“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 .
I found your article very well writen. I have been working with the women in Sonagachi and other red light areas in the city for 3 years. The stories are the same none of these women choose this. Poverty, Traffiking, Male Dominace; that is how these women end up here. I see more and more evidence of DMSC exploiting these vunrebale women. It is not just DMSC that exploit many of the police rape these women as well.
These women need a choice, they need to be given the right to choose something else if they so desire. It can not be about rescue but rather about choice. Fortunatley there are dignified options for women wanting to leave the sex trade. There are organisations (few and small but they do exist)that are providing these alternatives. But I agree what really needs to change is society’s attitude to women. Until women are seen as equal members of society, not chatel that can be brought or sold, nothing will change.
Dear TOM AND JERRY (IF PRESENT)
I think you should go as a 100% client to know the details…anyway if you are writing this article for an oscar wining movie..definitely you will get it…best of luck,but can you please write something regarding terrorism which is more problematic in india than prostitution.Prostitution is worlds oldest profession …it was there evrywhere and it will be there everywhere because nature made human like that only.California is the largest prostitution area and largest porn movie maker in the world….you can go there also for your subject.Thank you very much for your concern.
Dear Abhi,
Thanks for your comments, none of which are unfortunate. The article was primarily written to report on the abuse NGOs inflict on sex workers in Sonagachi. Obviously, these kinds of situations replicate themselves all over the planet. India is by no mean unique. And I have reported from many Asian countries, and, as you suggest, am not out to malign India in any way.
Most importantly, it is the readers of this blog who keep coming back and leave comments, many of them fascinating, astute and to the point, like yours. It’s a lively discussion about a subject that is obviously close to the hearts of the people of West Bengal, as most of the comments originate there.
Hello Tom, Majority of Indians basically suffer from illiteracy, greed, corruption, inhumanity, idiosyncrasy, no self respect, having weird mindsets and outlook towards self and society on the whole… though it may sound cliche, nobody can deny it. Unless some of the very basic grass-root systems go through a total upheaval and change for the better, which is highly unlikely in the near future, many of the wrong doings of the society including atrocities in the name of flesh trade be it sonagachi or elsewhere will remain as it is, if not worse. Nevertheless 10% of responsible humans at least try to make some difference in their own efforts with their contributions which do help the cause in a positive note one way or the other. Your article will be a food for thought for many. Regards.
Dear Raj,
If you legalize prostitution (it will certainly not get tired, go to sleep and disappear), all the middle men who feed on the trade, the pimps, the police and the NGOs will no longer to squeeze money out of the business. The women and men who work in the sex business would have some protection (by the law) and more control over their bodies and lives. This doesn’t just go for India. Prostitution exists absolutely everywhere and is almost always illegal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_by_country
Tom: a gud artical. i just want to know that what u mean by legalizing
Dear Atul,
Thanks for your comment. yes, it is shocking that NGOs continue to work in Songachi, happily take tens of thousands of dollars of donors and yet the situation of the women working there does not change at all. A drive to campaign against donors throwing more money at the organizations might actually improve the situation of the sex workers.
Most of the sex workers are trafficked from Bangladesh that’s why sex is so cheap in Sonagachi this trafficking should be checked so that number of sex workers decrease and they will have a good working environment like use of condoms should be mandatory.
though so many NGO’s are working still use of condom is at very less rate and when one gets HIV disease though she is not being informed this is a shameful thing
Hi rkp,
Thanks for your comment. Yes, legalizing would solve many problems, not just in Sonagachi. It would protect sex workers, at least in some cases, from predators, not just clients but also officials and police and would regulate the industry and therefore also set our clear rules for clients, as well as reduce their risks. More integration into mainstream society appears to be the way to go.
Rahul,
Belated thanks for your comments. Good contribution to this debate.
Dear Tom,
Lets fight for legalisation. Nothing will help unless it is legalize. There is demand for sex and it will be fulfilled either mutual or forcefully. By legalising this business we can protect all of them. When we have accepted Sunny Leone…We will accept Sex workers as part of society and family…….
hello Tom, first of all i would like to thanks you for publishing such a nice article, here i expressing my view related to such human trafficking or a sex business.For me its just a killing of humanity, i don’t think that any of this girl are enjoying this work, they are in thing because they are in compulsion,i never visited such area and i never want too,but at the same time i feels sad for those people who go there for there need,to fulfill there need lot of innocent girl thrown forcibly into this profession but,people went and enjoy there night but they never think that why they are in this profession,what compulsion do they have.
we all belongs to good class of society we people have every thing because our parents sacrifice there young age to built our life,do they have such life,can they give such life to there children’s,no never because there parents are not with them that’s why they are sacrificing there life.
tom, i personally believe that instead of going there and wasting money on doing sex,people should use that money in there rehabilitation.once again i am saying that this is my personal view.
now in sonagachi sex worker are forcefuly teke your all money . I was sufferd.
Dear James, thank you very much for your comment and contribution to this long running discussion. As you can see there have been some 140 comments so far. The story gets about 8000 hits a month and I flag many comments because some content is inappropriate or obscene. My story is not about the complete eradication of prostitution in Kolkata, more generally in India, or elsewhere. It is merely a window into one particular brothel in Kolkata and a brief insight into the lives of the women there who suffer the abuse of a specific NGO which exploits them.
The comments received over the years run the entire gamut of opinion on the subject and some contributors do call for unrealistic solutions as you point out. That said, most of the regular workers in Sonagachi, as far as I am aware, are not there by their own “choice’, except for freelancers that come into the area daily and then go home when they have finished work. The situations of the tens of thousands of sex workers who live in the area is very different, most have been trafficked – there are many Bangladeshi, Burmese and Nepali women there as well as Indians, and most have been abused beyond the the usual abuse that comes with the job.
I personally think that to improve the lot of the women in places like Sonagachi, they need to be given rights first and that the clients need to be discriminated against and that prostitution should be legalized. For this to happen a shift in perception in India as a whole vis a vis sexuality and women’s rights needs to take place and I see no progress towards this since I wrote the story almost a decade ago.
I do agree with your stance in some ways. But I also want to give people with other opinions a voice on this forum, unless those opinions are abusive or discriminating. My article is there to encourage debate, not to offer complete solutions. In this sense, your own contribution is as valued and appreciated as all the other 140 posts. Best, Tom
Guys and Tom,
Look this is entire scenario is not as simple as it seems. Prostitutes are prostitutes because there are people who want sex AND people get what they want because prostitues are prostitutes. (I hope I’m able to convey myself). Secondly we need to understand that there’s no clear demarkation between women who were forced into this buisness and those who came at their own will so you really can’t pull everyone out,can you? Would that be justified? Definately there is a strong need for an immediate and efficient action on the issue but, HOW DO YOU DO THAT? It isn’t really not that simple(for the reasons mentioned above),is it? Plus what do you expect that poor woman to do after being pulled out of that brothel? She’s been in that brothel since she was just a kid. I guess it’d be better if we focus towards improving their standard of living and educating their children instead of aiming to eradicate this buisness all at once.
P.S- I am no one to be believed. It’s just what I think and believe of and about this sad issue.
It is great that they are relaxing the hardcore people
all this things are very unhelthy
Hey, thanks for your kind comments and great to hear you thought the article was good.
Hi Tom,
Congratulations on your blog and i really appreciate the time and effort you put in to write this blog.I have lived in northern part of Kolkata for 20 before leaving the city.Everything you figured about starting from sex workers to NGO’s are damn true.And I would say the story is almost same in other parts of India too,Im sure you are aware of it.We are growing as a nation.Bright side has become so bright today that the society has no time to look at the dark side.As a result its becoming darker.What can be solution of these problems?Raising lots and lots of International donation? Organizing fashion show for sex workers? legalizing it or Organizing HIV awareness camps?I believe the solution is simple but executing it will be a very challenging one and can take more than a lifetime.That is educating the society.Every man should learn to respect women.Every parent should teach their sons how to behave with women rather than teaching their daughters what to wear.Hope there will be a day when these people will be one of us(currently they are not considered),will have a family and will be able to hold their children high.Fingers crossed.
It should be do if all are accept.
Dear friends,
As per All of yours comments…
What can we do now???
Sexualism is legal in india?
If the people have a sex with sonakachi sex workers, will they would have suffer with an HIV/AIDS????
Dear Sandeep, many thanks for your interesting comment. I don’t see how you might assume that I see myself as any kind of authority on Sonagachi. The article you comment on is one of hundreds I have written. If you know anything about journalism and Kolkata, you can work out how much time it takes to get access to this kind of story and if you take a closer look at my blog you will notice just how much time I spend in India. Whether you find my experiences subjective or not, the article has generated a lot of discussion, including this exchange and that to my mind is a good thing. As to the ‘freak’ incident, I completely disagree. DMSC is all about money and exploitation and this seemed as good an example as any to illustrate the terrible state of affairs in Sonagachi. A perfect representation of greedy, and to my mind typical NGO behavior in India and beyond. As far my significance in the greater scheme of things is concerned, it is of course entirely irrelevant – the women of Sonagachi continue to be exploited, Indian society continues to look anywhere but there and your comment does nothing to address the specific problems on the subcontinent vis a vis sexuality, equality and the right to personal freedom. Perhaps quite the opposite in fact. Hence your quote by Vivekananda is entirely appropriate. My story at least gives one woman – Champa Das – a platform to tell us about her life. You on the other hand appear to waste energy on detracting from the indefensible – the exploitation of the weakest in society. Sincerely, Tom
Tom,
I do get a feeling that you assume yourself to be too authoritative on the subject, namely the plight of sex workers in Sonargachi. Maybe I am missing something, but has all this authority come from spending a day or a couple of days scouting around Calcutta? A sizable chunk of this experience is of course attributed to this organization call DMSC, that you yourself decry and hence would be logical to assume as irrelevant or subjective. I find your article quite subjective, especially around the area where the DMSC guy asks you for money. You seem so concerned about that act that you have spend quite some real estate of that article on that freak incident (I call it freak since it was irrelevant in the context of your subject). I do not claim to be an expert in Sonargachi or sex workers. But that being said, the statistical significance of your exposure seems to be limited. Do feel free to enlighten all of us if I am wrong. It would only add to the authority of the article, if you choose to do so. I would like to sign off with a simple thought piece from Swami Vivekananda. “There is nothing right or wrong in this world. No one can say that one is better than the other. It is all a matter of the perspective you apply on the situation. With the slightest change, even the most righteous act/person can be equated to evil/devil and vice versa.” Nevertheless, Congrats on the blog !!
Most of the Indian NGOs are capitalising their miseries and minting money through various aid without rehavilating them so best way to help them is visit them and spent some quality time with them .
Have a little bit of love , care and mainly have respect for those who are merchandising their body standing hour after hour with uncertainty .
Is there any work for me????
i read some of the extract. My belif that moneted mab should coms froword and uplift theire life style standard living. Health insurane etc to be introduced and proper activity has to be monitared.
dear friends if this system continiously run than no one can devolp our humanism so plz stop that plz frienads try to promise that anything can happen but we will not stop we protest this and stop this we have got some responsebility about our contry about our nation about our filling.friends if we will stop that than made be a new india and we must do that becoze we are the power of nation we are power of mankind .plz leave your protest in any how any where.do that from today…in that time.if goverment do not help us thaan we will break the goverment…..we can do antthing for stop prostitucion
While at once appalling and tragic, your article does bring to the fore the characteristic apathy of the Indian citizen to the abysmal condition of the lady of the night, or for that matter his fellow human being. The need of the hour are unconventional laws, and swift unwavering action independent of malignant ulterior motive. Alas, these are but the mutterings of an academic safely ensconsed at home far away-times like these cause one to reflect how impotent the pen is in stead of the sword when required to bring about much needed amelioration. Nevertheless thank you for writing, Tom Vater.
why to bother.if you pay for sex you are helping these girls for their livelihood.
I WANT TO VISIT TO SONAGACHI. I WANT TO KNOW DETAILS ABOUT SONAGACHI.
i want to visit sonagachi .tell me what is actually happening over there .shall i visit or not ?
Dear Tom,I am an 18-yr-old student from kolkata. My residence is a stone’s throw away from the famous Sonagachi area of North Kolkata. Since i was very little, i have been taught by my parents to never visit the place and i have always even feared to even ask them about it. But i have nonetheless been exposed to this world. My personal belief is the problem is in the culture of India. I am not passing comment on whether it is good or bad. Frankly i am not learned enough for that. But it is considered unacceptable to even think of associating oneself with sex-workers even as philanthropists in our conservative culture. What the learned “intellectuals” of Kolkata are more concerned with is lectures by the likes of Amartya Sen on poverty and social injustice. But in general, few people are agreeable to the idea of taking it upon themselves and “dirtying” their hands. Nowadays I see a trend among my friends in school. It seems “fashionable” to talk about such problems but no one is really bothered about working in the field. Personally i am not ready to actively enter this world yet. I have yet to complete my education. I do not have money of my own. I live with my parents and you could hardly say i have an identity of my own. But someday I would like to follow in your footsteps and do as much as is humanly possible for me. Thank you.
hi pls reply asap
hi i want more details on sonaghachi, whom should i approach.
regards
nehaal
Prachi , u r right . but it is wrong way to earn. there are some other way also to earn. I want to Discuss with u more .
Email: krs1800@in.com
Mobile-9934012175
Sonagachi is real. its a shadow of a giant barbaric socio culture. Its a diseased mutation of a blind society which lost its peace. . I’m a youngster from tamilnadu and i had been to sonagachi with all my pleasure buds squeaking out on the crowd. i bought some sex!
and sometime i felt ashamed to be a part of such barbaric society.
but nomore i feel ashamed of it. i just want to know why i was pushed into such a state. Piercing into ma state of mind and the social blockings i jus want to know whats really happening inside this society and the prostitute who is really subjected in this. I think documenting a search which is indeed carried with a precise approach may reflect the truth in it. so its a plan to document the socio culture of sonagachi and all its outcome back to this society. i had been working on it for more than a year with collecting various documents that expose something about sonagachi and its lives. i got little money and time to work on this search. but i need some translators to help me on spot and in table. I’m poor in hindi and bengali language. It would be a kind of more psychoanalytical process so i need people who really got some patience. As a travell photographer i got some patience with me.
Note: It is a documentary thats gonna be documented in the red light district of kolkata and i promise you the safety is assured. But i don’t have much money to pay for the helping hands.
and this is ma mail id: cisumloveamenic@gmail.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bala.ck2
I am every interest to work for the people those who are in brothels for their livelyhood and to privent to HIV and to proke to change there place.
i see sonagachhi n see the sexworkrs n difficulties of there life. marketing time is started from 4 pm evning n night 12pm. tae started from 50to50,000Rs . i hav so much sampathy with them.
if sonagachhi market is close then so many customer can dead,n worker also . It is very very very shameful. Actually these women don’t want to be prostitute but for each reason in society they have to earn and they is no any other way in this country. Government should think and give them a chance to earn. rap case is not increasing due to songachhi. balatkar se kolkata saved hai. i live at central avnue near islamia hospital
Dear,
Its a tragedy for a woman. I want to highlight a comments of Champa, that is; “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.”
I think some sex traders are forced by mother, pimps, traffickers and something like that and some are working as freelance sex trader. Freelance sex traders are not doing this trade very cordially, they are forced by their economic situation.
I think everyone have the rights to get any job, but not forced by . . .
Md Moniruzzaman
Project Coordinator
Development Programme for the Street Girls
Social and Economic Enhancement Program-SEEP
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Mail: mzaman_bmp@yahoo.com
Cell: +8801716629948
hi tom
may be late but sitting in my office now while going through the article of yours i hung my head in shame. really displeasure to learn and admit that we are humans just say HUMANS. mighty we can not be, if and when we pounce upon another who so ever it be, is inferior in sex, and predominantly proof that we are superior in origin. this is no condolence, nor any sorrowful words to prove that we are guilty. then as according to me, it would be a try to sabotage the process of rectification of error. any how at length let us pray that those treacherous die to empty the world of any and more calamity
At first the prostituteS are responsible to prostitutiuon then our govt is responsible for prostitution means modern sex slavery and after all our mens are responsible for them.for three PILLARS only one pillers means our govt destroy this dark profession through root by a new law adopted by our parlia ment which extremly restrict any type of prostitution and baned any type of prostituion strictly and take hard and tough action to eredicate it by root.and other two pillers never are unable to make a revolution cause they have their own benifites acording to their backward thoughts,at last which is harmful to them,after destroying their life they familiear about that well,but till they lost their everything .
Hi Dev,
Maybe this has something to do with it….
http://www.firstpost.com/living/the-sex-less-marriage-the-four-real-reasons-for-marital-celibacy-255631.html
prostitution is a social evil not only in india but entire world from centuries.in ancient india there were many social evils prevails such as sati pratha,child marrage,dowry system ,slavery,cast system ,untouchability etc.But when india became indipendent and indian constituency made indias all social evils baned by law except prostitution.however govt leaglised prostituion but baned comercealisation of this profession cause this would lead to modern sex slavery,so many types of restriction issuses by the law acording to immoral trafic law,but our govt is unable to follow this law.this leads to women and child trafficking and rise of modern sex slavery,if you want to know more about prostituion and theire hazards of women and humen societys deeply then read” SONAGACHIthe ,THE LAND OF BROTHEL” BY PAYRAJ(a true love story of a prostitute) AND T O EREDICATE this social bad customes from our society for the benifeate of our woemens,girls just like other indian ancient social evils.
While some of the comments may be offensive, I do delete many many others that are way stronger. This blog attracts readers’ comments on an almost daily basis and sadly, most of them either brag about their exploits in Sonagachi or ask me for details on how to get there and how the place works. Many even leave their phone numbers. I reserve the right not to publish posts that are offensive to the women working in Sonagachi, but, to illustrate the dire perception of some Indian men towards Indian women, I let some of the less crass posts stand to encourage debate and give all the other readers an idea of how India as a whole looks at itself. Thanks for this post.
I find some of the comments made by, I’m assuming the men of India who visited this place extremely offensive. Accepting that this is another form of work in their soceity by these men is truly depressing. Some of them even have the audacity to take a sympathetic approach to prostitution yet were part of encouraging it nonetheless. What if this was to happen to their mother’s or sisters or even their children? If they become destitute due to some unforseen circumstances, will they be soo accepting of their mother, sister or child, sleeping with another for money?Let alone letting these abusive men degrade their body? I think anyone who does not feel their heart breaking hearing goulish stories as such, does not belong to the human race. It might be human nature to want to have sex but it is extremely pathetic that you would have to seek it out, pay for it and then degrade them in the process. The Indian Government is extremely corrupt and unless someone with a backbone takes serious action to curb these corruptions in that country, men will continue to degrade women in that soceity. Being someone who has visited that country on numerous occasions,I still get stupid custom officers extorting money to enter that holy land. As much as many good hearted people would love to aid these women in brothels, unfortunately there is nothing we can do unless the government itself participates in aiding the good cause. But why would the government? They accept the pathetic bribes that are dangled in front of them to ensure that prostitution, child rape, abduction and a list of other repulsive acts continue. How can a country with an abundance of knowledge and culture flourish with corrupt personnels who are in it for their selfish needs and not those of the nation? Please feel free to omit what you think is inappropriate. I just speak with such disgust and a heavy heart watching and hearing this happen and continue to happen. A beautiful artical Tom. Thank you.
yes this business should be recognised and should be at per with all profession. and a bill should be passed in the parliament for its recognisation, after all they are also human beings & they deserve their own lively hood.thanks for surveying… keep it up…
I always have sympathy for them, I watched them very closely and couple of them are my very good friends, if you treat them humanly they will also treat you humanly, there are many more things to say about them but hope some other time.
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
Its really very informative and more than that reading the comments was wonderful experience as it gives a hope that some day things may change and we may accept these truths at open forum.