Inside a Brothel: The Weeping Tale of a Cursed World

A brothel isn’t just a place but a horrible world where men can spend a little money for a few minutes of sex, which scars a woman for a lifetime.

Introduction

In the depths of a brothel, it’s not just the physical walls that confine, but the insidious tendrils of exploitation and despair that are ensnared by the souls of countless women. Each transaction, a fleeting exchange of currency for fleeting pleasure, is etched with scars upon the hearts and minds of those ensnared in this twisted reality.

For decades, more than one million girls have been enslaved in brothels throughout the world. They’re enticed, deceived, or kidnapped by traffickers and forced to work in red-light districts. Sex workers are forced to deal with shame and stigma from society.

A visual representation

It’s evening time. The sounds of honking, curses, and Hindi film songs from the 1990s decorate the ambiance. Females — of all ages — are posing in front of matchbox-sized shanties. Frustrated, angry, hungry, and evil men are ogling these women. Police vans are taking rounds. The local beer bar is overcrowded. A few men with filthy looks in their eyes and filmi-language, walking around the street to hunt potential customers.

At the late hours of the night, one minor girl is dragged out of a black-yellow taxi and bashed. She’s crying for help but no one comes to her rescue. She’s taken inside a matchbox-sized shanty and closed in the room. The room is filled with smoke and in a little while, you hear a loud lament followed by a long scream.

This is a typical scene of any red-light area in India.

My experiences with brothels

I’ve visited several red-light areas in India; especially the Kamathipura area of Mumbai. I’d been inside this hell-paradise quite a few times, a couple of times as a customer but mostly as a company to naughty friends. I sat outside and talked to other customers or prostitutes while friends would do their acts.

One fine day, one of my friends, who was researching human trafficking and the illegal sex trade, wanted to visit places in Mumbai to do her homework. I took her to several places in Mumbai — Falkland Road, Shukla Street, Congress House, Pila House, Master Wadi, Darukhana, Ghatkopar Station Lane, Space Garden, Unity Compound, and a few more I can’t even remember.

Along with her, I also got to know about the life of a prostitute in a brothel. I heard heart-ripping stories; each one more painful than the previous.

The story of Shabnam

While sitting outside waiting for my friends, I would talk to prostitutes whom I’d eventually befriend.

Shabnam was one such friend.

Forced into prostitution, she was sold for INR 20,000 by a relative who promised her a job in the city of dreams. She was bashed and raped every day until she surrendered. After a few weeks of torture, the agents gave her doses of steroids to look voluptuous and beaten every time she said no to sex.

The worst part was that she would be forced to have sex with 10-15 customers every day, and her share was a mere INR 100.

The story inside the brothel is usually not something that surprises us but I’m shocked to know that men wouldn’t come for sex most of the time. She told us that men would usually come to talk, beat, or even torture her.

They came to remove their frustration, irritation, and anger that couldn’t find an outlet elsewhere. She cleared our misconception of sexual gratification and explained to us that the main purpose is usually a vulgar display of power.

It’s shocking but true.

The problem with society

The frustrated and irritated men find a brothel perfect to express their emotions. Some just talk and cry during their session with a prostitute. Perhaps if tearful little boys were comforted instead of being shamed, they wouldn’t be angry men struggling to express and empathize with their emotions.

The making of a prostitute

If you haven’t heard about paid rape, you should visit such a hell-paradise once in your life. Customers pay thousands of rupees to deflower a young virgin girl. Most of these girls are victims of the Devadasi culture, extreme poverty leads to the family selling off their young virgin daughters to brothel owners.

All this in the name of lust!

The sex industry

The sex trade industry is engineering for inhumanity. It’s far worse than we can ever imagine. The worst part is that it’s happening almost everywhere in the world. Frustrated, angry, hungry, and evil men are crushing the dignity of innocent women in the name of self-gratification.

Prostitution is legal in India. A few related activities including soliciting in a public place, curb-crawling, owning or managing a brothel, prostitution in a hotel, child prostitution, pimping, and pandering are illegal. There are however many brothels illegally operating in Indian cities including Mumbai and Delhi.

The future of prostitutes

But amidst the darkness, there is a glimmer of hope, a flicker of light amidst the shadows. We must be the voice for the voiceless, the champions of those ensnared in the web of exploitation. Only then can we hope to break the chains that are bound to our depravity, and usher in a new dawn of compassion and empathy.

Conclusion

Some die, some retire as a prostitute and become the manager, some run away, some get murdered, and some become documentaries or blog posts. There’s no escape for them from the brothel because even after they come out of one, society puts them in an even bigger — and deadlier — social brothel.