That's Love

Kanta broke free of her former life as a sex worker but stayed in the red light district to help others.

Kanta has been working in the red light area for the last 20 years – 10 years in the flesh trade and 10 years helping those in it.

As a health worker with an NGO called People’s Health Organisation, Kanta now gives out condoms to the brothels and helps raise awareness of HIV/AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases among the prostitutes.

“I have to teach them how to use the condoms because some of them don’t even know how to use it or to test if it leaks,” she said. “Sometimes when the girls are not well, I take them to the hospital too.”

Convincing the madam to allow the ill woman to go to the hospital is often a Herculean task. The prostitutes are typically in debt to the brothel-owner, so the madam is reluctant to let them go to the hospital for fear that they run away.

But Kanta’s winning riposte to them is: “If she doesn’t go to the hospital, she might just end up dying in the brothel and you won’t be able to recoup your losses. It’s better for you that she gets well so that she can work.”

Even then, it is only when Kanta swears on her word that she will bring the girl back that the madam grudgingly agrees.

The other half of the battle is fought in the hospital, where nurses are always “too busy” to take care of prostitutes or, worse still, prostitutes who are HIV-positive. These unwanted patients are left to themselves – no nurse will give them their medicine or even change their soiled sheets.

“Once I take the girl to the hospital, I become responsible for her. There’s no one to take care of her, so I’ll visit her and make sure that she has taken her medicine. And when she’s well, I bring her back to the madam,” says Kanta.

She knows full well the stigma that sex workers face in society – she had plied her trade in the streets of Budhwarpeth for 10 years. When she was about 16 years old, a lady brought her to Pune from Andhra Pradesh.

Recalling her rude introduction into the job, she said: “I was so shocked that I kicked the man who came to me. He put out his hands to try to touch me and I kicked him again.

“After that, I had the worst beating of my life. They took away my clothes and didn’t give me any food. I fell really ill but nobody took me to the hospital.

“Soon, the other ladies were telling me to stop fighting against the madam. It’s very simple – either I work or I die. I couldn’t run away because I didn’t speak Hindi then. I realised I didn’t have much of a choice so I started working. Each client pays about 100 rupees but the madam takes most of it, leaving me with only five or 10 rupees.”

Kanta is a lot more fortunate than other prostitutes, in that she had the option of leaving the profession. Most prostitutes stay on in the job even after their debts are paid because they cannot read or write and do not have any skills.

That’s why the NGO she works for has been holding literacy classes in the red light area, along with starting an income-generation project where the women cook food for sale, to give these women a new lease of life.

Although Kanta is a Christian, she scarcely dares to breathe even a mention of it during the interview. The women in the red light area are very street-smart and the moment they think that a person harbours a hidden agenda to evangelise to them, they will want nothing to do with that person.

In difficult circumstances like that, perhaps action speaks louder than words. Pointing to CMS mission partner Lalita Edwards who holds free clinics at the area twice a week, she said: “Look at Lalita, she talks to the girls nicely and they get free medicine from her. That’s love.”