Reena doesn’t specify how she began doing sex work. But she was brought to Kamathipura and sold to sex work at a very young age. Her two children and her mother are back in a village in Purulia, West Bengal, and she goes there once a year to visit them. Her family thinks she is working as a domestic help in Mumbai. “I do not want to tell them, they will be ashamed and will disown me”, she said. She doesnt seem to have a husband.
Reena is in her late twenties. She lives and works in a shabby brothel with 5 to 6 other women. On the floor above them, there are tiny manufacturing units where mats, bags and shoes are made. The women pay rent to the mausi - the brothel manager who then gives it to the landlord, who stays in another part of the city. The women often cook together and take care of each other when they fall sick. Reena earns around Rs. 20000 rupees per month, a part of which she saves to send to her family.
She has grown to like Kamathipura but dreams of being united with her family one day.
Customers call at all times through the night. They choose a girl and go into one of the rooms. The customers are from all backgrounds - college students, old men, poor and moneyed people.
“Police raids happen here sometimes and then we have to pay up money. A couple of times we have had to go and sit in the lockup for a few hours, till the gharwali or one of the pimps came to bail us out.”
Reena worries about the shutting down of brothels and being forced to work on the streets. She fears police harassment and the residents’ ire. Reena doesnt have an ID card nor a bank account. She has grown to like Kamathipura. She shops at the local fruit vegetable market and buys clothes from the market at Lane 9. The local tailors are very good at stitching the latest Bollywood styled clothes. Sometimes, she goes to Marine Drive with the other girls to enjoy an ice cream and sit by the sea. Reena dreams of being united with her family one day.
