Magazine for prostitutes sheds red light on ‘frightening’ world

AN exclusive magazine for prostitutes is offering a snapshot of life in some of India’s biggest brothels, reporting on the murky world of pimps and violent customers and showcasing the dreams and talents of sex workers.

Red Light Despatch, a monthly publication, is full of the stories of women sold to brothels as children, personal accounts of harassment, poems and essays by prostitutes, book and film reviews and advocacy articles.

Health workers and prostitutes sit together once a week in a tiny newsroom located inside a brothel in India’s financial capital, to discuss stories, headlines and the design of issues.

The reporters, often prostitutes themselves or their relatives, file their contributions after scouring the brothels of Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi and some smaller cities.

“We choose the best stories for publishing,” said Rupa Metgudd, a news co-ordinator and daughter of a former prostitute, sifting through reports for the latest edition.

“The magazine is not a mere publication. For us it is journalism of purpose.”

Although prostitution is illegal in India, it is a thriving underground industry and voluntary groups estimate that there are about two million women sex workers.

Launched six months ago, the magazine is a platform for the collective memories and dreams of the sex worker community and an attempt to wean their children away from the profession, said editor Anurag Chaturvedi.

In one recent edition, Sita, a prostitute from Kolkata who gave only one name, told of her violent childhood marriage that forced her to flee her home and land in a brothel.

“My dignity was torn to pieces. I used to cry a lot. But I soon learnt some things will never change no matter how much you cry,” she wrote.

Elsewhere, women wrote about betrayed love, bad marriages, their dreams of living a life of dignity, of owning a “house with lots of sky” and about the “frightening” world of prostitution.

With a little help from a voluntary group, the magazine prints about 1,000 copies in Hindi and English and is distributed free among prostitutes and residents of red-light districts.

“We have little money, but we still pay our writers small amounts so that they realise they can earn a respectable living as well,” said Mr Chaturvedi.