According to different sources, there are about 13 million sex workers in India. A differentiation can be made between a group of singers and dancers, call girls and religious prostitutes. All of them get abased day by day. However, most of the women have been forced into sex work after they had lost their husband.
While few prostitutes made the decision to go into prostitution themselves - either as an oblation to the god Yellamma or just for lack of alternatives - the bigger part became victims of human trafficking, deception and coercion. In most of the cases, it is their poverty that makes the women vulnerable and accordingly at risk of getting into prostitution. Helplessness, financial dependence and distress forces them to sell their bodies.
Moreover, many of the women ending up as sex workers have already experienced abuse by their parents or husbands, have other family members in sex work or simply have had bad company. India and Parkistan are amongst the South Asian countries with the highest number of children in sex work. Usually, the children come from poorer areas and have been trafficked to richer ones. The rapidly increasing number of young girls being exposed to trafficking and sex work during the last decade is alarming the government as well as NGO circles.
It is the function of the police to protect the sex workers. But instead of providing security against the oppressing network, they often steal the little money the women have. Sex Work in India.
