Welcome to GB Road - home of वेश्यावृत्ति

GB Road is in Old Delhi and it is as chaotic and crazy and you'd imagine. There are rickshaws, bicycles, motorbikes, cars, trucks, cows and ox pulling carts all trying to navigate down the narrow road. But GB Road isn't just famous for its crazy atmosphere and bright colours. GB Road is the most famous red light district in Delhi. And GB Road was one of my first stops in India.

Two or three stories above the street stalls and rickshaw drivers are windows covered by grilles. Between these bars hang women calling down to the streets tempting man to come up and sample their goods. But they aren't selling electronics or jewellery like elsewhere on the street. They are selling themselves.

Walking up the narrow, steep steps to the second floor of a building I could tell by the smell that this wasn't a nice place. As I walked through a narrow opening, I encountered 30 faces all sitting in a room on offer to any paying customers. I felt like I was in a swimming pool change room. Everywhere was tiled. And off the main room there were doors into cubicles - just like the showers at your local gym. The tiny women's shoes lined up neatly outside each cubicle, next to large hastly dumped men's shoes, left me in no doubt as to what occurred in these filthy, dark cubicles.

Half the women we met had their faces painted blue. It was only later when I asked about the makeup that I found out this is the traditional costume of Burma. The women working in a cramped and depressing brothel on GB Road in Delhi had come from Burma. Whether they were trafficked or smuggled I don't know. What I do know is that no person would choose to end up working there. This brothel served the poorest rickshaw drivers and stall vendors in Old Delhi. The rickshaw drivers make little money. Imagine how bad the conditions must be in this establishment if even the lowest paid workers in India can afford to sample the goods??

So how do these women, ranging from 18 to my age, 22, to late 30s end up in such a depressing deadend place? Often they come to work as they have no money to feed their children or their families. Often they have debts they need to work off. But even if they do escape the life of a prostitute on GB Road they are often faced with horrendous challenges as their families and villages shun them for the dirty work they have been involved in. Physically abused inside the brothel they will be emotionally abused and isolated if they manage to leave.

Sounds bad right? Well imagine how bad this situation was for the children - 3 and 4 year olds - I met in the brothel who spent their days watching mummy work. What kind of futures could they hope for? Next post I'll tell you all about the lives of the little children born into life in a brothel on GB Road.