India is a very large country which is also heavily populated, due to this the gap between the poor and the rich is huge. The poor need to feed themselves and are therefore left with no option but to engage in various informal businesses, many of them taking up prostitution to manage their daily bread butter.
With this story we show you the Top 5 infamous red light areas in India where women across the nation indulge in prostitution to make ends meet, this story captures their hardships as a sex worker.
The people involved are primarily girls from slums and poor families many of them are also victims of sex rackets and kidnappings.
Many of them face beatings and torture, along with the risk of becoming infected with various sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Many government agencies and NGOs are working to give better life to these girls. While pregnancy is a good news for the rest of the world, in these red light zones, it turns out to be a worst-case scenario for them. Because of the stigma, no one comes to their support for giving to them access to safe abortion and it is nearly impossible to find a claimant, father, for the child.
Movies like Pakeezah, Umrao Jaan, and Laga Chunari Mein Daag are some of the movies that depict the difficult and unforgiving lives of these women who took to prostitution to make ends meet.
Here are the Top 5 Red light areas in India.
1) Â Sonagachi, Kolkata
Sonagachi of Kolkata hold the ‘not so honorable’ title of being Asia’s largest red light area with over 11,000 sex workers, it operates from many multi storied buildings. The prostitues say that many a times their customers are unforgiving and deny the usage of condoms making them prone to STD’s.
The 2004 Oscar-winning documentary, Born in Brothels, brings to the fore the reality of such places like Sonagachi.
2) Â Kamathipura, Mumbai
The second largest red light area in India, previously called the Laal Bazaar.
According to BMC over 50,000+ sex workers used to work here. In the late 80’s gangsters like Haji Mastan & Dawood Ibrahim used to visit Kamathipura.
The people here are aware of the STD’s and therefore do not allow unsafe sex.
3) Â Grastin Bastion (G.B. Road), Delhi
The infamous G.B.Road is located opposite to the railways tracks in Old Delhi.
The brothels function above various shops of scrap metal, vehicle parts etc. The girls in here are mainly from Nepal and Assam which due to their fair complexion attract more customers.
The streets of the G.B. Road scream negligence and exploitation.
4) Â Budhwar Peth, Pune
Earlier known as Muhiyabad it is located opposite to the world famous Dagadusheth Halwai Ganesha temple. It is said that over 5,000 sex workers live and work here, the Budhwar Peth is now a days so much crowded that even the prostitutes indulge themselves into some part time job.
5) Â Meergunj, Allahabad
It is next to the birthplace of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the lack of education and access to a good quality of life has turned this place into a place famous for smuggling and other world activities. Meergunj is also notorious for violence and murders, which makes it unsafe for visitors.
