In Hyderabad old city a distant point of Jahanuma area affliated to an old haveli there is a horse stable which has been altered into various single-room accommodations for brothel activities at nights.Well as these rooms are rented out to the poor at discarded rates but here both men and women moving in and out in a secret mode.
A few metres away theres one pan dabbawala who will give guidance for those who wants to know about the interchanging brothel,And the pan dabbawala some times takes fresh bookings over his cell phone.The more number of men getting into this area as soon as it gets darker.
Within a five km distance, at Habeeb colony in Vattepally, a densely populated slum pocket of the Old City, three members of a family are running four brothels that surround a government school. Both locals and social activists inform that similar brothels are functioning in Hassan Nagar, Nawab Sahab Kunta, Hafiz Baba Nagar, Amanagar, Kishanbagh and Bandlaguda where a chunk of the residents are migrants.
Observers say that even though the red light area of Hyderabad, Mehboob-ki-Mehendi, is history now, the flesh trade remains a thriving business here. The AP State Aids Control Society's (APSACS) recent mapping of sex workers during 2010-11 pegs their number in the Old City to an estimated 5,000 of the total 20,000 sex workers operating in the GHMC jurisdiction. "It's almost on the same lines like in other parts of the city," says Kailash Aditya, joint director, targeted interventions, APSACS.
Brokers or pimps operating here rent a house in the slum localities and befriend gullible girls and single women who are later lured into the trade. Observers say that at least 15 per cent of these girls are minors and 30 per cent of them are below 20 years.
Rafia Nausheen, project coordinator, Mahita, an NGO, says that the brokers prefer interior areas and slums to hoodwink police. "Girls are shuffled between different areas. Prostitution is happening in houses. In Hassan Nagar, men openly solicit even young schoolgirls, luring them with a hundred or a fifty," says Nausheen. The brokers are always on the lookout for young girls, she said.
With brokers exploiting these women by polishing off a considerable sum from each of their clients, few women have also formed small groups and are in direct touch with their customers.
Moghalpura inspector Syed Fayyaz said that even auto drivers also transport girls from the Old City to other parts of the city. "We arrested three auto drivers last year based on tip-offs. The soliciting doesn't happen openly in the Old City like in other parts of Hyderabad but the women in the trade have increased," says Fayyaz. He added that it is becoming difficult to nab the brokers. He further said that there is a probability that with the Arab marriages dipping drastically, girls from poor households are being forced into sex trade.
The area police and non governmental organizations working in this part of the city admit that the number of girls being lured into the trade has increased considerably in the last couple of years. A chunk of them are getting into prostitution to earn their livelihood, while others are doing it out of choice. In some cases parents are unaware, in others they keep quiet for want of money.
Cova Director Mazher Hussain says that its a prevailing reality, In a troublesome trend, Even the college girls who are middle class are getting themselves tangled and its all because of poverty.
