In India, large brothels in identifiable red-light areas are rare. Many towns in India have brothels on a smaller scale. In other regions of India the brothel is a home, often in respectable residential areas, housing three to five women, where sex work is practised. The permanent fixture in these mini-brothels is the owner, who is always a woman.
The madam will take in women to practise sex work from her home daily, or she may house them for months. She takes a cut from each transaction. In Ballapuram in West Godavari district of coastal Andhra Pradesh, we visited a home-based brothel of a special kind.
The house had three tiny rooms, a kitchen, and a small courtyard. Four generations of one family lived together there. Kanta ran the home-based business. She was beautiful, with fine features, light brown eyes, and olive complexion. We were sitting with the whole family in the common area of the house, doors shut so that we would not be disturbed. Commercial sex was a way of life for Kanta, the only dependable, steady source of income to keep her household going. Kanta ran the family business with tight efficiency.
She also took in a few women residents, on a short-term basis, but generally avoided quick inβout daily transactions by street-based sex workers. She explained how her cash flow worked, her pricing system, and how she managed the local constabulary and goons. While we were talking, there was a knock on the door.
Kanta shouted out that they were not open for business, but the frustrated client would not go away. The knocking became louder and more insistent, as though he was in a state of desperate emergency. Sighing, and at a signal from her mother, Shobha got up to handle the client. After a loud discussion, during which Shobha berated a now-contrite client, they disappeared into an inner room, and she emerged in less than five minutes, with an apologetic smile.
