Sex workers stand on a roadside pavement for soliciting customers in a red light area in Mumbai July 28, The reporters, often themselves prostitutes or their relatives, file their contribution after scouring the brothels of Mumbai, Kolkata and New Delhi and some smaller cities. 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 2 million women sex workers.
Launched six months ago, the magazine is a platform for the collective memories, nostalgia 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. I used to cry a lot. With a little help from a voluntary group, the magazine prints about 1, copies in Hindi and English and is distributed free among prostitutes and residents of red light districts. The ragtag magazine, without any photographs, looks more like a booklet but it apparently serves the purpose.
If there were any doubts about the quality of the magazine staffed by people with no journalistic experience, two former journalists help edit it. Discover Thomson Reuters. Directory of sites. United States. World News. Krittivas Mukherjee.
