Pune has the sex appeal
Alifiya Khan
Mid Day.com
16 October 2009

Sex workers moving from Mumbai to Pune say it is the low rent and better ‘police co-operation’ here that attracts them

Kamathipura, the famous sex hub of Mumbai, is drying up quickly. And the reason is Pune. The city’s relatively low real estate prices and ‘police co-operation’ are drawing sex workers by the dozens from Mumbai, where they are troubled by abnormal rents and land sharks.

Figures obtained from NGOs working in the two cities show that while the Commercial Sex Worker population in Mumbai is shrinking, it is rising in Pune. “Mumbai’s sex streets like Kamathipura, Falkland Road, etc, had a total of about 18,000 to 20,000 prostitutes till two years ago. But with land sharks eyeing this prime land for redevelopment and brothel owners hiking rent rates, most sex workers have migrated to neighbouring suburbs and Pune,” said Manish Pawar, co-ordinator of Asha Mahila, a government-run project for sex workers that is based in Mumbai’s Grant Road area.

Too much pressure

Nandita (31), used to live in a brothel in Kamathipura, but migrated to Pune about a year ago after she couldn’t handle the pressure from the brothel keeper. “I used to pay a rent of Rs 7,500 and give some part of my earnings to her. But then she wanted to hike the rent. We heard that a builder had offered money to her, so she wanted us out. I knew people here and even cops don’t harass us much, so I decided to come here.” Rent for brothels in Pune ranges between Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,500 a month. Some CSWs don’t pay rent, but simply share the money earned with the brothel keeper.

While Nandita didn’t reveal how much she earns, she said it was better than her hand-to-mouth existence in Mumbai. “Here I charge the same price and pay less rent. Besides, here I don’t live in a brothel,” said Nandita, who shares a flat with another girl in Pimpri. According to current estimates, there are approximately 10,000 sex workers in the red-light areas of Mumbai.

Other reasons

Another reason for migration is fewer customers. “Many women complain that they are moving from Mumbai, as the clients are very few. With HIV/AIDS awareness rising, the clientele is reducing,” said Dr I S Gilada, founder of People’s Health Organisation, an NGO in Kamathipura, Mumbai.

The rate has increased over the past two years. “It’s not just sex workers. Even bar girls have migrated to Pune. After the ban on dance bars, they took to sex work. Maybe they can’t afford Mumbai and Pune is cheaper,” said Dr Laxmi Mali, who runs a health clinic for NGO Vanchit Vikas in Budhwar Peth, Pune.

In the long run

Experts say that while this migration might have not affected prices yet, increased competition might be a problem in the long run. “These women are insecure about their business at the moment. So, they will offer any service to lure customers, even without condoms sometimes. This can create huge problems not just for them, but the local sex workers as well,” said Gilada.

Sometimes the Rescue Industry reverts to farce. Take the recent history of Brazil with its efforts to appear ‘modern’ and world-powerful through militaristic social-control operations. Before I even got to the part of this article that mentions carnaval, I had thought ‘circus’ to describe what I was reading. These are excerpts from Operation Princess in Rio de Janeiro: Policing ‘Sex Trafficking’, Strengthening Worker Citizenship, and the Urban Geopolitics of Security in Brazil, by Paul Amar, in Security Dialogue 2009; 40; 513.

. . . Operation Princess and its sister campaigns were launched by the police in seeming disregard for the fact that prostitution is legal in Brazil. The Pentecostal evangelical leaders of Rio  . . . gave biblical legitimacy to the campaign, brushing aside questions of legality or sex workers’ resistance to being ‘rescued’. . . .

. . . proclaimed he would purge corruption and promote moral rectitude . . . by bringing back the spirit of the Vice Police stations (Delegacias de Costumes), which had been closed for the most part in the 1940s when prostitution was legalized. Simultaneously, President Lula declared a nationwide war against sex trafficking . . .

. . . ‘Operation Princess’ resonated perfectly with the 19th-century iconography of missionarism, child rescue, and abolition in Brazil. . . Avenida Princesa Isabel is the grand boulevard that brings travelers . . . into Copacabana Beach, a mixed-class and mixed-race coastal community that also serves as a center of sex tourism and international diplomatic conferences. Copacabana was a focal point of the new vice-policing operations. . . the statue of Princess Isabel, with her arms outstretched, blessing those she liberated from slavery and radiating a spirit of tolerance and welcome at the gateway to the topless dance clubs and all-night saunas of the Lido.  . .

. . . [the] Black Movement in Brazil ha[s] rigorously critiqued the ‘Princess Isabel Syndrome’, or the commemoration of this child monarch as the agent of abolition. . . it takes credit away from the centuries of sacrifice and mobilization among Brazil’s Afro-descendants and their efforts . . . Thus, the princess metaphor in Rio de Janeiro . . . resonates vibrantly with the politics of social ‘whitening’ (embrancamento), infantilization of black slave agency, and religious moralization.

. . . By the time Lula assumed power in 2003, a massive child-rescue initiative was deemed essential to Brazil’s plans to legitimize and empower itself on the world stage, as well as to address social-justice concerns at home. For Brazil to assume leadership of the democratic global south and make a claim to the proposed new seat on the Security Council, it wanted to change the image of Brazilian law enforcement from death squad to rescue mission, authoritarian to humanitarian. The national landscape had to be cleared of lawless, victimized children.

‘Operation Carnival’ became the first test of this revived vice-police campaign. As if to mock the new police operations, a ‘Group A’ Samba School . . .  celebrated ‘Prostitution in Copacabana’ as their theme that year; their 4,000 sequined dancers, the ‘Lions of Nova Iguaçu’, marched through the downtown Sambadrome, singing a samba about the joys of the sex trade. In its debut, the police’s anti-sex-trafficking campaign netted a total of one arrest . . .

During ‘Operation Shangrilá’, the Federal Police raided a showboat in Rio’s Guanabara Bay. Forty Brazilian prostitutes and twenty-nine American tourists were arrested for having committed the crime of ‘sex tourism’. This incident was immediately trumpeted as a major bust of a ‘human trafficking’ operation. . . . But . . no Brazilian law had been violated. None of the prostitutes were underage, nor had they violated any pimping or brothel laws. The only way this situation could be imagined as ‘trafficking’ was because the tourists had crossed international frontiers, although without breaking any laws or visa restrictions. Furthermore, ‘sex tourism’ is not against any Brazilian law, unless one assumes that sex tourism is the same thing as forced sex trafficking.

Tanta bulla sobre el uso de la calle. Durante los 15 años que he seguido el conflicto sobre la industria del sexo en España, el tema se ha debatido una y otra vez en el congreso nacional, con múltiples invitaciones a una gama de ‘expertos’ para hablar del significativo de la prostitución. Nunca se llega a ninguna conclusión, pero siempre se dice que hay que hacer algo. Los periodistas también vuelven repetidamente al mismo tema. Esta vez sale en El Mundo un nuevo intento de darles voz a algunas de las prostitutas-trabajadoras del sexo en Madrid (siempre dejan fuera a los hombres trabajadores). Siguen extractos de un artículo escogidos por que proporcionan información sobre el trabajo de calle, no solo opiniones. Como verán, existen motivos razonables que gente de fuera parecen incapaz de entender.

Después viene el testimonio de una latina que conocí por primera vez hace muchos años. Se trata de un video cuyo título lo dice todo: ‘Trabajo en la prostitución porque yo lo he elegido’

Y las prostitutas, ¿qué opinan sobre la polémica?

Raquel Quílez, El Mundo. 10 septiembre 2009

[extractos]

. . . Ana -nombre ficticio- mira tímida con unos enormes ojos verdes mientras permanece sentada en el bordillo de un portal próximo a la Gran Vía. . . . Ana esboza a continuación una teoría que sostendrán después la mayoría de las mujeres a las que se pregunta en la zona Centro de Madrid: prefieren trabajar en la calle. ¿Sus motivos? “Si estás en un club tienes que dar parte del dinero al dueño y además tienes que trabajar las horas que te diga y coger los servicios porque si no, no puedes volver al día siguiente. En la calle, sin embargo, nosotras decidimos las horas que estamos y con quién nos vamos. Nos sentimos más libres”. Y eso a pesar de que el precio de sus servicios cae cuando se ofrece al aire libre.

. . . Las prostitutas han saltado al centro del debate público después de las denuncias por las prácticas en plena calle en Barcelona. La mayoría de las preguntadas en Madrid ni siquiera conoce la polémica. “Pero, ¿cómo en la calle? ¿En mitad de la gente, con todos pasando?”, pregunta sorprendida Laura -nombre ficticio-. Ronda los 50, es española y viste un llamativo mono de leopardo. Está sentada en un taburete en una esquina de la calle Ballesta, el sitio que ocupa desde hace ya varios años. “Eso aquí no pasa. Contactamos con los clientes en la calle pero luego nos vamos a pisos alquilados o a los hostales, donde pagamos cinco euros por la habitación”. También ella reivindica el trabajo en la calle. “Yo prefiero estar aquí, me siento más segura”, repite, como sus compañeras. Pero irte con un desconocido a un hostal no es muy seguro… “Ya, pero en los hostales hay personas que trabajan para protegernos”, contesta. ¿Quién contrata a esas personas? Silencio. Laura tiene cuatro hijos y un nieto a los que mantener porque nadie más trabaja en su familia.

. . . A dos calles de Laura trabaja María -una vez más el nombre es ficticio. . . . Tiene 28 años, habla un inglés perfecto y cursó hasta 3º de Comercio Exterior en su país natal, Rumanía, del que llegó hace tres años. Ha probado todo lo que tenía a su alcance para salir adelante. Ha sido empleada del hogar y camarera, con la mala suerte de caer en casas y locales en los que después se negaron a pagarle. También se ha prostituido en clubs y al final ha optado por echarse a la calle. “Es en el único sitio en el que sólo dependo de mí”, dice. María está sobradamente cualificada, pero se ve obligada a trabajar con su cuerpo. Ella sí reclama que se regularice la situación. “Por lo menos podría tener seguridad social y no ahora que llevo tres años trabajando y no ha servido para nada”, dice. En el último mes, María vuelve a casa con entre 60 y 100 euros en el bolso. “Se nota la crisis -cuenta- antes podía ganar hasta 400 al día. Los mejores son los turistas ingleses”.

. . . “Lo ideal sería que se regulase y que tengamos los mismo derechos que cualquier otro trabajador. Creo que la calle no es un lugar seguro para nadie, ni para un vendedor de cupones”. . . .

‘Trabajo en la prostitución porque yo lo he elegido’: Video

Viajó desde Ecuador a Europa en vacaciones y terminó trabajando como prostituta en Madrid. Un hombre se le acercó en un bar, le ofreció dinero a cambio de sexo y le abrió las puertas a un mundo que a ella se le antojó el mejor salvoconducto económico para su vida. Y lleva ya 12 años en ello

Carolina Hernández trabaja en la calle por decisión propia y comparte sus problemas con su familia, sus amigos y su pareja. En esta entrevista ofrece una visión de la profesión alejada del mito y los lugares comunes. Cuenta que quiere tener un hijo, colabora con la organización Hetaria, desde la que pide la regulación de la prostitución, y asegura que es feliz.

Mientras los políticos debaten su profesión en el Congreso, ella pide que se termine con la hipocresía: “No vivamos en una sociedad retrógrada y machista”, reclama como principal anhelo.

Daye Town (Huangshi CIty, Hubei, China

Vancouver, Canada 

Hamburg, Germany (Photo Claus Petersen)

Shrine inside Hamburg parlour (Photo Claus Petersen)

Could be anywhere

New Zealand

Ireland, a residential-looking building

Incidentally, how they came to enjoy the name parlour is a mystery to me.

English below. Mucha gente no entiende cómo es posible que haya tanto rechazo y acciones policiales en contra de las trabajadoras sexuales migrantes en Europa y sin embargo siguen estando tantas allí, ejerciendo la prostitución. El otro día coloqué un video sobre redadas en España que demostró cuán normal se han vuelto. También puse algo sobre algunos taxistas que no quieren que la policía mallorquina pasen tanto tiempo acosando a sus pasajeras del oeste de Africa. Many people don’t understand how there can be so much protest and police action against migrant prostitutes in Europe and yet there are always so many there.

Este artículo de Barcelona se enfoca en el grupo que molesta más a los europeos: las mujeres negras de Nigeria y paises vecinos, y explica los impedimentos a sacarlas: 1) la prostitución en sí no es delito en España; 2) se les detiene por una infracción menor, a la ordenanza cívica, o bien 3) porque no tienen papeles que demuestran su permiso de estar; así que 4) se les intenta expulsar del país; pero 5) no se puede acreditar a cuál país estarían destinadas; o 6) se van las mujeres en vez de mantenerse localizables para cumplir los requisitos burocráticos. ¿Qué tal? This article from Barcelona focuses on the group that bothers Europeans most: black women from Nigerian and neighbouring countries, and explains the obstacles to getting rid of them: 1) prostitution is not a crime in Spain; 2) they are arrested for a minor infraction, of a civic ordinance, or 3) because they have no papers demonstrating their permission to be there; so that 4) they try to expel them; but 5) they cannot prove what country they would be sent back to; or 6) the women go somewhere else instead of staying where police can locate them and get them to fulfil the paperwork necessary. Some contradiction, no?

El artículo interesa también porque dice secamente que no se puede saber fácilmente cuáles de estas mujeres son víctimas y cuáles están vendiendo sexo porque les parece la mejor opción del momento. The article also says, as though it’s not big news, that it is not easy to know which of the women are victims and which are selling sex because it seems to them to be their best present option.

Detienen a 100 prostitutas irregulares en La Rambla en lo que va de año

Europa Press, 23 agosto 2009

Barcelona: La Policía Nacional ha detenido en lo que va de año a más de un centenar de prostitutas de nacionalidad nigeriana en situación irregular en seis redadas en La Rambla de Barcelona, en las que se identificaron a cerca de un centenar de ellas en cada una de las operaciones. Según han informado fuentes de la Jefatura Superior de Policía de Catalunya, en 2008 se realizaron menos operaciones de este tipo, en las que se detuvo a 50 prostitutas en tres redadas por infracción a la Ley de Extranjería, todas ellas nigerianas. En estos últimos años han proliferado las prostitutas de esta nacionalidad en La Rambla, que en ocasiones protagonizan altercados con potenciales clientes, muchos de ellos turistas, a los que abordan en plena vía y a los que a veces tratan de robar.

Según explicaron las citadas fuentes, la mayoría llega en una situación muy precaria a la ciudad, después de un viaje que empezó cruzando el Estrecho en patera, y con una deuda con quien les ha facilitado su llegada a España. Algunas fuentes apuntan a que esta deuda puede servir para explotarlas, aunque no es fácil determinar si son víctimas de redes de proxenetismo o si ejercen la prostitución ante la falta de otra salida.

La Policía no puede detenerlas por prostitución, ya que se trata de una infracción a la ordenanza de civismo del Ayuntamiento, aunque sí las detiene por infringir la Ley de Extranjería, si bien la mayoría de ellas no tiene ningún tipo de documento y es imposible expulsarlas porque no se puede acreditar oficialmente cuál es su país de origen.

En el caso de abrirles un expediente de expulsión, muchas veces éste no prospera porque las mujeres no son localizables y no siguen el procedimiento, que requiere del cumplimiento de varios trámites.

photo gumgum

Laws: the kneejerk response to every social difficulty these days. As though there were no other way to change culture, as though prohibiting activities were known to be an effective way to make them go away. Obviously a lot of people feel good when they see a law that says It’s wrong to have anal sex, or You are a criminal if you buy sex, or It’s illegal to smoke dope. Perhaps laws discourage some people who are timid or who accept the state’s absolute authority on any issue. But for lots of people, laws prohibiting sex and drugs are perceived as ridiculous and unfair. The prohibition of alcohol in the USA in the 1930s led directly to an enormous flourishing in the making and sale of alcohol, and the dominance of criminal gangs engaged in these. Refusing to look at history is not a sign of intelligence.

Recently there were stories from Goa and Switzerland/Italy and earlier news from Korea, all showing how prohibition encourages buyers and sellers of sex, and those who organise the business, to create new forms and sites for the market. These are just a few examples. Read on. 

Sex industry invents “kissing rooms” after police crackdown

Yonhap News Agency by Kim Ye Ran, 14 August 2009

Seoul: As police crackdowns on brothels in traditional red light zones have been intensifying after the special anti-prostitution law was passed in 2004, desperate owners have found creative ways to fly below the police radar. Brothel owners have swiftly changed the faces of their businesses, which masquerade as massage parlors or telephone chat rooms, but authorities have also clamped down on these new sex shops.

Amid this game of cat and mouse, a new kind of business has appeared — “Kiss Bang” or kissing rooms, where men pay to kiss female workers. Such establishments are an unintended effect of the special anti-prostitution law passed in 2004, which penalizes both the dealer and client of sex services, experts say.

“The balloon effect accompanies the special anti-prostitution law. Those brothel owners have rearranged themselves in different ways to avoid the law since the crackdown has become suffocating,” said Song Ki-hwan, a member of the Nationwide Movement for the Banishment of Prostitution (NMBP), which was launched June 2. “This is why the number of red light districts has declined, but other forms of sex services have appeared rapidly.”

According to a triennial study conducted by the Ministry of Gender Equality in 2007, the number of brothels in Korea decreased 41 percent, from 1,679 shops in 2004 to 992 in 2007. Also, the number of women working in the sex industry decreased from 5,567 in 2004 to 2,523, dropping 55 percent. However, the number of massage parlors and other businesses suspected of engaging in the sex trade nearly doubled to 9,451 in 2007 from 5,481 in 2005.

The number of kissing rooms in operation, however, remains a mystery. “We don’t know how many of these kissing rooms there are across the country, but they are proliferating quickly,” said Shin Hei-soo, co-representative of the NMBP and associate professor at Ewha Woman’s University’s Graduate School of International Studies.

Although one Web site says kissing rooms offer no sexual services beyond kissing, anti-prostitution civic groups are worried that additional arrangements can easily be provided by kissing rooms that could lead to prostitution. “We are worried that it is highly likely that after kissing, additional, actual sex might be arranged,” added Shin. But it is difficult for authorities to crack down on this new type of business because there are no laws against kissing for money.

Kissing rooms grew enough in number to cause concern within the government, which began to study ways to cope with them. Gender Equality Minister Byun Do-yoon said last month that her ministry would, with the aid of local police, carry out a large-scale crackdown on kissing rooms and other new types of sex related establishments. A government official said she is studying ways to cope with this new kind of business, and that the government recognizes the special anti-prostitution law unintentionally bred the problem of altered sexual services.

“For now, the only thing we can do about kissing rooms is strengthen on-the-spot crackdowns and find an actual sex trade there. Then we can suspend their businesses for sexual acts,” said Kim Ga-ro, director of Women’s Rights Planning Division at the Ministry of Gender Equality. “We are closely studying ways to penalize these establishments.” Administrators are not the only ones who try to overcome the difficulties in coping with the changing face of the sex trade.

Police who participate in crackdowns say it is not easy to find these clandestine businesses. Kissing rooms receive clients only through online reservations, and surveillance cameras are installed in front of their buildings, making raids difficult.

“It is hard to find where these shops are located. Besides, even if we can find the shops at all, they have strict entrance rules. We don’t have enough manpower, and there are not enough reports from citizens,” said a policeman, who asked not to be named. He works for Seodaemun Police Station that covers the Sinchon neighborhood, a student area where many entertainment businesses, including bars and clubs, are clustered.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, some Individuals and various business associations have decided to clean up the streets themselves. “We have decided to take part in this movement because numerous massage parlors are involved in the sex trade. Now we found out that new types of sex businesses like kissing rooms have appeared. We are studying ways to deal with it,” said Song Ki-hwan, a massage parlor owner who is also a representative of National Massage Association. In the last two months, the NMBP created a map marking all the establishments involved in prostitution in Yeoksam-dong, an entertainment hotspot in Seoul’s affluent Gangnam district, located north of the Han River. The map was handed over to the Gangnam Police Station. “The Gangnam map is only a start. We are planning to create a map that will reveal the location of possible sex trade shops north of the river very soon, and the map will include kissing rooms. We will hand the map over to the authorities for punishment (of offenders),” said professor Shin of the NMBP.

yerankim at yna.co.kr

As with the pictures of brothels in European countries where they are legal, these sites sit inconspicuously in ordinary neighbourhoods. 

Many sites called brothels by outsiders are simply houses or flats with no commercial signage. The following two typical terrace houses have been pointed out in the UK, but of course by now the commercial sex may have moved on.

The next two are in Spain and Sicily, buildings where somewhere, in some flat, clients know they can find prostitutes.

Again, the collection can be viewed here.

La idea de que ‘las nigerianas’ son las más agresivas es, claro, discriminación flagrante. Viene de su estilo de trabajar: en grupos, plantándose frente a los carros para hablar con los choferes. El grupo invisible que no está nombrado en este reportaje son los clientes, así que pongo una imágen de chicos aquí.

Taxistas de Palma, molestos por los controles sobre las prostitutas, diariodemallorca.es

I. M. Calvià: Taxistas de Palma han expresado su malestar por la excesiva rigurosidad de los controles policiales que ha habido en los últimos días a la entrada de Magaluf, unos controles que, según el relato de varios profesionales, iban encaminados a disuadirlos de transportar prostitutas a la zona turística de este núcleo calvianer.

La explicación ofrecida a este diario por algunos conductores fue corroborada posteriormente por el presidente de la Asociación de Autónomos del Taxi de Mallorca, Gabriel Moragues, quien detalló que esta semana han mantenido una reunión con representantes municipales para pedir explicaciones acerca de estos hechos.

En esta reunión, los taxistas reprocharon que la minuciosidad de los registros se centrase únicamente en aquellos vehículos que transportaban mujeres subsaharianas. Según destacó Moragues, los representantes municipales les pidieron disculpas y les garantizaron que no se volvería a producir una situación así.
Los conductores consultados por este diario relataron que en los controles policiales objeto de polémica se paraba a los taxis que llevaban mujeres subsaharianas, se las obligaba a bajar y eran registradas por policías equipados con guantes y mascarillas, ante el temor a un posible contagio por gripe A. A continuación, de acuerdo a esta versión, los agentes procedían a inspeccionar con esmero la documentación del taxi.

Massage parlours

Place: Mostly in the coastal belt

Operate from: Stalls erected behind beach shacks, hotels, lodges and rented houses. While some are high-class massage/beauty parlours, others operate from dingy rooms. There are registered as well as unregistered parlours that traffic. A security guard at most places facilitates entry into the parlour.

CSWs: From Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and Nepal. Of late, Goan girls have also been found working in such parlours.

Customers: Domestic, foreign tourists, even local youngsters have been found visiting those located in Bardez taluka.

Modus operandi: Customers do not approach massage/beauty parlours directly. They are solicited by mostly young boys. After soliciting, the customers (either alone or in groups of 2-4) are brought to the parlour via private or commercial vehicles. In a majority of cases, vans are used to transport the solicited customers.

Price: Varies from Rs 2,500 to Rs 25,000

Hotels & lodges

Place: Almost everywhere in Goa

CSWs: Predominantly from Maharashtra (mainly Mumbai, Pune and Sawantwadi), Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, West Bengal, Manipur, Meghalaya and Nepal. Young, smart, modern, fashionable and Hindi-speaking girls are preferred.

Modus operandi: The girls are accommodated at the hotel or in a nearby rented house. After agents fix a deal with customers, the girls are made available. Those put up in rented premises are contacted over their mobiles and picked up from their residences.

Agents in hotels and lodges also contact girls who openly solicit in markets and beaches. On receiving the details, the girl proceeds to the hotel/lodge.

In another variant, in Bardez taluka rooms are rented to girls on an hourly basis.

Some hotel managers also have contacts with CSWs from other states in order to meet demand. If the girl does not have money to travel, she is instructed to board a particular bus where the ticket is paid for directly at the travel agency by the hotel manager. She disembarks at the said destination and is taken directly to the hotel.

Customers: Domestic and foreign tourists

Rented Rooms

Place: CSWs are kept in rented rooms and houses in villages

CSWs: From Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Nepal.

Modus operandi: The girls are brought to Goa by bus or train on contracts that range from a week to a month.

In Bardez taluka, they are mostly picked up from the Mapusa bus stand or Thivim railway station.

They are not allowed to leave the rooms/houses. Whenever they are taken out, vehicles with black tinted glasses are used. After the contract period they are paid and sent back.

Fishing trawlers

Place: Fishing jetties and nearby market areas. Though entry into fishing jetties is restricted, the girls are permitted.

CSWs: Mostly from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Modus operandi: Soliciting is done by the CSW herself. The room is often a trawler anchored a distance away from the jetty.

Though cash is paid, in many cases the girl gets fish or prawns which she later sells.

Customers: Migrants from Kerala, Orissa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, who work on contract basis with trawler owners.

Brothels

Place: Baina, Vasco

Modus operandi: Customers are solicited by motorcycle pilots and taxi drivers at bus stands, railway stations, markets, gardens and brought to Baina beach.

Here, a deal is made with the madam’ (brothel owner) and once finalized the girl is sent with the customer to a nearby, pre-determined room.

The amount paid is shared by the pimp, room owner, madam and the CSW. At times, the CSW is forced to solicit customers herself.

Isolated places

Place: Prime areas include the KTC bus stand, Municipal garden, Railway bridge and railway station in Vasco city. Also Sada, Bogda, the Japanese garden, Kharewada, Birla, Zuari Nagar, Verna industrial estate, Kelsim and Thane and Cortalim.

CSWs: Mostly those displaced after the demolition of the red light area in Baina.

Modus operandi: CSWs solicit customers on the roads and take them to nearby hotels, lodges or thickly forested areas.

Highways

Place: Highways passing through some of the state’s interior talukas. Mostly in highly industrial and mining areas.

CSWs: Mostly from migrant populations settled in slums or rented houses.

Modus operandi: CSWs solicit at different locations along the highways. The customer is taken to a room or the girl travels to another location in the latter’s vehicle.

Customers: Mostly truck drivers and helpers.

Propuestas desde el Movimiento de Trabajadoras Sexuales del Perú

La ponencia de Villón sigue en dos partes mas: 2da y 3ra.  

Otra ponencia de la misma ocasión habla de un estudio con trabajadoras sexuales transgéneras. La ponente es Ximena Salazar de la unidad de salud, sexualidad y desarrollo humano de la Universidad Cayetano Heredia.

Conclusiones y Recomendaciones por parte de Sasieta.