Kolkata Red Light District

Sonagachi, translated as Golden Tree, is the largest red-light district in Kolkata (Calcutta), India. It is an area with several hundred multi-story brothels and some 10,000 sex workers. Sonagachi is located in North-Kolkata, near the intersection of Chittaranjan Avenue Sova Bazar and Beadon Street, just north of the Marble Palace.

The tradition of Kolkata sex workers taking control of their lives is as old as its first red light district. Five miles away, in the slums surrounding the Kalighat temple, one of the holiest sites in Hinduism, lies the birth place of the city’s sex industry. Hundreds of years ago, widows and other socially outcast women would migrate here hoping for room and board from temple priests. While they were given a little food and a place on the floor to sleep, resident priests and upper caste men who visited the temple often required sex as a form of payment. Recognizing that demand for sex far exceeded the returns they received, these women began a community alongside the temple and started charging for their services, and organized prostitution was born.

6 Responses to “Kolkata Red Light District”

1. sonagachi says:

   June 16, 2009 at 2:15 pm

   You can get a bus going to Central (Chittarajan avenue) from Howrah and get down at the junction of Beadon Street and just walk down. Or best thing hire a taxi and go, it would hardly cost you Rs.50/-

   IT IS A VERY NOTORIOUS RED LIGHT AREA. ONE SHOULD BE VERY CAREFUL IN VISITING THIS AREA. FULL OF PIMPS AND CHEATS.

   The area was used by the Bengali Babus for maintaining concubines and mistresses in the 1700s and 1800s. Several mansions in this district have their roots in history in the early days of Raj. Legends say that even the famous courtesans and patrons of Paris knew of the fame of the Golden district of Kolkata.

   Today, several NGOs and government organizations operate here for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases including AIDS. The book Guilty Without Trial by the founders of the NGO Sanlaap based much of their research into human trafficking in India on this area.
   The Sonagachi project is a prostitute’s cooperative that operates in the area and empowers sex workers to insist on condom use and to stand up against abuse. It was founded by public health scientist Smarajit Jana in 1992 but is now largely run by the prostitutes themselves. It is credited with keeping the HIV infection rate among the prostitutes at 5 per cent, much lower than in other Indian red-light districts, and has been called a best practices model by the UN AIDS programme.
2. susanta mukherjee says:

   December 28, 2009 at 12:15 pm

   please send the cell number rate and location
3. susanta mukherjee says:

   December 28, 2009 at 12:17 pm

   please send the cell number rate and location and place of metting
4. sapna says:

   May 30, 2011 at 7:10 pm

   it is very hard to digest that we are in 21st century … are we really progressing? we Indians are having passed the women reservation bills!! but forgot to respect womenhood in our own country. it’s kind and humble request to all citizens respect women in every form.. whether they are pros, call girls.. since they are mostly abused and human trafficking cases.
5. Papai das says:

   August 30, 2011 at 9:17 pm

   Haiiiii iam papai and my aigd 21 years old
   Please call me my
   Contact no 08696360775
   i am waite for your call so
   Call me…
6. Kumar says:

   November 4, 2011 at 1:55 pm

   Plz sent correct contact number and i want fresh girl what rate and which proper place.plz sent i wait for you reply.