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Location: Close to Grant road

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Kamathipura derives its name from ‘Kamathis’, a group of workers from Andhra Pradesh who came to Mumbai in 1795 and rendered the flat areas habitable by the construction of Hornby Vellard and Belassis Road (two important causeways that allowed the merging of seven islands into today’s Mumbai). Several years later, one such liveable area is home to one of the world’s largest red light districts.

Apart from having walked the streets of Bangkok where girls on fliers are sold unwaveringly, I had never seen such a district before. With preconceived images of shining disco balls decorating the area and girls walking all around with glamorous expressions on their faces, I went to Kamathipura. However, Mumbai’s red light area, several narrow lanes running parallel to each other, had such a ‘usual’ air about it, that I felt lost in its normalcy. 

In the late evening hour I did see the prostitutes, wearing bright red lipstick and gaudy jewellery, standing at the corners. I looked up to see the balconies from where I had heard that men take their pick, but no one stood there at this time of day. The parts of the buildings known to be brothels were covered on the outside with loose plastic. The rest, functioned as a normal residential space. Children were playing on the streets below, men at the paan-shop were discussing religion and Godliness, old men were sitting on resting hand carts, and women were buying vegetables for their evening meal. I also saw a Jain temple, a mosque and a church there. Kamathipura, was another crowded and poverty stricken inner city area, one where prostitution was any other profession.

The stories from Kamathipura are many. An architect friend who did a project within these by lanes speaks of night schools and shelters which have been set up for the children of these women while they are at work. In order to protect their children from the influences of this trade, they prefer to own homes in far away suburbs, for many a son becomes a pimp in turn. Walking past policemen stationed here, it is obvious that the same law which deems the activity illegal, very much partakes of its profits. I did have a camera in hand and while I tried to sneak in some pictures only for I felt ashamed at making a specimen out of these women, one of them naturally posed for me and gave me such a bright smile, that for once it did not have the same effect a smile should. There is always a certain attitude about the way prostitutes walk, talk or even stand, one that seems to place them forward, a parallel to the very definition of the word ‘prostitution’. While it is difficult to write about my feelings from that day’s experience – close to 200,000 such women in Mumbai, feeding off to one of man’s most basic instincts – they remain soaked in sadness that is linked to a choice made out of a lack of others. And hence, while prostitution is a part of most or every society, it will never be one of seamless integration.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_India

Please watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKzDtYJR2b4&feature=player_embedded