“Red Lights” located in the heart of old Delhi, not far from the main station. The quarter is what you need — dilapidated gray buildings, clothes are drying on the balconies. It is not advised to appear here after dark, especially for tourists — the area is teeming with crime, not so long ago a policeman was stabbed to death at night. I look around — actually, there are no lights. An ordinary street, called Garstin Bastion Road — dilapidated buildings, shops on the first floors, cycle rickshaws are bored in groups waiting for customers. It doesn't look very much like Amsterdam.
One of the cycle rickshaws comes up to me. “What are you looking for? Girl, sir? “Yes.” “Go upstairs. This is done on purpose — women cannot be offered services on the street, they can be arrested». I go to the store (they sell light bulbs, how cute) — I am silently shown to the stairs.
On the second floor, there are several young girls in colorful saris. The decor is spartan — shabby little rooms, shabby doors. “Five hundred rupees (340 rubles Aut.) per hour, sir, — the older one tells me. — Turn off your phone so we can see, photography is not allowed here. Take the night at once, big discount, you will like it.
“It's cheap and bad”
Prostitution in India has been allowed since ancient times — it existed both before the British colonizers and after. During the reign of the padishahs from the Mughal dynasty, the “paid women” there was even an elite, like geisha in Japan — the so-called tawaif: these ladies knew how to dance beautifully, play musical instruments and knew how to entertain the client with interesting stories.
Officially, 658 & nbsp; 000 “moths” work in the country, unofficially & mdash; & nbsp; up to 10 million girls: the Indian sex industry is considered the largest in the world, billions of dollars are spinning in it. In any hotel in Delhi or Mumbai you will be offered to “have fun”; allegedly with a student — there for two hours (the price of a hotel room is included) they will ask for 10 000 rupees (7 000 rubles – Auth.). The desk clerk will gladly show you photos of the ladies, adding the obligatory mantra that they are unprofessionals, like doing a part-time job.
“Garstin Bastion — it's cheap and bad, sir,”mdash; explained to me. — Just like port whores. Loaders, rickshaws, small traders go there. We offer you beautiful women who know how to please a European. It is really forbidden for girls in the brothel area to stand below and call customers — even wave them out the window. It seems that whoever needs it will find it. Brothels on several floors at once, some with a fan, some with air conditioning.
“My parents sold me”
“I don’t need services, — I explain to the girls. — But I will pay you for talking." A piece of paper worth 500 rupees disappears in a swarthy hand.
Lakshmi, twenty-six years old, is selected for conversation. “How long have you been working here?” “From the age of eighteen.” “Is there actually more?” “Of course.” She hardly understands English, we communicate through Google translator on the phone.
There is a saying in India — it is better to give birth to a stone than to give birth to a daughter. It got to the point that the state banned the study of ultrasound: having learned that the unborn child is a girl, the husband and wife often agreed on an abortion. In small impoverished villages, if a family has five or seven daughters, it is not uncommon for a couple of them to end up being sold to recruiters. Lakshmi was sold when she was 15.
“My parents called me into the room in the morning, showed me two people and said that I had to go with them. And I always got used to obey my parents. They were dealers, father and mother received 25 000 rupees, in Delhi I was delivered to other buyers for twice as much.
The story is quite typical — about a third (if not more) of Indian prostitutes enter the profession as minors. They show me the comfort room. An old bed, a fan on the ceiling — and that's it. “Sheets are fresh,” — Lakshmi says quietly, as if shy.
Ten customers a day
It is believed that prostitutes rent premises, because the existence of brothels is prohibited by the laws of India — pimping, keeping brothels is a criminal offense: up to three years in prison. But, as in Russia, the law is that the drawbar — wherever you turn, it went there. Sex property owners illegally run the entire building and the authorities pretend to believe it.
“How many clients do you have per day?” Lakshmi curls her fingers. “When it's seven, when it's ten. This is five thousand rupees. One and a half thousand I pay for a room, there are three and a half a day… very big money in India. Lakshmi is not going to leave the profession. “Where else can I earn so much? Yes, I can't do anything else. I have good clients, they only come to me.
Since the time of the novel «The Pit» Kuprin's prostitution — always a drama. The girl is not forcibly kept in a brothel, she can leave at any moment, but she does not. “Where to? I don't communicate with my parents. I don't have an apartment. I'm saving money, I want to open a diner. Would you like me to bring you water?».
In the corridor you can see how women stealthily look at the street — opening the curtain and looking at passers-by. Prostitution is allowed, but everything has been done so that it is not conspicuous. You can’t put up ads with phones — for this you get six months in prison.
“What fool will order me”
“You don't like sex, do you?” “Of course. But I don’t tell my clients, otherwise what kind of fool would order me. According to statistics, 78% of Indian prostitutes in 1992 did not use condoms, now the opposite is true. “My first client didn't want a condom,” Lakshmi recalls. — I refused and he beat me. Then the owners of the brothel did not give me food for a week to make me more accommodating. You will hear many such stories, at first it is bad and hard for everyone. But I paid off my debt and now I'm in charge of my own life. I pay taxes, I have insurance. There are also many students in our business. Everyone needs money for an iPhone. I regret that I didn’t start on my own — at eighteen, good fees, at twenty-six it’s harder… I am old by Indian standards.
Nevertheless (according to human rights activists), many girls are forcibly kept in brothels — until they work out the amount paid for them by recruiters. Hiding from the sunlight behind the glass of dirty houses, sex workers seem to not exist — but everyone in Delhi is well aware of the "red lights". “This area has been working for as long as I can remember, — says my friend, the Indian journalist. — Our society is conservative: it pretends that we don’t have prostitutes».
«They will steal and take the money out»
Lakshmi accompanies me to the exit. I give her another two hundred rupees. “Thank you, — she rejoices. — I talked to girls from Uzbekistan and Thailand, they said — Russians are so generous! Why don't your tourists come here? We love Europeans, they are affectionate and rich.” The taxi driver who took me to Garstin Bastion (the street was renamed in 1966, but everyone still calls it) is alarmed. “You were gone for a long time, sir. It's good that you are a foreigner. An ordinary person’s phone will be stolen here and money will be pulled out while tearful stories are being told.
The attitude towards prostitutes in society does not change. In India, they remain untouchable for all people: even if the caste system is abolished.
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