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.