Here, girls are beaten to the brink of death for even trying to escape this vicious quagmire. Pimps gang-rape them day and night—this isn't just lust, but a conspiracy to ensure they become 'trapped' in this swamp of despair. Every night they die a thousand deaths just to stay alive, and every morning they endure a new birth filled with pain. In the dark rooms of GB Road, girls are locked away for months, subjected to psychological torture until their courage to say 'no' is completely destroyed.”
Famous writer Geeta Pandey writes in her book "Nobody’s Child":
"The money left on the bed every morning is not just the price of a body, but it is the receipt for the auction of a woman’s soul."
The reality of red-light areas in India is not limited only to the alleys. According to a recent estimate, there are approximately 30 lakh (3 million) female sex workers in India. Compared to old UNAIDS data, new government surveys (PMPSE) have recorded this number at approximately 9.95 lakh, the reality there is far more terrifying than this.
In fact, 9.95 lakh is only the 'registered' count that has come to the eyes of the system, whereas the estimate of 30 lakh also counts those lakhs of women who are imprisoned without any record in brothels like GB Road, Sonagachi, and Kamathipura.
The scariest truth is that 60% of these girls are minors (under 18 years) when their 'deal' happens. Amidst the slogans of "Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao," the children born in these alleys, despite being citizens of the country, are "Non-Existent" in government records. They have no central database, nor any identity.
But this is not just a count, these are those innocents who are 'missing' despite being in this democracy.
According to a survivor in the Investigative Report "The Lost Girls":
"For us, it is not the sunlight, but the sound of the customer's slippers clicking on the brothel stairs that is the start of the day."
Understand the depth of their invisibility from the report given below:
| Question | Government Reality | Social Impact |
| Counting of Children | No central database; accurate count missing. | Children become easy targets for trafficking. |
| Birth Certificate | Not made due to unknown father or lack of address proof. | Deprived of school admission and basic rights. |
| Education | 90% drop-out rate; environment not fit for studies. | The next generation also gets trapped in this quagmire. |
Daughter = Business, Son = Burden
Here the value of gender is completely opposite. The birth of a daughter is seen as 'business expansion', because she is the future 'earning member.' Her childhood is mortgaged even before she is born.
But the son? He is a 'burden.' He cannot earn money in the business, therefore they are often neglected, or pushed toward petty theft or drugs from childhood so that they can become a part of the brothel's economy.
Hidden Layers: Systemic Exploitation
IPS P.M. Nair had rightly said— "Red-light areas are not a market, but an 'invisible jail' where walls are not visible, but no one can cross them." The system allows this bazaar to run, understand how through these horrifying aspects:
Hormonal Slavery & The Health Trap: To make 14-15-year-old girls look like 'adults,' they are forced into a cycle of Oxytocin injections. While this makes the "product" sellable by causing the body to swell and develop prematurely, it hollows them out from the inside. By the time a girl reaches 25, her internal organs are often failing, and her body becomes a graveyard of side effects. These same injections are frequently misused for illegal, unsafe abortions, further shattering their reproductive and mental health.
The Debt Trap: The expense of 'buying' a girl is piled on her head like a debt. By the time she pays off that debt, both her body and soul have broken down. This cycle encourages trafficking.
Invisible Children: No Voter ID or Aadhaar is made for these children. Their cycle is such that by the age of 5, they are either made 'delivery boys' or made to disappear so that the mother's attention does not drift from work.
The "Invisible" Economy: Red-light areas are not just a market of bodies, but a black economy. The turnover of sex work in India is in billions, but the girls get only 15-20% of one customer's payment. The rest goes into the pockets of pimps, landlords, and the corrupt system.
Silent Rape Culture: A new girl is locked in a dark room and gang-raped so that self-respect breaks. This is psychological breaking.
Room within a Room: P.M. Nair has said in his research that "In those buildings of GB Road, these 6x6 cabins are not just rooms, but coffins (taboot) made for living humans. Is there any plan to clean the filth of these cells in the government's 'Swachh Bharat'?"
Demographic Black Hole: The government does not have data because there is an identification crisis. The legal address of children is not accepted, school admission stops.
But this exploitation doesn't end with the display of bodies. This dark bazaar has another face that rarely makes it to the headlines—the silence of death.
The Ultimate Silence: Murder and Mysterious Disappearances
Behind the closed doors of red-light areas, there lies a terrifying silence of death. When the secrets of the "Body Bazaar" go too deep, murder is used as the ultimate tool:
Silencing the Rebels: A girl who tries to escape or seeks help becomes a threat to the entire trade. She is often "disappeared" or brutally murdered to instill terror in others—the final stage of psychological breaking.
The "Suicide" Cover-up: Since these women are "Non-Existent" in government records, their murders are conveniently labeled as "suicides." When the system has no proof of their life, it rarely investigates their death.
Disposal of "Used Products": When bodies break down due to oxytocin and disease by age 25-30, they become a liability. If they know too many secrets, elimination becomes the trade's dark norm.
The Organ & Overdose Shadow: In the darkest corners, women who are no longer "marketable" are either drugged to death (forced overdose) or fall victim to organ harvesting.
When the death of an innocent remains just a 'suicide' or a 'disappearance,' she is merely a 'waste product' for the system.
But behind this death lies the profit that builds a billion-dollar industry through the auction of souls."
The Billion Dollar Reality vs Social Truth
The question is not just about existence, but also about that profit which is earned from the display of these bodies. The table below shows the economic and social truth of red-light areas...
| Factor | The Billion Dollar Reality | The Social Truth |
| Daily Survival Cost | A girl has to pay ₹500-₹1000 daily for room rent, whether there is business or not. | These girls get cheap, expired medicines and illegal abortions. |
| Entry Age | 60% of girls are minors (under 18) when the deal happens. | The drop-out rate of children in red-light areas is approximately 90%. |
| Police/System | According to 2022-23 data, despite thousands of raids, GB Road did not close, because it is an "open secret." | In raids, girls are caught, but the "real owners" (kingpins) never go to jail. |
| Turnover/Share | Sex work turnover is in billions; girls get 15-20%. | Money is made by eating up the health of these women; body ruined by age 25 due to hormonal slavery. |
| Healthcare | Fat earnings from private clinics. | Cheap medicines, expired medicines, and early aging from side-effects. |
Pillars That Keep the Bazaar of These Women Alive
As I mentioned before, there are approximately 3 million sex workers in India, out of which 40% are in this trade out of compulsion due to poverty. 60% of the entry age are minors, who become victims of trafficking.
The annual turnover of the sex work industry is estimated at $8 billion+, but a worker gets only 15–20% earning. Despite raids, the conviction rate is very low—kingpins and landlords escape due to political patronage. If we talk about health issues, HIV prevalence in sex workers is 4–5%, but 70% do not even know their status.
Despite all this, why is this bazaar running? The reason is that a bazaar like GB Road or Sonagachi is not a matter of a small alley, but a systemic nexus. Poverty compels women, patriarchy makes them a commodity, corruption suppresses their voice, and politics allows this bazaar to run. Along with these four, there is a fifth pillar: the neglect of public health. Both sex workers and clients face health risks, but the system allows the bazaar to run by ignoring these risks. As long as these five continue to support each other, red-light areas will not only stay alive but will merge inside society by making their existence normal.
IPS P.M. Nair expressed this bitter truth by saying:
"We manage to 'rescue' (save) them, but we are not able to 'rehabilitate' (resettle) them because society is not ready to accept them."
Call to Action
What is the benefit of being a billion-dollar industry, when every drop of that profit has been extracted by squeezing the blood of an innocent's childhood? When we send our children to school, exactly at that time, in some of these areas, an innocent is watching their childhood being auctioned.
The questions are: will we have the courage to break this nexus, or will we continue to allow this normalization to happen before our eyes?. And,
Do you think that the government should bring a separate identity and rehabilitation policy for these children?
References:
https://ncrb.gov.in/en/crime-in-india
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_India
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12057993/
https://shareok.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/2a8e6d65-87fd-4b28-b75b-d25f85b84f09/content
https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/vijayawada/2023/Jun/17/human-trafficking-survivors-struggle-to-obtain-govt-ids-2585858.html
https://globalpressjournal.com/asia/india/sex-workers-daughters-access-education-in-india/
Why We Need to Revisit the Legal Status of Red-Light Districts | LinkedIn
https://www.fairplanet.org/story/raised-in-brothels-the-children-of-delhis-red-light-district/
https://sk.sagepub.com/book/edvol/prostitution-and-beyond/chpt/markets-histories-grassroot-evidences-economics#_
https://www.reuters.com/article/world/delhi-s-trafficked-sex-slaves-face-sad-and-horrible-life-official-idUSKCN0VM01C/
G3003072736.pdf
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4631432
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