Team from Nagpada Police Stataion headed by a Police Officer conducts a surprise check in brothels in Nagpada.
Duration: 00:25:42; Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1; Hue: 196.632; Saturation: 0.017; Lightness: 0.281; Volume: 0.380; Cuts per Minute: 24.591; Words per Minute: 85.603
Summary: The camera follows a police officer with his team as they go on their inspection of brothels in Nagapada and Kamathipura, the established red light areas in Mumbai. The event captures visuals of the sex workers in their working spaces and conditions. It also establishes their resistance to go back to the mainstream society. The event would give the viewer a complete idea of the location and details about the spaces of prostitution in the city.
Pan shot of Nagpada Police station.
Camera zooms to focus on a girl lying on the benches, pans to police officers talking among themselves captured in ambience sound.
Shot of group of boys and men taken inside the police station accompanied by police constables, the Inspector interrogates the boys over an incident.
Police Inspector (PI): Tell me your name first
Boy in White Shirt (BW): Sitaram
PI: What did you do? Did you fight and get into a brawl?
BW: I did nothing sahib (the Indian term for Sir)
PI: Why is your shirt torn then?
Boy looks at his shirt and moves away
PI: (To the next boy) What's your name? What happened?
Boy in checkered shirt (BC): Vivek sir, I was coming back after eating. My scooter was there, they were coming in their car. They came and banged against the car. My brother got annoyed, asked to go to the havaldars, they started abusing and then there were about ten boys who came and started the brawl.
PI: So why are you guys creating such a ruckus? You are bothering everybody in the whole police station.
You all go outside and I will call you.
boys
brawls
camera
hawaldars
nagapada
name
pan
police constables
police inspector
sahib
scooter
shirt
sitaram
vivek
Nagpada
police station
Kamathipura
Mumbai
kamathipura
nagpada
police officer
sex workers
PPF police
A group of women infront of the Nagpada Police station agitated about arrest of another woman
Women talking amongst themselves: Everyone in the gallis also respects women and these guys just hit anyone, they don't even spare women. They just pick anyone and put them behind bars.
bars
gallis
nagpada
respect
women
On the way to Kamathipura on a roadside there are posters lined up for public awareness being captured by the camera
Kamathipura
camera
kamathipura
posters
public awareness
Police officer in civil dress explains direction and nuances of sex workers around the road.
13th galli
Bellasis Road
Police Officer (PO): This is Belasik Road; (moving his hand towards the direction) from here it will go to R.S.P.V Marg on this side.
From this place the Nagpada red light area starts. This is the 13th galli (lane), there are eight lanes which is the red light area. This is the main road, (showing the direction) and this is the beginning of the red light area.
PO: That area they are permitted to hang around to pick up customers, at the lane side there is no police; however there is one near the main road, but not always. These girls walk upto to the main road all the time, people complain frequently as these girls keep moving around.
R.S.P.V Marg
belasik road
customers
pick up
police officer
r.s.p.v marg
red light area
sex workers
Nagpada
Camera enters a lane, following the police officer.
Rashtriya Lunch home and Beer Bar has been focused on providing it to be landmark to the location.
Entry point of the lane has children on a giant wheel
Ambiance shot of the red light area lanes of Nagpada.
ambiance shot
beer bar
children
giant wheel
rashtriya lunch home
Ambiance shot of the red light area lanes of Nagpada. The officer instructing his team, the team enters the lane.
Camera captures a chawl (a housing system in Mumbai generally used by the people in the lower socio-economic group) in the lane, the police officer talking to local people and his team
A team member with a recording device in his hands recording a room in the chawl.
Police officer enters the house, making queries followed by the police camera personnel
ambiance
chawl
device
housing system
personnel
queries
socio-economic
team
recording
Camera personnel adjusting settings while the camera focuses on a sex worker who turns her face when she discovers she is being recorded.
settings
sex worker
The Police officer takes
a team member inside one of the room where the sex workers operate to show their living conditions and space constraints. They meet Sherly, a sex worker from Nepal and have a conversation with her.
Voice from the room: Don't remove the curtains saab
PO: No no they are not shooting
PO: (To the woman) This is the condition they live in here. Sometimes girls sit outside when the others are dealing with customers.
The come outside
PO: (To the girl sitting outside) What's your name?
Girl: Sherly
PO: Where are you form
Sherly(S): Nepal
PO: When did you come here?
S: Here? If I tell you, you will get frightened, it's been 10 years
PO: Won't you go back?
S: Ya, I will go, in November
PO: When will you come back?
S:I will not come back
PO: Go go, why do you come here?
S: To go I will need money saab
PO:I will send you money
S:No No
Nepal
constraints
living conditions
money
nepal
room
saab
sherly
space
ten years
Long shot of the lane, women lazing on Khatiyas (kind of a bed made of jute ropes). The women were sex workers who cover their faces as soon as they see the cameras.
Police officer and woman enter another house for enquiry. On their way out the police officer interrogates the man sitting with sex workers outside the house playing card.
Voice: Put the light on
Voices: Where are you all? Please put the light on first
PO: What is your name?
Voice of a woman: Shanta
Crew Member: Shanta bai (miss) come here, put on the lights on for this place first
PO: Where is your village?
Voice: Here
PO: You don't have any work? What are you doing here?
Women sitting: He was just doing timepass (whiling away time), we are not playing with money
PO: For doing timepass you only found a randh? (Indian slang for a prostitute)
Woman in pink saree: No, no he is my brother; he has come from the native land
PO: (To the camera) He is the brother
bai
cameras
cards
enquiry
faces
house
indian
interrogation
jute ropes
khatiyas
land
light
miss
native
pink
play
randh
saree
shanta
slang
time pass
brother
Lucknow
PO: Which is your native land?
PO: (To three girls) Come here, don't be afraid, what is your name?
PO: Come here, what is your name?
Voice: Gudiya
PO: What?
Girl in yellow dress (GY): Gudiya
PO: How long have you been here?
GY: For seven years
PO: Don't lie, seven years
GY: Yes
PO: You don't want to go back home?
GY: No, I live here only; there is nothing in the native land
PO: Where did you come from?
GY: From U.P
PO: Where in U.P?
GY: Lucknow
PO: With whom did you come?
GY: I came alone
PO: You came alone? How did you get to know Mumbai?
GY: I just came in, everybody new about Mumbai in my 'muluk'(native land)
PO: You do not want to go back? We will send you, why do you want to be here?
GY: Just like that
PO: Why do you want to remain in this filth and do all of this? You don't want to go back home? Who all is at home?
GY: Nobody I have back home
PO: No mother, father, brother?
GY: I do not have a mother, I have a father
PO: What does he do?
GY: He has a business of paan (betel leaves)
PO: You don't want to go home? If you want we will take you? Who all stay with you?
GY: I am alone
PO: Where do you stay? In a house or in this coup
GY: In the coup I stay alone
The police officer meets a sex worker and interrogates her about her history and entry into prostitution
Uttar Pradesh
betel leaves
coup
father
filth
gudiya
home
lucknow
mother
muluk
native land
paan
prostitution
seven years
uttar pradesh
The camera follows the Police officer into dark corridors of another bungalow where the team interrogates a group of sex workers where the sex workers stress on their independence as prostitutes and how they do not want to get back to their native lands. The clip captures the interiors of the brothel.
Voice: Everybody come out, everyone out
PO: All girls inside come out
PO: All of you out, come sit here
PO: So now you are ill and you can't come out bahenchod (sister fucker)
PO: Who is here?
Police Officer drives girls out of the room
PO: Is she the youngest of you all
Voice: yes
PO: Does she want to go back to her hometown?
Voice: No she does not
PO: Why?
PO: Where are you all from?
Sex worker in the middle (SM): Nepal
PO: You don't want to go back to Nepal?
SM: What will we do back in Nepal, who is going to feed us there?
PO: I am trying to ask that should we send you all back to your home town?
Voice: No we don't want to go back
PO: Who all got you here?
Voice: I came by choice, I had my native town, I came by myself from there
PO: Talk properly to me, I am not rustic like you all
bahenchod
come out
corridors
feed
independence
rustic
sex workers
sister fucker
Nepal
nepal
PO: All of you come out
PO: Where are you all from? Where is your native land?
Sex Worker (SW): From Nepal
PO: What is your age?
SW: Twenty six
PO: How long have you been twenty six?
SW: I came to Mumbai when I was eighteen
PO: How long have you been here? Would you want to go back?
SW: We just went and came back
PO: So you came all the way from Nepal? Don't you want to be back? Why did you come here? Who all are there in the family?
Sex worker in orange clothes (SO): I came here for work; I just have my mother back home.
PO: Where is your father?
SO: I don't have one
PO: How long have you been here?
SO: For six years
PO: Who got you here?
SO: Nobody got us here, we came by ourselves
The Police officer raids another brothel and the sex workers in the sequence reiterate their being into prostitution is an informed choice.
The interiors of the brothel adorned with red light give the viewer an insider's view of the space.
brothel
brought
eighteen
informed choice
interiors
ourselves
raid
six years
twenty six
work
PO: Who stays here? Who did you come to meet here?
Man on bicycle(M): To meet my sister
PO: Your sister stays here, what is your sister's name? You came to meet your sister here right? So what's her name?
M: I told you, she is Heerabai
PO: So what does she do?
M: She stays here alone, I don't know what she does
PO: You don't know what your sister does?
Voice of one of the team member: First you said she stays here with her husband, now you are telling me she stays alone. What is her husband's name?
M: I don't know
PO: You do not know your sister's husband's name
PO: Why do you come here? You want to die or what? You are married right?
M: Ya I am married, no,no I do not come here to do 'dhanda'(business as a pimp or client to sex workers) Tauba Tauba (shame shame)
PO: Now it is all shame shame, but what do you come here for otherwise?
M: I am a family man, I have children
PO: I agree but then why are you here?
M: No No
PO: Should I call for your wife? Let me ask her which sister of yours stay here, its her sister in law right
Man smiling
PO: Should I send your report?
M: I did not come for 'it' (to have sex), I just came to meet her
PO: Who did you come to meet?
PO: Take this
The Police officer now interrogates a man outside one of the brothels. This clip is a humorous encounter of a double standards people maintain about their visit to prostitutes
business
cycle
dhanda
double standards
heerabai
husband
man
married
report
shame
sister
sister-in-law
tauba-tauba
wife
PO: Give me the diary
WELCOME No. 21.
This is the house the police officer enters. The team and the officer checks addresses on papers for reference
welcome
no.21
addresses
reference
diary
cigarette
This ten minute long clip captures the raid in one of the brothels that has migrants from Philippines as clients. The clip captures the team and the police officer inspecting every room to ensure that nobody escapes or there are no minor girls. (Introducing minor girls into prostitution is a crime under the Indian Judicial system) They search every nook and corner, below the beds, under the stairs.
The team insists that they can make arrangements for the girls to go back to their homelands.
This clip also captures the Gharwali (the brothel keeper who is generally a veteran in prostitution and is not a sex worker anymore, she is the owner of a brothel who deals with clients and provides, work,
food and shelter to sex workers. She has a share in the sex workers income.) and her history. The police officer asks her about her Navra. It is the marathi word for the husband. He also refers to the same person as the Maalak. This term is used by sex workers to refer to their partners whom they do not get married to legally but consider themselves as their wives.
The Maalak could or could not be married.
The clip also throws light on the subtle relationship between players of real estate and prostitution in the city. It brings out the anonymity that sex workers would want to maintain about everything that their lives revolve around.
Voice: Open the lock
PO: How are you? You are from which country
Man (M): Philippines
PO: Philippines ok fine, hello. You are coming here to have sex?
M: No I am here to just meet (tries moving out)
PO: You come here, please come back, sit here
Voice of Team Member: Call all the girls here in five minutes
PO: You are a driver, you came here, ya whatever it maybe what I am telling you, you came here just like that here like me? Look what is happening here
PO: If I ever find a minor girl I will not spare you, remember this.
PO: (To a room full of sex workers) Anybody wants to go home?
Anyone wants to go home? Which place are you from?
Voice of Sex worker: No Sir, we don't want to go. Where will we go? We don't have homes.
PO: How long are you here? How long?
Voice of Sex worker: Why are you asking? What is you benefit after you get to know
Sex worker in black (SB): Seven years
PO: Who is the Gharwali here?
Voice of team member: This is Assistant Gharwali
PO: How old are you?
Sex worker (SW): Twenty five
PO: Twenty five? Where are you from
SW: Kathmandu
PO: You want to go home? How long have you been here?
SW: I don't want to go home. I have been here for seven years
PO: All of you sit here comfortably
Voice of team member: You have the most important work, come out
PO: All of you come outside
PO: What is the number you have?
Voice of Sex worker: A 93
PO: Come out and please throw the cigarette first
PO: Marisa, where are you from, how long have you been here? Who got you here?
Marisa: I am from Mangalore; I came here along five years ago.
PO: How long are you here in the bungalow?
PO: How did you get to know of the bungalow, who got you here? What is your name?
Anita (A): I came here alone, my name is Anita.
Who all are there at home?
A: Nobody, I had a mother who passed away
PO: What about your brothers, father?
A: My brother is not good. My father also passed away.
PO: Don't you have sisters?
A: No I only have a brother
PO: What does the brother do?
A: The brother tills the land
PO: You don't want to go back home? Even if we drop you?
A: No I don't want to go back
PO: None of you want to go home here?
Sex worker (SW): No, (Smiling) Here I get to have halwa (sweet)
PO: So, you making fun of me?
SW: No, I am not making fun of you
PO: Its not that we come to you every time for our own benefits, we come to you to help you, if anybody wants to go back to their native land, we will drop you.
SW: We know that
PO: How long have you been here?
SW: I have been here for six years
PO: So you don't want to go back to family and meet them?
PO: Well, there is nobody back home, I don't have parents and nobody will accept me back in the village
PO: Who is the gharwali here? What is her name?
SW: She is Tara
PO: She is Marathi?
Tara enters the room
PO: Whose house is this?
Tara (T): This is mine
PO: Whose name is this registered under?
T: My name
PO: Who all stay here/
T: I stay here alone
PO: Where is your Navra? (Sex worker's partner who she considers to be her husband)
T: I do not have one, I am alone
Where is your village?
I am from Nepal, I am a Nepali.
Team Member (TM): Whose name is the electricity bill in?
T: Mine
PO: How long have you been running this house?
T: I am running it for quite some time
TM: Who gave you the house?
T: I asked from somebody and he gave me the contact
PO: What is his name?
T: I don't know his name
TM: What's the number of the bungalow?
T: A 93
PO: Who used to run this place before you?
T: I do not know saab (sir)
PO: Before running this place what did you do?
T: I used to stay here only
PO: And then you took over the bungalow?
T: Yes
PO: You did dhanda in this bungalow?
T: I did it in this bungalow and many other bungalows in these lanes
TM: So you did work in several other places…..so why did you take up the role of the gharwali?
PO: Do you have a maalak? (Sex worker's partner who she considers to be her husband) What do you do with all the money that you earn?
T: I give it to the girls
PO: How much do you pay them?
T: Around three to for thousand per month
PO: Who is the owner of the place? How much is the rent?
T: I don't know
Who do you pay the rent to then?
T: I pay it to the sethlog (the owner or the one who has been deputed as the owners representative)
Once a year or sometimes in months his guy comes and takes the rent from me
PO: What is his name?
T: I do not know what he is called
PO: How much do you pay as rent?
T: I pay fifteen hundred rupees monthly
PO: (In a sarcastic tone) She just pays fifteen hundred rupees a month of this place.
Kathmandu
Philippines
93
anita
anonymity
benefit
brothels
bungalow
driver
electricity bill
gharwali
halwa
home
indian judicial system
kathmandu
mangalore
marathi
marisa
migrants
minor
navra
owner
philippines
prostitution
real estate
registered
rent
sarcastic
seth
seven years
tara
thousand
village
Bhayander
This clip is another raid where the prostitutes are caught unaware and work towards
procrastinating the entrance of the team into their area of operation. The client here is an unmarried man who was caught with two sexworkers.
Voice: Get the keys, please get the keys.
PO: Get the keys, how long do you think it takes to get the keys?
Voice: It is not here, its upstairs
PO: Ya right it is upstairs, how do you think I am a chutiya (dumb fuck?)
PO: Keep sitting there
PO: So you are sitting here with two women?
What is your name? I can't hear you, what's your name, be loud.
Man murmurs something
PO: Mridul Lekhi? What do you do?
What are you showing me now? You are from….. Man murmurs something
PO: Bhyander ? How often do you come here?
Man (M): Sometimes I come here, twice sometimes
PO: So you come once in two weeks, are you married?
M: No
PO: Ok, do you have someone here who you specially like?
bhayander
chutiya
dumbfuck
keys
name
upstairs
week
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