Every year, thousands of women and minor girls enter into sex work in the red light area of Mumbai’s Kamathipura, many of them misled and brought there without their knowledge.
Many are forced into the world of flesh trade with the use of false promises and inducements. Once there, they suffer all types of ignominies and their miseries have no ends. However, many sex workers have left the profession and are trying to start a new life with the help of NGOs and social workers.
Ahead of International Women’s day, this woman’s journey, from being conned into flesh trade to finding an alternate profession, is one of inspiration.
Muskan* (name changed) was brought to Mumbai from Kolkata at age 15 with the promise of a job and then sold into prostitution. The memories of those painful days in Kamathipura are still vivid in her mind.
“I was brought to Mumbai from Kolkata when I was still 15 year old. I will get a job in Mumbai, I was told then. I saw Kamathipura at that time. I did not know where I had been brought, what I was supposed to do? I could not understand a thing. I was aghast after I realised where I was. I was forced into the prostitution,” she recounted.
“In the beginning, I was tortured mentally and physically. I was forced into this flesh trade. I had only two alternatives before me – either I run away from there or commit suicide. I wanted to live so I had to accept whatever came my way. I accepted to stay in that hell to keep myself alive,” she said, adding that things changed after ten years.
“I have spent 10 years as a prostitute. I was trapped in Mumbai and it was difficult for me to return. I was not educated, not even literate,” said Muskan. “The economic condition of my family was bad. I stayed in this hell till I was young. I was determined to leave Kamathipura once I was an adult.”
Muskan said that she learned about a women’s collective which could help and contacted them. “I came into contact with Puna Awasthi and Manju Vyas of this organisation. I came to know about the sewing machine. I seized this opportunity and now my life has changed.”
Muskan said she was afraid of the sewing machine in the beginning, but with some training, she got better and started stitching her torn life. It gave her a new lease on life.
Today, she stitches clothes for children and makes cloth bags and sells them. Apart from this, she is also helping other women who are stuck in sex work and want a way out.
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