India’s prostitution villages _ DW Documentary

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00:00Rajkumari is waiting for customers at the roadside.

00:09She has a young baby to feed at home and a family to support.

00:13So far, no luck.

00:18Rajkumari is one of the hundreds of thousands of Indian women in institutionalized sex work

00:24in a practice with roots in the age-old caste system.

00:42Just three hours away from India's capital New Delhi is a starkly different world.

00:47I am travelling to a cluster of villages known for sex work.

00:51This is Ghegoli, a village in the district of Alwar in the state of Rajasthan.

00:59Here I meet Ankita, who is a sex worker.

01:03At her request, we have changed her name.

01:08She says she is of legal age, but doesn't look it.

01:12Ankita is getting ready for a client.

01:15Her clients include men from nearby villages, truck drivers or migrant workers that pass

01:21through on the highways and young men with disposable incomes.

01:26She joined the profession three years ago and says it was by choice as it enables her

01:32to support her family.

01:33I know from my father that my aunt also worked like this.

01:38I got into this field due to poverty.

01:44How much are you earning at the moment?

01:47Around 60 to 70,000 rupees per month, around 750 euros.

01:52Apart from me, no one in my family can find work.

01:55We were starving.

01:56We need a roof over our heads.

01:58We need to build a house and my sister needs to get married.

02:02Do you have any debt?

02:05I paid it all off.

02:07How much was it?

02:08About 11,000 euros.

02:10Oh, that's a lot.

02:12Did you pay that back?

02:13Yes, everything.

02:15Within two years?

02:16Yes, within two years.

02:22Having to borrow money traps many families here in a vicious cycle.

02:27Banks do not lend money since they do not consider sex work as work.

02:32So these families turn to local lenders who charge exorbitant interest rates, making them

02:38even poorer.

02:40Rachna, we also changed her real name, is the eldest of a total of seven siblings.

02:47Due to high debt, she also has to work as a prostitute like her mother and her aunt.

02:54I was 15 when I understood what it was all about.

02:58And at the same time, it became more and more clear to me how poor we are.

03:04So I got in.

03:05What was the situation?

03:10My little siblings always had to beg for food.

03:13We have no real house, no land, nothing.

03:17At some point, the money that my mother earned here as a sex worker didn't suffice.

03:22So she had to go to Mumbai.

03:26In hotels you can earn more.

03:29She had to leave us alone to do so.

03:35It became clear to me that it was the only way to make money, and essentially for us

03:40to survive.

03:42One day I finally said to her, I don't want you to do this.

03:46I will take care of this.

03:47I am now the breadwinner of the family.

03:52Rachna went to Mumbai through an agent who recruited her by contacting local pimps in

03:57an elaborate sex trade network.

04:00There are an estimated 3 million sex workers in India between ages 15 and 35.

04:08Sex work is legal in India.

04:10Pimping and human trafficking are not.

04:13This is a matter of survival for many like Rachna.

04:17They are abused in the system but stay for lack of any other avenues of work.

04:24When I was very young, I had a client in Mumbai who treated me horribly.

04:33He wouldn't even pay me.

04:36Instead, he beat me black and blue and even stole my clothes.

04:44I ran after him but couldn't take them back.

04:49It was extremely humiliating.

05:01There is a stigma attached to these villages, as the people here belong to the bottom of

05:05the caste hierarchy.

05:07Nuts, bediya, banchara and kanjar, where these women come from, have traditionally been nomadic

05:15tribes.

05:16They move from place to place, they are scattered all over.

05:20But many are in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

05:33Before the women were driven into sex work, these ethnic groups worked mainly as performers,

05:38dancers, jugglers, acrobats and magicians.

05:43Because of their work and way of life, the British colonial power viewed these ethnic

05:48groups as a threat.

05:51In 1871, they were criminalised under the Criminal Tribes Act, which was only repealed

05:57at the time of India's independence.

06:02Stereotypes about these tribes still persist in society and makes it almost impossible

06:07for them to start other professions or means of livelihood.

06:16I went to meet male members of a family from the community.

06:25There's a lot of discrimination.

06:27No one wants to give us decent jobs.

06:30That would mean we could climb up and out of our misery.

06:33People don't want that, so there's no change.

06:42How do you determine that?

06:43How is this noticeable in everyday life?

06:52They won't even stand or walk next to us because we belong to a low caste.

06:57They tell us to go away.

07:00But it's getting better as more and more of us push to go to school.

07:07Otherwise they wouldn't let us come near their homes.

07:13In school, nobody would sit next to me.

07:15I wouldn't even show my ID card, fearing retaliation and humiliation because of our caste.

07:22Some children here don't know who their father is.

07:25Of course, the mother's customers don't give names.

07:28But this is a problem.

07:30Because in many places, you can only be officially registered with your father's name.

07:35So these kids fall through the cracks.

07:39But women have been able to challenge some gender roles by becoming the primary breadwinner.

07:46Those who make money are strong.

07:48Our women are strong.

07:50They support the family.

07:52They call the shots.

07:58The women are ahead of us here.

08:00They are immensely respected.

08:04These women are able to bring income to the families, build properties and make homes.

08:10They can pay off family debts, which not many women in India can do.

08:15Some eventually leave the village and move to the country's major urban centers, to Delhi,

08:20Mumbai or Calcutta.

08:21Some even as far as Dubai.

08:25Husbands, fathers and brothers of the sex workers are involved in enabling this trade

08:30and contributing to the family economy.

08:33They act as pimps, but also do house chores and raise children.

08:44But there are women who are completely on their own.

08:47This can be difficult, especially when they get older.

08:50Snehalata only had one daughter, who also worked as a sex worker.

08:55Then she died, probably from a sexually transmitted disease.

09:01I don't have any other kids.

09:03She died.

09:04She got very ill.

09:10Most of the women we spoke to would like to move on from this life.

09:14Ankita dreams of marriage when she is done helping her family.

09:22Rachana does everything to give her child a decent education, which she hopes would

09:27weigh her way to freedom.

09:33However, something is slowly changing in the villages.

09:40I meet Guddu Nagar, a teacher who is supported by an NGO working to end sex work.

09:50Today's lesson is about grammar.

09:53He believes a good education will help the women find safer ways of employment.

10:21Sex has already worked for a few families.

10:23One girl even managed to get into the police force in Jaipur, the nearest major city.

10:31Another family has several children in medical professions.

10:35One boy is a lab technician, two girls are studying, one is going to become a doctor.

10:41In these families, no woman works as a sex worker.

10:51Guddu Nagar belongs to the same tribes.

10:53His relatives were in the sex trade too.

10:57He wanted to break the cycle.

10:59He started by teaching himself to read and write, and then his relatives.

11:12Our nomadic way of life was one of the reasons it was too difficult for us to escape our

11:16misery.

11:17I have four brothers, none of whom went to school, and some of my sisters are still illiterate.

11:22I was lucky.

11:24After I had taught myself a few things, a social worker from an NGO helped me.

11:28Today, I have an official degree and can work as a teacher.

11:38There are stories like this, but few and far between.

11:42Members of the community are trying to change the destiny of the next generation.

11:52I'm Nancy, and I want to be an air hostess one day.

11:56Why an air hostess?

11:59It's my dream.

12:00Because you want to fly?

12:04Yes.

12:08A desperate hope is simmering that through education and knowing their rights, these

12:14women can leave the shackles of the past.

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