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[Applause]
is waiting for customers at the roadside
[Music]
to support so far no luck
Raj Kumari is one of the hundreds of
thousands of Indian women in
institutionalized sex work in a practice
with roots in the age-old caste system
[Music]
just three hours away from India's
capital New Delhi is a starkly different
world
I'm traveling to a cluster of villages
known for sex work
this is gay goalie a village in the
district of alwar in the state of
Rajasthan
here I meet Ankita who is a sex worker
at her request we have changed her name
she says she's of legal age but doesn't
look it
Ankita is getting ready for a client her
clients include men from nearby Villages
truck drivers or migrant workers that
pass through on the highways and young
men with disposable incomes
she joined the profession three years
ago and says it was by choice as it
enables her to support her family
I know from my father that my aunt also
worked like this I got into this field
due to poverty
how much are you earning at the moment
about 60 to 70 000 rupees per month
around 750 Euros apart from me no one in
my family can find work we were starving
we need a roof over our heads we need to
build a house and my sister needs to get
married
do you have any debt I paid it all off
how much was it about 11 000 Euros
oh that's a lot did you pay that back
yes everything within two years three
years
[Music]
having to borrow money traps many
families here in a vicious cycle
Banks do not lend money since they do
not consider sex work as work
so these families turn to local lenders
who charge exorbitant interest rates
making them even poorer
we also changed her real name is the
eldest of a total of seven siblings due
to high debt she also has to work as a
prostitute like her mother and her aunt
I was 15 when I understood what it was
all about
and at the same time it became more and
more clear to me how poor we are
so I got in
what was the situation
my little siblings always had to beg for
food we have no real house no land
nothing
at some point the money that my mother
earned here as a sex worker didn't
suffice
so she had to go to Mumbai
in hotels you can earn more
she had to leave us alone to do so
it became clear to me that it was the
only way to make money and essentially
for us to survive one day I finally said
to her I don't want you to do this I
will take care of this I am now the
breadwinner of the family
rashna went to Mumbai through an agent
who recruited her by contacting local
pimps in an elaborate sex trade Network
there are an estimated 3 million sex
workers in India between ages 15 and 35.
sex work is legal in India pimping and
human trafficking are not
this is a matter of survival for many
like rachna they are abused in the
system but stay for lack of any other
avenues of work
Bombay man
when I was very young I had a client in
Mumbai who treated me horribly
he wouldn't even pay me
instead he beat me black and blue and
even stole my clothes
I ran after him but couldn't take them
back
it was extremely humiliating
there is a stigma attached to these
Villages as the people here belong to
the bottom of the cast iron key
[Music]
where these women come from have
traditionally been nomadic tribes
they move from place to place they're
scattered all over but many are in the
states of madhya Pradesh Rajasthan
haryana and uttar Pradesh
before the women were driven into sex
work these ethnic groups worked mainly
as performers dancers jugglers acrobats
and magicians
because of their work and way of life
the British colonial power viewed these
ethnic groups as a threat
in 1871 they were criminalized under the
criminal tribes act which was only
repealed at the time of India's
independence
stereotypes about these tribes still
persist in society and makes it almost
impossible for them to start other
professions or means of livelihood
I went to meet male members of a family
from the community
there's a lot of discrimination no one
wants to give us decent jobs that would
mean we could climb up and out of our
misery people don't want that so there's
no change
how do you determine that how is this
noticeable in everyday life
they won't even stand or walk next to us
because we belong to a low cast
they tell us to go away but it's getting
better as more and more of us push to go
to school
otherwise they wouldn't let us come near
their homes
in school nobody would sit next to me I
wouldn't even show my ID card fearing
retaliation and humiliation because of
our cast
some children here don't know who their
father is of course the mother's
customers don't give names
but this is a problem because in many
places you can only be officially
registered with your father's name so
these kids fall through the cracks
but women have been able to challenge
some gender roles by becoming the
primary breadwinner
those who make money are strong our
women are strong they support the family
they call the shots
the women are ahead of us here they are
immensely respected
these women are able to bring income to
the families build properties and make
homes they can pay off Family debts
which not many women in India can do
some eventually leave the village and
move to the country's major Urban
centers to Delhi Mumbai or Calcutta some
even as far as Dubai
husbands fathers and brothers of the sex
workers are involved in enabling the
street and contributing to the family
economy they act as pimps but also do
house chores and raise children
but there are women who are completely
on their own this can be difficult
especially when they get older snail ATA
only had one daughter who also worked as
a sex worker then she died probably from
a sexually transmitted disease
I don't have any other kids she died she
got very ill
most of the women we spoke to would like
to move on from this life
Ankita dreams of marriage when she's
done helping her family
does everything to give her child a
decent education which she hopes would
weigh her way to Freedom
however something is slowly changing in
The Villages
I meet guddu nagar a teacher who is
supported by an NGO working to end sex
work
creature
today's lesson is about grammar he
believes a good education will help the
women find safer ways of employment
[Music]
big foreign
and these families no woman works as a
sex worker
gudu nagar belongs to the same tribes
his relatives were in the sex trade too
he wanted to break the cycle he started
by teaching himself to read and write
and then his relatives
our nomadic way of life was one of the
reasons it was too difficult for us to
escape our misery I have four brothers
none of whom went to school and some of
my sisters are still illiterate
after I had taught myself a few things a
social worker from an NGO helped me
today I have an official degree and can
work as a teacher yeah
there are stories like this but few and
far between
members of the community are trying to
change the destiny of the Next
Generation
sentence
I'm Nancy and I want to be an air
hostess one day why an air hostess it's
my dream because you want to fly yes
A desperate hope is simmering that
through education and knowing their
rights these women can leave the
shackles of the past
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