Funding a Red-Light Fire
Prostitution in Calcutta

The fire-red lipstick, the bangles dangling on her wrists, the fake-gold necklace, and the bright, Dhaka sari wrapped around the teenage girl's body might have appeared precocious elsewhere, but here, in Kolkata, it was clear that she was a sex slave. Pressure from foreign governments and philanthropists to crack down on minors in prostitution, has made sights like these less common in this bustling city of fourteen million people. But those who have had the opportunity to speak with prostitutes and buyers of prostituted sex and those who have toured the insides of brothels realize all too well that teenage prostitutes have simply been moved from the streets to secretive brothels. Kolkata?s success in combating HIV and AIDS has been touted with much fanfare internationally, but teenage sex slavery is only one of the problems still facing this city on the mouth of the Bay of Bengal.

Well-meaning philanthropists, without fully understanding the nuances of these red-light areas, must be wary of what projects they are funding. Approaching the challenges of prostitution and HIV infection requires a knowledge of local languages and cultures. If public health officials are to better the lives of prostitutes in India and elsewhere, simultaneously navigating the challenges of rampant corruption, they must be both sensitive and critical in their approach.

In 1992, the World Health Organization, the National AIDS Control Organization, and the All Indian Institute of Hygiene and Public Health launched the Sonagachi Project, a now-famous venture that sought to evaluate the sexual behavior and HIV prevalence among prostitutes in the red-light district of Sonagachi in Kolkata. The project was a three-month survey examining issues involving the district's demographics, the sexual behavior of women in prostitution and buyers of prostituted sex, and the prevalence of STDs and HIV among them. The Sonagachi Project soon turned its leadership over to the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, a group of prostitutes who had joined together to fight for their rights and to reduce the transmission of HIV. The Sonagachi Project and the DMSC's efforts led to a increase in condom use and decrease in HIV infection, and these successes have led many foreign philanthropists -- the Gates Foundation, a major donor, among them -- to examine why the project was so successful, and assess whether it is replicable elsewhere.