choose to work in Sonagachi. DMSC is fighting for the legalisation of this work in order to give dignity and independence to India’s sexworkers.”
Indeed, the DMSC has been organizing festivals in Calcutta, where sex workers cook and dance for the local community. In the eyes of the average Indian, that’s a fun day out freak show.
Mahla Singh, one of the organisation’s founders, states, ”It is rarely acknowledged that for most sex workers, entering the sex industry is not a result of coercion or an act of desperation but a rational choice.”
I spoke to scores of sex workers in brothels across Calcutta. The only sex workers I met who’d made a rational choice of sorts where the high class girls in the city’s discos who charge up to 1000$ a night. It’s a long way from a posh Park Street night-spot to Sonagachi. The vast majority of sexworkers in India were sold into the business. The DMSC is cultivating the image of the ‘happy hooker’, a vapid hope raised with donors in order to attract large funds from abroad.
Indrani Sinha, director of Sanlaap, another organization purporting to help sex workers, disagrees with the DMSC’s philosophy. “Most women are coerced into this trade. I don’t think legalisation is the solution. We hear of women being trafficked into Calcutta’s red light districts every day. I wouldn’t even call prostitution work in this country.”
To celebrate its 12-year anniversary, the DMSC recently produced a fashion show. Debashish Chowdury is reluctant to show me the press clipping. After some heckling he hands me the Bengal-language reports. Sex workers turned into catwalk models for just one day. The clothes sold, the women went back to work. The monitoring officer has understood that it’s not a story a western audience might take to.
I refuse to pay. “With all due respect, I cannot pay this fee, which is squarely aimed at the media and trivializes the terrible circumstances out in the street. Prostitutes appear to have few rights in Calcutta, despite the best efforts of organizations like Durbar.”
Debashish Chowdury asks me to put my point of view in writing (I am doing so now), “The director is the child of a sex worker you know. WE don’t use the word prostitute. It’s derogatory. We believe sex workers should be allowed to work legally.”
He knows as well as I do that this is not going to happen anytime soon in a society where women have little independence and many are regularly abused, disadvantaged, starved and sold, beaten and killed by their male superiors, partners or family members. I am talking about ordinary women. Women like Champa Das are right at the bottom of a human pyramid so gigantic it almost defies definition. In other red light areas around the city, like Kalighat, thousands of young Nepali and Bengali girls work out of small hovels. In train stations all over Calcutta, in alleys and in the streets, more than a hundred thousand children eke out a living, sliding in and out of sex abuse situations every day.
Debashish Chowdury and I have come to an impasse, when our argument is helped along by a young voice behind me. “Mr. Chowdury is right of course. We need to give the women respectability. Only then can they be independent. You must not misrepresent this area as a place of misery.”
Gazi Nazrul Islam Faisal is project manager of a Marie Stopes HIV Prevention Project in Bangladesh. Gazi Nazrul Islam Faisal is on a fact-finding mission and does not have to pay for ‘exposure visits’. Gazi Nazrul Islam Faisal is a man. So are his two colleagues who have come over from Bangladesh. Except for photographer Aroon Thaewchatturat, all present in the room are men. We are talking about what women, who have no power over their bodies and lives, who are not free by any definition of the word, want. Debashish Chowdury wants my money. I want to go back to Champa Das and hear something real. My fixer tells me a gang of men has been following us and it is time to get into a taxi and leave the area.
“We have problems with landlords, the police and local goondas (gangsters). We try to help each other and it’s really tough. But we only go to the NGO as a last resort.”
As I leave Champa Das, she smiles in the door to her room, “Tell people about what it is like to live here, what you saw and what you heard.”
The fight for the women of Sonagachi continues. So does the trade of new girls to the area. Despite periodic denials by the DMSC, it’s a thriving business. No one has yet suggested to go after the clients, the pimps or the police. Perhaps in ten years time, the women of Sonagachi will have wrested control from the male-dominated society whose iron grip they feel every time they turn a trick. Perhaps, in a better future, the sex workers will be controlled by organizations like the DMSC and happy young Indian women will flock into the world’s oldest profession with new-found rights and enthusiasm. Perhaps. In the meantime, if I need to hire a car, I know where to go. Do they provide female drivers?
Published in the Irish Independent.
Postscript:
I am receiving a lot of comments for this story. Some of them can be read below. Some readers unfortunately send very abusive emails, generally aiming their torrents of anger at the sex workers. Also, many readers comment only to brag about their sexual escapades in India or inquire about how to access the sex trade in Kolkata. Most of these mails are deleted.
But due to the continuing flood of these disturbing confessions, I have now decided to run just one chilling comment from a Sonagachi client on this page. There is nothing typically Indian about this missive – abusive, criminal sexual predators exist all over the world. This comment illustrates the terrible abuse sex workers face.
I had a pleasent exprience of sex in sonagachi with anupriya she has been associated in this line at the age of 8years when her mother forced her to work as a prostitute. her ugly face was in tolerable but for in her lust i bang her for more than one hours at the rate of 125 as per the rate it would be only 25 rupees,but her crying face compailed me to give her 100 rupees. her house would not be more than 3meters per side still she managed to survive in that room.
i met with her mother and enquired about her life when she told me that she had been in sonagachi since 1983.she was verry helpless and recless when she was forced to be fucked by 3 person at a time. may she get more and more customers in future. call her in XXXXXXXXX (phone number removed).
For those readers who continue to contribute constructive messages and criticism, the comments remain open .
sex with the prostitute is never at the age of 15 or above .
This incident will create very bad impression for him. A prostitute is raped by mentally as well as physically.
So never expect more from a prostitute than human flesh / genital of human being. etc.
thanks sir for such an wonderful post. the topic of prostitution is widely spread all over the world. to understand why a lady opts for this we first have to solve the matter of economy of a country.
PAIN OF A HUNGRY STOMACH IS MUCH MORE PAINFUL THAN A UNWANTED SEXUAL INTERCOURSE. things have gone to worst for them day by day because they have always been ignored of the society same as untouchables, problem is people go out there have sex with them and then never look back at them. if today a child takes birth in a brothel THATS ALSO A FAULT OF WE MEN WHO GO OUT THERE TO HAVE FUN WITH HER PROBLEMS.
it is not only with india same problem is going around in countries like ukraine and romania. its like people have accepted them with vague terms like “sluts” being working in many NGOs and also a amateur psychologist i truly have immense amount of respect for prostitutes around the world they are sacrificing more than we normal people can ever understand, today they are prone to gangsters who rape them they are prone to rapists. ISNT IT A SACRIFICE???? cuz if today they wouldnt have fulfilled the urges of these bloody sick morons known as “RAPISTS or PIMPS” then probably normal ladies would be in much more threat than they are today. SO PLEASE HAVE SOME RESPECT ON THEM.
can i know about sonagachi details with photo and phone numbers
Let me help
I greatful to visit that site… because I have no idea about this Big Place…. A warm greating for the sex workers from my side … Wish there a very Happy New year 2012
Thanks a lot for this article on Sonagachhi – the largest red light area in Kolkata.It’s heping people to know about sex workers.The life they chose , the life they lead in most of the cases due to their unavoidably bad conditions not out of their own choice.Rather they do not have anything called choice at all.
Dear Friends,
Prostitution has became a profession from very old time. We can,t change it. Yes we can remove those who are working under pressure. We could give smiles on their face by rescuing them from antisocials. Some females like prostitution than a painful life/situation. Our society/Nation/Laws should provide all their human rights in view of humanity. People shouldn,t smile on them in public place. Police /Media shouldn,t make the issues/alegations on them as well as their customers for prostitution work. Police/Media should take actions on those who are presurising females to do it.
A good article. It needs attention…
Tom the problem is …you are writing in India … these people only know how to screw people … Tom I am lawyer … i always wanted to work on behalf of these people …. as my emphasis is on human rights … so I will be glad if can help you … contact me anytime you want … It’s great article Tom …fantastic.
GOOD THIS IS A VERY GOOD FOR EVERY ONE
Plz sum 1 tell me how to save girls from dat place.. I really wanna save atleast 1 gal from dat place n let me give her a life..
JOY RCM !!
TO SOCIAL WORK TO REMOVE THE PROESQUTER GIRL WITH PROPER KNOWLEDG.
Hi sir u r doing a great job for those sex workers in sonagachi
i am proud
of you
I WANT TO WORK WITH YOU. ANY NGO”S INTERESTED TO JOIN ME . REALLY I WANT TO WORK WITH THIS NGO. I WANT TO KNOW WHY AND HOW THESE LADY’S ARE DOING THIS WORK.
I visit sg once in a year i have fixed girl for whom i carry gift, chocolate and give her extra money in hand whenevr i go to her. she is very good polite, smiling face and very lovable, i cant chnage her life since she is already into this for may be 10 years. i try to pass some time with her talk about her personal life and while she looks into the gifts etc. her eyes sparkles i get some comfort.It is not because of the orgasm but because people can pass some good time with these girls ( not all may be some of them are bad in behaviour ) most lot of them are very good hearted and very very neglected in the society hence they look for some good people for good behaviour.
God bless them !
Dear Tom,
People say that prostitution is a necessary evil but I don’t think so; this is just a phrase constructed by them who are unable to control their own lust. They are not humans, in my eyes.
But then again, since it cannot be stopped at once, the best thing is stopping the girls from being trafficked into it. My real-life experience says there are many NGOs that opened apparently to help the sex workers; later I found out they are just a means of earning free money and free flesh. This is Kolkata, where people would sell another person’s blood to make money. However, if you ever feel of starting something to stop the trafficking part, I shall be most grateful to offer whatever little help that I can.
I THINK PROSITUTION IS A CONTINUING FROM THE PERIOD OF HUMAN CIVILAZATION,SEX IT AS A BASIC NEED OF OUR BODY AS WE EAT SLEEP PLAY AND OTHER THINGS WE DO.
PROSTITUTION CAN NOT BE CLOSED FROM HISTORY IT IS IN OUR SOCIETY AND CIVILIZATION SO IT SHOULD BE LEGALIZE SO THAT THE CORRUPTION AND EXPLOITATION CAN BE REDUCE IN THIS INDUSTRY.
IT IS NEED TO MINIMIZE THE RAPE AND CHILD SEXUAL HARRASMENT.SO AS PER MY OPPINOIN IT IS REQUIRED IS SOCIETY TO BALANCE THE AND FOR NEEDY PERSON BECAUSE THEY GET A PROPER PLACE NAD THE PROSTITUTE WILL GET A NEEDY CUSTOMER AND THERE SHOULD BE SOME GUDILINE LKE OTHER BUSSENESS AND STRICCT RULE BY OFFICIAL
NEEDY PERSON FIND ITS PLACE BY PAYING OR BY FORCE OR BY EMOTION THE MATTER IS TO ENJOY ON THAT TIME AND MOMENT
SO IT MUST BE LEGALIZE
hey tom>>>>>.
thank you for reviling these kind of facts abt the area like sonagachi….i wish Indian govt. could do better for these women s 4 better living . but tom those who r asking u for tips for a trip o songachi are real bastards . and the one fool who is just asking for help to set up a sex center in oorissa is a ass hole….
and using name of christans that is realy pathetic may god forgiive them…….
Dear sir i am babuni from bhubaneswar.your article is so impressive..but i would be grateful if u make a report on people of Malisahi ,Bhubaneswar.Malisahi is recognized as the red light area of our state..please have a glance on it..
shame…………………………………….. for a country called golden bird
are you humans????????……shame on mankind……
Hello tom,
This last summer, I worked with an NGO called prerana in the brothels kamatiguda(Mumbai). I’m 22 and though I live in Toronto, I guess my life has been very shielded. When I came to Kamatiguda, I felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. I saw the reality of life for a prostitute. I saw little girls who were raped and tortured. The feeling is perhaps one of the most painful things in the world.
It’s sad though. Because I have told my friends what I have been through (friends in India) (I am in India now doing my under grad) and they just smile and nod.
Recently another friend of mine declares he is going to Sonagachi and asked all the guys to come along. He started saying these things
1. it’s like a line up. You can pick anyone
2. You can feel them up and check for tightness (at this point I knew reasoning with him was a waste of time)
3. It only cost 300 per night for a sexy maal (maal = hot chick?)
4. V will stay there for 3 nights. That is less than 1000 bucks! Let’s go
Then One of my friends (I think I need a change of friends) says can I get more than one at a time? (:O)
And the reply is
5. Obviously man! U can have as many as u can.
6. V will go there. Drink and fuck, drink and fuck, drink and fuck
I left a little bit later. It was too much for me… I realized one thing. All these guys (my friends), they were from well of families, good communities, have girlfriends etc. etc. then why would they behave like such animals? Simple. The Indian man doesn’t look at a woman as his equal. It’s sad. Its heart wrenching.
I would like to start an N.G.O one day after I have enough money. I don’t want to take help or aid from outsiders. I want to help save the children, the young girls, from all these disgusting predators. I don’t believe it would help but I pray for the tortured souls in all the brothels all over the world
P.S please feel free to omit anything that you feel is innappropriate..
A very intimidating article highligting some of the major facts of our society. Women, often young girls, are induced into this kind of a profession sheerly out of misery and compulsion.Also the hypocrisy and the atrocities of the Indian society is highly depressing.We all comment and boast about contributing something for the betterment of the society but when the time actually comes to do something people just shun away.Take little steps. Propagate safe sex – use protection,respect women,if you see something immoral/illegal happening around you – raise alarm, etc. and i think we all can make a difference to the society and in turn the dreadful condition of humanity.
http://www.stopprostitution.com/
http://derasachasauda.org/
Dear All
Please read and visit this site.
you realy feel very good and you also involved to stop prostitution.
After seeing “Born into Brothels”, I cannot help but feel the tug of humanity to form up on one side or the other of a line of demarcation known as “consideration for other than self” Apart from trying to validate nightmarish situations perpetuating themselves, the fact of the pure existence of a place such as Sonagachi simply shows the controlling number of people on the wrong side of that line of demarcation. Humanities future continues to hang in the balance. No pun intended..
Hi Partha,
I did this story many years ago and while I periodically pass through Kolkata, I don´t visit Sonagachi when I am there. Feel free to post your thoughts on this blog though.
Best,
Tom
can i know about sonagachi details with photo and video
Hi, Tom
I want to talk about it, do u have gtalk/skype/msn id for talk ?When u r coming next?
shame !!! disgusted !!!
Dear Loy, thanks for your comment. I don´t feel I contributed to any noble cause. Since my visit to Sonagachi, nothing has changed there. Girls are still being bought and sold and NGOs still make money by allegedly helping the ‘inmates’. Foreign money still flows into the pockets of organizations who have no interest in real solutions and every interest in making more money. Perhaps the real problem are not just the clients but also the aid organizations who purport to fight for sex workers’ dignity and well-being.
Tom
Dear Tom,
It really touched my heart. Its so painful to know human beings have become so merciless that they need satisfaction from someones pain. I had just heard about the place but after reading your article i feel so shaken that the people sell themselves for mere sum of money.
My wishes and prayers with all of you who are contributing towards the noble cause.
Best Regards,
Loy
Im an 20 yrs old guy and i want to share something about my experience in this topic. I must say selling body just for earning money ,not bad but not good enough aswell.i went to SONAGACHI with my freinds only for the first time.i met with a nepali prostitutes after when i came from there ive started thinking about them,and there was only two question clicking my mind WHY N HOW they are doing this.basically many of them are trafficked.ive search on youtube how they are taken to these mess.trust me whenever i think about dat i cry .i want to stop human traffiking in all over the world but it wont be possible for a single human bieng so please as ive left my email id contact me please in the name of mighty lord.i want to help my self by helping the childrens and to those who are becoming
My heart broke down after reading this article . I want to do some help for this prostitutes
Im an 20 yrs old guy and i want to share something about my experience in this topic. I must say selling body just for earning money ,not bad but not good enough aswell.i went to SONAGACHI with my freinds only for the first time.i met with a nepali prostitutes after when i came from there ive started thinking about them,and there was only two question clicking my mind WHY N HOW they are doing this.basically many of them are trafficked.ive search on youtube how they are taken to these mess.trust me whenever i think about dat i cry .i want to stop human traffiking in all over the world but it wont be possible for a single human bieng so please as ive left my email id contact me please in the name of mighty lord.i want to help my self by helping the childrens and to those who are becoming prostitutes by force.praise the lord
i hate sonagachi.
what the hell are this bloody sex workers?
By extension, female sex workers face even more dire circumstances than ordinary women. Legalizing the sex industry might not be such a bad idea. It will not stop prostitution but it will give women a little more control over their bodies. Besides inequality, the problem lies with the fact that sex is indeed a needed thing and that Indians have so little access to it – which goes a long way to explain the horrific wave of sexual assaults currently washing across the subcontinent.
Dear Jam,
Many thanks for your comments. While I agree that the exploitation of sex workers in India is horrific, I don’t think lust is the problem. Nor is raping your wife at home the solution. Sex is indeed a needed thing, in India and elsewhere. The real problem lies in the fact that women in India are second class citizens and, for the most part, have no rights or independence, no matter which religious group they belong to and which part of the subcontinent they live in.
I am completely disgusted by some of the comments by indian males. Wonder why on earth did their moms give birth to these scums >.<. Weren’t they all born to s mother? If sex is such a needed thing that you have got to “rape” innocent girls or even kids to satisfy your lust, then maybe start with the women at your home first? And to the idiots who wants to legalize prostitution, start it at your home first? I can’t believe how brainless can some people be. Btw Tom, good write up, how I wish we had some sort of supernatural powers to just end this misery all together.
Dear Sahanka,
If you read my article carefully, you would have noticed that I am not an organization and that some organization who claim to help the women of Sonagachi actually contribute to their misery.
Best,
Tom
i read different articale from internet about sonagachi work thanks to all of organization those who are working in this area.
thanks 4 giving informations!!!!!!!
Sonagachi is but a symptom of a greater malaise that is not confined to India. To improve the lot of the women working the streets of Sonagachi is up to local people though, not foreigners, who, with their donations, are unlikely to improve anything other than an amelioration of their own personal feelings of guilt.
dear sir,
people and sex is common matter, we take it easy because it is a human tendency, but consciousness
is inevitable.For hiv and other sexual problem. no born with sin. some circumstance made him to sinful live. if we understand perpetually that people belong to normal human why we hate him! some change needs in our society. sir i am with you.
plz……..stop all diz nonesense..
fck all dos pimps. plz try and do something to stop dis shit buisness….
Change Sonagachi, and I am your that individuals like you will change the world some day.
Hi all,
I am new to Calcutta. Ever since my stepping into the city, I am always uncomfortable. Its congested, pressure all over… except my office!
While just trying to know what Sonagachi is, I landed into this article. I am in loss of a word to explain my feelings… If I say, pathetic, My heart again says, ‘just that ??’ To let the Sonagachi breath in, I think the parks like ‘City Central Park’, ‘Victoria Mahal’ and all parks should be shut down for some years or atleast strictly not allow fore-play activities. I have even observed a lady police in the state of a helpless onlooker at this activities in Victoria Mahal. Why I link this to bread for women at Sonagachi is obvious. Initially they can atleast get some good food and living to survive like humans. There after the restoration, rehabilitation etc etc. I plead the girls of Calcutta, ‘stop craving for orgasms in parks’, let your counter parts visit Sonagachi! As an alternative, you girls can concentrate on education or do something else. You ppl are doing that for fun whereas the women at Sonagachi are doing that to stay alive. I have seen pictures of girls over internet in Sonagachi. (The best example is the author’s Post Script which shows what’s happening to the kids in Sonagachi). I got numb going through the reportage. God can’t help. The Kolkatans need to.
News like this makes me feel so fragile to be a female. This is hell- actual true hell. I wonder where god is or if there even is a god??
How sadistic, cruel and inhumane! How can men be like this? More shockingly how can WOMEN force their fellow sisters and daughters into this fire?
The least I hope (to god if there god be) is that every poor young innocent girl/child dies before getting raped.
Indian politicians will never allow anything good to be done for these people – no point in trying Mrs Gates! :'(
dear sir i liked ur article really its shame i wanna work with u pls give me chance one i can do something for ur ngo