Caged Damsels

From all corners of the country, we are brought in to be the caged damsels, entertaining the society. Some of us were brought in by the men we loved; some of us were sold off by relatives and family; some of us were too young to remember how we were brought in; but almost none of us came by choice. And yet, it is we who are considered fallen. Dr. Gilada's paper on perspectives and positional problems of social intervention shows that 70% of women are forced into prostitution and 20% of these are child prostitutes. The Indian National Commission for Women (National Commission for Women (1997) The Velvet Blouse: Sexual Exploitation of Children Delhi: Government of India, p.4.) quotes figures of two million sex workers. The number of child prostitutes as a percentage of the total is also quoted as being high. It has been suggested that 40% of female prostitutes begin selling sex before they are eighteen. Interestingly, in India, there have been no really reliable regional, let alone national, studies that can suggest the size of the sex industry...or, in other words, there is no count of Indian caged damsels.

The vast majority of women like us who become sex workers do so because of dire economic circumstances. Those of us who enter the brothel and street prostitution sectors are very young. Many – perhaps most - are children. The situation is thought to be especially acute in northern states where a combination of poverty and the low status of females contribute to their exploitation in the sex industry. In many desperately poor regions it is accepted that girls will become prostitutes in order to help their families. (http://www.who.int/hiv/topics/vct/sw_toolkit/sex_work_asia.pdf)

Pathways into sex work in India are 3-fold. First, many women are born into sex work as the family profession. The stigma associated with sex work, often coupled with residual caste system discrimination, severely limits educational and alternative economic opportunities. Second, many young women from rural areas and neighboring countries (e.g. Nepal, Bangladesh) are deceived, sold, or otherwise trafficked into sex work against their will. Driven by the extreme poverty facing their families and the lure of relatively large incomes, some women choose to return to sex work, albeit in a less coercive context, once they are returned to their homes. Sex workers in Calcutta are conservatively estimated to earn an hourly wage almost twice that of women in urban India. Finally, some women, given limited options, choose sex work as a means to support their families after being widowed, divorced, or abandoned by their husbands. About 9% of a random sample of sex workers in the Sonagachi “red light” area stated that they entered the profession voluntarily.

Source: http://www.ucghi.universityofcalifornia.edu/docs/womens-health/hiv-prevention-among-sex-workers-in-india.pdf

And so...here we are...part of your mango community...who counts us? Do we really count?