Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Premium
This is an archive article published on January 21, 2022
How sex workers of Sonagachi survived brutal Covid pandemic waves
Till early 2020, Chittaranjan Avenue was busier than any other street in Kolkata. Glances of interested customers, sex workers soliciting them. Narrow alleys. Dark staircases leading up to dimly-lit rooms. However, everything has changed since the pandemic.
Written by Shashi Ghosh
Kolkata | January 21, 2022 22:44 IST
3 min read
Sonagachi is one of the oldest red light area in Kolkata and largest in Asia. The name -- Sonagachi -- is inextricably linked with the city's 400-year-old history. Customers keep coming and going all day and night in the narrow alleys of Sonagachi where both time and body are up for sale. As the night progresses, the crowd swells. Some sex workers earn Rs 500 to Rs 50,000 per hour here.
Till early 2020, Chittaranjan Avenue was busier than any other street in Kolkata. Glances of interested customers, sex workers soliciting them. Narrow alleys. Dark staircases leading up to dimly-lit rooms. However, everything has changed since the pandemic.
The sex-work business had to remain shut for a long time. Many could not arrange for their daily meals. Some are still struggling to pay for their children’s education. A woman, working as a sex worker for more than thirty years there, said, “No one would believe our situation. We haven’t had a single customer since the lockdown. There was no way back home. There was no income. I could not understand how to live with a small child. Thousands of girls like me were in the same situation here. Now the situation has improved. But we aren’t getting customers like before.”
There is nothing left in the sex worker’s room except a bed, a stool, a water bottle and a few utensils. Most houses do not have windows. The windows of all the rooms have to be kept closed. However, it is impossible for such profession to maintain social distancing. These red light areas carried the highest risk of becoming superspreaders of the infection as 15,000 to 20,000 people used to visit Sonagachi everyday. However, according to the available information, no such thing happened in Sonagachi.
The residents there tried their best to abide by the precautionary measures since the start of the pandemic. They made it mandatory to use a mask during work. And this made many customers angry. However, the sex workers did not budge. A sex worker said that just as condom use has been made compulsory, the mask usage was also made mandatory for all customers.
About 7,000 sex workers live in Sonagachi with their families. There are also floating sex workers — the ones who do not live there but come to work. Overall, the total number of sex workers comes to around 10,000. In the second wave of pandemic too, not a single sex worker died or fell seriously ill.
According to the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee — an organisation that works with the sex workers, less than five per cent of all sex workers were affected by the virus. How? According to one sex worker, “people from outside have been made to wash their hands repeatedly. And if someone had a fever, a cold, a cough, or a bad body, we wouldn’t let him into the room. It makes less money, but keeps people around me healthy.”
Immediately after the vaccination drive kicked off in the country, the sex workers were vaccinated and awareness programme began. Not just in Sonagachi, sex workers in all red light areas of West Bengal observed the same rules and were benefitted. According to Ratan Dalui of Durbar, if everyone follows the right protocols, whether it is HIV or Covid-19, everything can be prevented.
You May Like
Live Blog
Photos
Top Stories
