Paid sex and the city

Flesh trade in Delhi is a thriving business, with organised rackets guarding their interests fiercely. 

It’s a profitable business that hums smoothly when nobody is noticing. Flesh trade in the capital has taken the form of organised crime with a pool of pimps and girls, some of them forced into the trade, running rackets using all imaginable means.

Two Uzbekistan sisters were recently found trapped in flesh trade for the past five months in the capital. This came to light when they had a fight with their pimp, a compatriot, and they approached police. 

The woman pimp was arrested and during interrogation, police found that she had been running a prostitution racket in Delhi for several years.

In the capital, flesh trade is no longer confined to GB Road — the city’s red light area. It has spread across every nook and corner with a number of escort and massage service outlets running prostitution rackets. Some of them even advertise and circulate phone numbers.

From five star hotels to farmhouses to bungalows, sex workers can be called there over the phone. The sordid business is often promoted on the internet, making it difficult to detect.

“Delhi has become a centre for commercial sexual exploitation. Gangs run flesh trade in a very organised and secretive manner. It is only when information reaches police that some victims are rescued,” says Rishi Kant, member of NGO Shakti Vahini.

Delhi is a destination as well as a transit point for victims brought from the north-east, Nepal, Bangladesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan. It is also a destination for cross-border trafficking rackets from Central Asian countries.

“The situation in Delhi has worsened as the human trafficking rackets have expanded their operations in the guise of beauty parlours, friendship clubs, spas, massage parlours and escort services,” says a report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released on July 4.

The traffickers have become organised, considering the fact that profits are very high. Despite the efforts of law enforcement agencies and other organisations, they have managed to expand the trade by moving the area of operation to satellite towns near Delhi.

Delhi’s GB Road has 92 brothels operating in old buildings, which house at least 4,000 women. There is large-scale trafficking of minor as well as adult women from Nepal and several Indian states.

The traffickers don’t just supply girls to GB Road, but also to the rackets that operate from residential colonies, says the UN report.

From the posh Lajpat Nagar and Saket to unauthorised colonies like Sangam Vihar and Seelampur, they run their business smartly and quietly.

‘Whatever you want’

A south Delhi-based pimp tells Deccan Herald over the phone that one can get a call girl from Rs 2,500 to Rs 10,000, depending on “colour and nationality”.

“Sir, whatever you want, you can come and check,” the pimp says.

The traffickers are so organised that they have divided the city according to their areas of operation so that there are no clashes between them.

Not just Indian women, foreigners are in the sordid business in large numbers.

Another pimp says on the phone that he exclusively provides call girls from Nepal, Ukraine, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Chechnya and Kyrgyzstan.

While most are organised rackets, some women operate on their own. They wait during evening and at night at roadsides, and outside malls and Metro stations, looking for customers. But they are not successful most of the time as police keep a vigil in these areas.

While girls from other countries come to the city, a lot of Indian girls are also sent abroad for flesh trade. There has been an upsurge in cases of recruitment agencies taking women workers to the Gulf as maids and then forcing them into prostitution.

Placement agents from Nepal have also been using the Delhi route to send Nepalese women abroad for ‘work’. Dance bar agents from the Gulf have allegedly formed a nexus with some airport officials, who clear visas without checking their authenticity.

“Approximately 10-12 women get authorisation every day. Mumbai is no longer a popular transit point for trafficking bar girls due to 'harassment' by immigration officials. It is easier to send them via Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad,” says the UN study.

While there is increase in prostitution rackets in the city, Delhi Police too have intensified checking and have been catching traffickers. The city police have been collaborating with other states to pursue cases.

Police action

Many pimps have been arrested and call girls apprehended in police raids. “In 2012, some 118 girls were rescued from commercial sexual exploitation. Around 50 people were nabbed for running such rackets,” says special commissioner of police (law and order) Deepak Mishra. There are 12 anti-trafficking units in Delhi Police. They comprise trained officers working closely with NGOs and child welfare committees.

“In Delhi, the units conduct rescue operations with the assistance of NGOs whenever there is any information about human trafficking cases. The rescue and post-rescue operations are done in a victim-centric approach. Effective patrolling and vigil at locations prone to trafficking are being undertaken by the units,” says Mishra.

“A total of 271 rescue operations were conducted in Delhi in a year in coordination with NGOs. Numerous criminal gangs indulging in prostitution have been busted,” says a senior police officer.

Regular training sessions on anti-human trafficking laws are being organised for officers, with nine rounds of training conducted so far. A total of 500 police officers have been trained. Eighteen officers have been enrolled in IGNOU’s anti-trafficking course.

But prostitution is essentially an activity confined within four walls – and police say this poses the biggest challenge for them.

This story was written by me and published in Deccan Herald

G.B. Road – A world of its own

Just a minute drive from New Delhi Railway Station, three-storyed dilapidated buildings with fading paint was on one side of the road which carries a various flashy billboards that says -- G.B. Road, Shradhanand Marg. The street lights after few meters clearly shows that there is market which is closed during night.

The road was filled with speeding rickshaw pullers with two or one commuters. The rickshaw pullers fighting from other for pass. Whenever, a rickshaw stops near the one of these building – two to three men wearing black jackets and having deadly face approach them.

After a minute conversation, they then take them to dark corridors smeared with foul-smelling. As soon as they move, a few teenagers approach them and tries to sell something (condoms). These black jackets men shoo them away.

It was 11 p.m on Friday. The night was cold and foggy. I parked my bike between a few cars after crossing a police check post. As I took out the keys from my bike, two men from nowhere in no time were standing beside me. “Sahib kaisa chahiye (Sir what kind do you want),” said one of them, whose eyes were only visible as he had covered his face with a muffler to save himself from cold..
 
I was at Garstin Bastion (G.B.) Road -- the red light area – of the national capital and these two men who approached me were pimps -- dalals -- in the payroll of wealthier kothas. They were these for customers. I told them to come after ten minutes. But one of them threatened not to stand there. Police will catch you and throw out of the place. Come along with me. We will provide you whatever you want ... North Indian, South Indian, Foreigners, North East... Will also provide you whatever age ... 15, 16, 25, 35... will provide you everything. Will also provide you in whatever rate do you want,” said and put his hand on my shoulder and forcing me towards one a dark corridor. I resisted and asked them to leave.

Standing alone across the road where there is Indian Railways Coach Care Centre, I saw people in bike, cars, rickshaws and on feet coming and going inside the dark corridors with 'these men' to fulfill their carnal desires where bodies are sold for minimum of Rs 250.

Just to find how they operate and where are these khotas, I went towards these dark corridors. The shutters of the shops were closed and as I walked down, I witnesses a few aged women along with two to three these men – pimps -- sitting on a thin, dark staircase between the shops.

One of them, stopped me and asked me to come inside. I again resisted but then just to check out, I complied and entered into the stair and promised to pay them Rs 250. As I climbed, I saw five aged women sitting on the stairs. They asked me to shell out Rs 500. I told them I don't have. One of them, who was later identified as Manju , said give Rs 400 and get inside.

I was pushed inside the dark staircase and one of the aged women was acting as a guide. Then suddenly, there was light a bulb and a hall. One side of the hall was locked with huge iron grills. Women and men were sitting on a sofa and talking to each other. There was overbearing smell of inexpensive perfume, rancid body fluids and oil. A man opened lock and pulled me inside the hall and asked me to sit.

They inquired do I prefer liquor?. I said, “No.” One of them then went inside and called around five women and asked me to select one of them. Wearing blouse and petticoat with loud make up, the women were presented. All the eyes struck on me. There were smiles on their faces but behind that those smiles lies an untold tortured story.

Seeing them, I felt sorry and asked the man, who identified as Umesh, to open the lock and let me out the hall. He replied, “Why have you come here for wasting out our time during this peak business hour.” He opened the door and I with fast steps came climb down the dark staircase to the corridor where a few men were climbing up.

Out a three-storyed dilapidated building, I wondered how these 4000 women, confined in a four-by-six room, became emotionless, unthinking, mechanical sex workers.