I was a sex worker at one time, but I am retired now. I went into sex work because my husband left and I had to feed myself and my two sons. Sex work offered me a good amount of money and flexible working hours. I worked in a rural area, in a brothel. At that time we had so many problems; from police raids to violence from these goondas hooligans who would come to the brothels and beat the sex workers.
That is why Durbar was formed because these problems, violence and discrimination, were being faced by all sex-workers in all red light districts. Now we stand together fighting these things. With the formation of the collective, violence has gone down and almost stopped. Relations with the police [are] much better now too β they will listen if sex workers have something to say. Organizing and being in a collective is very important when you are a sex worker because otherwise you can be vulnerable.
Durbar has really made a big difference for sex workers in this area, and for their children too. When I was working in a brothel, I had my two boys with me because there was no [other] option. Usually in a brothel, a sex worker only has one room so when we are with a client, the children have nowhere to go. The environments in the red light districts are not good for children and especially not if they are trying to study.
We also used to find that the children of sex workers were bullied at school, leading to high drop-out rates. So very early on we opened a residential home. At the moment there are 86 children at the home and they attend the government school nearby.
At the hostel there are provisions for vocational training and computer skills training. There are also provisions for sports β football training, yoga training, dance training, basketball, volleyball and all these things and a few indoor games. The facilities are so good that boys and girls from the local area come to the hostel to take part in our various sporting activities that are going on.
