NGO gives Bhiwandi sex workers hope for respectable living

After being forced into prostitution 15 years ago, a 30-year-old woman from Nepal now has a hope to live life respectfully.

After being forced into prostitution 15 years ago, a 30-year-old woman from Nepal now has a hope to live life respectfully.

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The woman residing in Hanuman Tekdi, a red light area of Bhiwandi, lost business during the lockdown and is now learning skills like tailoring and making incense sticks among others to earn a living. More than 87 per cent of the women living in this area are now finding hope and looking for alternatives to earn a living.

The lockdown might have been bad to most migrant workers and power looms in Bhiwandi. However, it came as a boon to the hundreds of sex workers residing in Hanuman Tekdi.

Losing business in the initial months, though, seemed to be difficult. But, with the help of NGOs, these sex workers are now looking at a respectable living.

The woman said, “I got married when I was barely 11 and was thrown into prostitution in Bhiwandi when I was 15 and had children. I used to send money to my family back in Nepal. Though I tried to leave the business, many a time I was scared of the world outside and had no support system.”

She said that during lockdown, when she lost her income, NGO Shree Sai Seva Sanstha helped her find an alternate job. “They arranged shelter for us and gave us small jobs to earn a living,” she said.

The NGO conducted a study on the sex workers in the area during the pandemic and started working on their welfare. They are training the sex workers in various skill-based programmes to provide a dignified source of income.

Dr Swati Singh, founder of the NGO, said, “We found in the survey that prostitution came to a halt due to fear of transmission of the virus and the sex workers were sitting idle for more than seven months. The finding revealed around 60 per cent of the sex workers in Hanuman Tekdi have taken loans from friends in the neighbourhood, shopkeepers, local money lenders and their own brothel managers.

“Hence, due to the lockdown, they were not able to repay the loan and the lenders were abusing them. With no business, they can’t even pay the room rent.”

The red light area at present has around 500 sex workers including 56 per cent foreign nationals. Around 46 per cent women are from Bangladesh while 10 per cent are from Nepal. Only 4 per cent of them are from Maharashtra. The remaining are from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Kolkata.

The NGO is at present training around 150 sex workers in different skills. They approached the women during the lockdown, provided them with food and medical aids and gained their trust.

Singh said, “We started the session in May and had opened bank accounts for every one of them. Not everyone was interested in tailoring. Some were interested in education, a few in dance, some in packing agarbatti, making papad and many in social working. Accordingly, we train them.”

She added that most of them did not have their paperwork in place and thus did not get loans from banks, and hence fell prey to the abuse of local money lenders. She said that government should have certain policies in place to help these people seek employment.

S D Kokate, senior police inspector, Bhiwandi city police station under whose jurisdiction the red light area lies, said, “We often come to know about a minor or a woman lured and brought from some state or country and forced into prostitution in this area. We try to rescue them. Things are quiet since lockdown and it is good that the NGOs are helping these women to get their life back on track.”

The survey found that the women were either trafficked across the borders or they migrated for work and eventually got trapped into the flesh trade.

A majority of them are not into sex work by choice. About 78 per cent of them were either forced into prostitution by someone they knew like a relative, friend or even their husbands or trapped due to poor financial circumstances.