Mumbai: It is late afternoon and still no customer has turned up at her door in Kamathipura, infamous as the flesh trade district of Mumbai. This is the eighth day that sex worker Soni (name changed), 49, has not got a single ‘kastamber’ (customer), as she pronounces it.
Dressed in a velvet maxi, Soni peeps out every now and then from behind the curtain of her room door on the road outside lying empty, in view of the lockdown imposed to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
The situation has brought despair not just for her but for thousands of others in the same trade who have been involved in prostitution in Kamathipura since several decades.
Soni, who hails from Nepal, has been a sex worker in the ‘10th gully’ of Kamathipura since the last 25 years.
“Poora jindagi idhar nikala, itna bam fata, attack hua, kitna bimari aya, lekin aisa halat kabhi nahi tha” (spent the whole life in this work. The city witnessed bomb blasts, attacks, many diseases, but this kind of situation never occurred in the past),” Soni said. She also said she has not earned a single rupee since last Sunday and does not see any chance of the situation improving in the next few days.
“If this continues what will I eat, how will I pay rent to room owner are the questions before me,” Soni pointed out.
Besides Soni, there are three more women in the room who say that on normal days, they earn Rs 2,000 to 3,000.
Asked how they are managing their food, Soni said, “I have brought some groceries, but they will last only two-three days. I will now have to spend cautiously from my savings.”
Kamathipura was once known as the largest brothel in the country. Women of various age groups are involved in flesh trade here. Many are trafficked and brought here from West Bengal, Nepal and Bangladesh.
Another sex worker Jaya, who is in her 30s, is worried about how to earn money to sustain her livelihood in these unprecedented times. She hails from West Bengal and was forced into prostitution by a trafficker.
“I don’t have any work since a week now and I also don’t have enough money with me,” Jaya said, while keeping an eye on her gas burner as the pressure cooker whistled, filling the place with the smell of dal and rice being boiled in it.
Jaya has a six-year-old son whom she has kept with a family known to her in Pune so he can go to school and study. “Every month, I have to send at least Rs 1,500 for my child, but if I don’t earn, how can I send the money for him? I have lot of tensions,” she informed.
Another sex worker Kiran had a different point to place forward. “Why don’t you people tell Modi (Prime Minister) to send us money as we also have aged parents and children to look after,” said Kiran.
“Why doesn’t he give us a package as we are also human beings… take my word, if this situation continues, offences like theft, loot and assault will increase,” she added.
Agencies