Pushed further into darkness

It was almost one o'clock at night. A woman in her 30s was screaming for help from inside an auto-rickshaw near Farmgate. The roads were almost empty, and the few people nearby were reluctant to check what was going on, as they feared that they might land in trouble.

However, when her screams got louder, people got more curious and went closer to see what was happening. And then, a man, who was with her, hurriedly got out of the auto-rickshaw and left the scene.

According to the woman, the man had forcibly taken her pictures, and she was pleading with him to delete them.

The auto-rickshaw driver told this correspondent that the man had rented the vehicle for two hours for Tk 600 and was roaming around with the woman. They then stopped at Farmgate.

I got into sex work out of desperation very recently. My family thinks I have a night-shift job. They would be devastated to know what my real job is. But I had no other option to support my family.

— Hasnahena*

The woman, who calls herself Hasnahena*, said she got into sex work out of desperation very recently. "My family thinks I have a night-shift job. They would be devastated to know what my real job is. But I had no other option to support my family." 

"What would I do if the man spreads my photos and my family eventually finds out? I will have no choice but to end my life," she said.

The Daily Star investigated 10 spots of the capital, including Farmgate, Karwan Bazar, Sangsad Bhaban area, Paltan, Shyamoli, Shewrapara, Mirpur-1, Mirpur-14, Gulistan and Kamalapur, and found that recently, the number of sex workers on the city streets has increased significantly.

Although there is no official data to back the claim, the correspondents interviewed 10 such workers who confirmed the matter. The 10 were forced to choose this line of work because of rising living costs. The pandemic had especially taken a toll on their livelihood, as many lost their means of income.

The interviews revealed that almost every newcomer has a poverty-afflicted background. They lack proper education and do not have any marketable skills, which, in their words, forced them to enter the sex trade.

Twenty-five-year-old Keya*, for instance, has been working as a floating sex worker near Karwan Bazar area for the past six months, a few months after her husband divorced her and ousted her from the house.

Her family members did not take her back as she married someone of her choice and returned with a three-year-old daughter.

Initially, she sold leftover vegetables from trucks at Karwan Bazar. She did not have any other skills, and there was no one to look after her child. Soon, she started getting inappropriate proposals from day labourers, and at one point, became involved in the sex trade.

"I do it as a part-time job when I'm badly in need of money. My neighbours already suspect that I'm involved in this work and avoid me completely. Last month, my landlord asked me to vacate the room," said Keya, who lives in a rented room in Mohakhali's Sat-tola slum.

"I want to quit this profession. I have to take my three-year-old with me while serving my clients, as there is no one to look after her," she said and requested the correspondents to arrange a job for her.

I do it as a part-time job when I'm badly in need of money. My neighbours already suspect that I'm involved in this work and avoid me completely. Last month, my landlord asked me to vacate the room.

— Keya*

It was the second day of work for 40-year-old Rahima*, a divorced woman with two children. Earlier, she used to work at a husking mill, where she could work seven to eight months a year.

The pandemic forced her to come to Dhaka and look for work. However, she did not find any. Working as a sex worker was the only option left for her to support her family and the education of her two sons.

"If my sons know of my profession, they will abandon me," she said.

Meanwhile, 25-year-old Rima* said she was the fourth wife of a police officer. Their marriage was unregistered, and she was left with nothing after her husband died last year.

Everyone in her family thinks she works as a night-shift cleaner at a hospital, but in reality, destiny brought her to the streets.

Sources informed The Daily Star that women of different ages are increasingly joining this work.

A large number of sex workers contact clients through brokers, who use business cards to invite clients. The Daily Star collected 30 such cards in just 10 days, all of which directed to a new spot -- Mirpur's Shewrapara.

Organisations working for the welfare of floating sex workers in the capital could not provide any updated figure of the exact number of such workers in the capital or whether it has increased.

However, according to Save The Children's estimation done in 2015-2016, there were 19,294 street, residence and hotel-based female sex workers in Dhaka, of which, 8,238 are floating.

Aleya Begum Lily, general secretary of Sex Workers' Network (SWN), a platform of 29 sex workers' organisations, also provided similar data.

"According to my sources, new faces are entering the work. I think because many of them went to their villages during the pandemic, finding no way to survive, and getting a job after the pandemic became increasingly difficult," she said.

Rina Akter, coordinator of a drop-in-centre for floating sex workers in Mugda, said the number of such workers has indeed increased recently. Earlier, around 15 to 20 sex workers would come to her centre to rest and freshen up every morning.

"The number has doubled recently," she said.

Although Save The Children presently operates seven drop-in-centres in the capital for female sex workers, according to it, the number of new workers coming to the centres is low. This is because a large number of floating sex workers do not want to disclose their profession.

"If our family members or society know about our actual profession, they will abandon us," said Keya.

(Names have been changed to protect their identities)