Life in India's largest red light district

Saganachi is India's most famous village, home to nearly 10,000 prostitutes and considered the country's largest red-light district.

The rooms have double beds with a metal locker, a few boxes tucked away in a corner and a mini-fridge on a wooden stool. Curtains hang in the windows and pictures of Bollywood actors are pasted on the walls, young women wander around the house in towels or nightgowns, chatting to each other in Bengali, doors are opened and closed constantly. This is the typical brothel scene that any visitor to Sonagachi sees.

Sonagachi is located in north Kolkata with hundreds of brothels. Photo: QZ.

Sonagachi is India's largest red-light district, with an estimated 10,000 sex workers living and working in its sprawling high-rises (2012 Indian government figures). Many of them say they have no choice but to sell sex to survive.

"I am a prostitute. Just like other professions like engineers, doctors, my job is to provide happiness and pleasure to people," Geetha Das said, glancing at the men standing in groups and washing themselves under the taps on the roadside, at the entrance to Sonagachi village. They were also staring at the 39-year-old woman.

Das became a resident of Sonagachi in 1992, when she was just 16. Before entering the profession, Das had two children with her husband, who was 25 years her senior. She was born into a poor family in Bengal and married at the age of 12. After a long period of violence and abuse from her husband, Das took her two children back to her parents' home.

Every year, Sonagachi welcomes 800-1,000 young women. They come here with the hope of earning money for a better life. Photo: Aljazeera.

Poverty forced her to travel to the bustling city of Kolkata to find work. A friend took her to Sonagachi. Working there allowed Das to send money back home to support her children's education. "My two children have finished school and are working. If I had stayed home, I wouldn't have been able to pay for their education."

Another woman, who did not want to be named, said that money was the “big lure” for her to do this job, despite having a husband and a son. She usually works as a prostitute during the day and returns home at night. Despite the lure of money, she fears that her son will one day find out about her work. “That is the deepest fear in my heart,” she said.

Despite her fear, she continued to work as a prostitute for tourists and locals alike, because the income from this job helped her pay for her parents’ medical expenses – something she would not have been able to afford if she were not in Sonagachi.

"This job has brought me financial and excitement. I will continue to work here until the customers don't want me anymore."

As for Purnima Chatterjee, 55, her business has become more difficult due to her age. No man would want to be happy with an old prostitute. The one who pushed Purnima into this path was her father. "I could have been someone's wife, but I don't blame my father. This is my fate. God wanted me to bear the burden of raising my five siblings and taking care of my parents. I have done my duty. But now, I have no one, my income has also decreased due to my age. What will happen to me in the next few years?", Chatterjee worries.

Although prostitution is illegal in India, the government has not interfered in Sonagachi's affairs. "We accept it as a part of life and society,"Smarajit Jana, advisor to Durbar, an NGO, said.

Durbar is also the man who years ago helped Sonagachi sex workers protect themselves by saying no to sex without a condom. Today, thousands of sex workers in India’s largest red-light district are members of the union, and they refuse to have sex with clients without a condom.

In addition, people here are also taught to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases, as well as to report to the authorities if they are abused.

When the sun sets, this place becomes more bustling. Women in skimpy clothes and heavy makeup pour out onto the boulevard.Chittaranjan in Kolkata - where many customers come to them.

In Sonagachi, many temples were closed. Bollywood music was blaring, accompanied by the laughter of sellers and buyers in houses with names like Lovers' Night - all preparing for a night of revelry in this red-light district.

According to VNE