Husband wants to watch wife having intercourse with a gigolo. An amorous tryst with a 'college girl' (for two hours) can cost upto Rs 15,000. The rates may spiral with 'sexually adventurous' foreign tourists pouring in for the Common Wealth Games. Even as activists fight human trafficking, the world's oldest profession is changing rapidly. Sudeshna Chowdhury in Mumbai, Rocky Thongam in Delhi, Prachi Sibalu00a0and Priyanjali Ghose in Bengaluru find out

Mumbai is making frantic couple calls
He is handsome but crass, well dressed but risqu ufffd, daring but sort of dull. Twenty six-year-old Krishna (he calls himself that whenu00a0 he is not identifying himself as Noorie, or any of the several names he takes on on a whim) is a bundle of contradictions. He claims to be a salesman. The only thing he's good at selling is himself. He is a male prostitute, but also works as a pimp.

Krishna waits for a customer, like he does every night, with his pimp
Sanjay Patil at a Juhu bus stop. Pic/Vikas Munipalle

Krishna has been a gigolo in Mumbai for five years; that's long enough to be on the ball about the latest demand. These days, couple calls are a hot favourite with Mumbaikars, he shares. "The husband wants me to have sex with his wife. He sits back, gets a strange kick out of watching us," he whispers, the words flowing out of his mouth, masked by smoke rings he blows into the night sky.

Giving the bar dance phenomenon a gender bender twist is the latest fad of male sex workers dancing to Bollywood numbers at parties. "The girls did it once, now it's our turn," Krishna says.

Message in a massage
Most agencies work under the guise of massage parlours, posting tacky adverts in newspapers and local train compartments.u00a0 "A-Z Service -- Full Relaxation Young Beautiful, Educated female 24 hours Home/Hotel. Call Nisha" -- that's a typical example.u00a0

A call to one such service connects us to Robin. "Apne pas bahut hai. Jaise maangta hai waisa milega (We have a big range. You will get what you seek)," he says in true Bambaiyya Hindi.

The rates can oscillate irrationally depending on what a customer seeks. A night with a 'college girl' costs Rs 5,000. For models and air hostesses, you shell out between Rs 10,000 and Rs 25,000.

Predictably, white skin is in great demand, and short supply. Girls from East European countries and Russia have doubled in numbers. A night with a Ukrainian girl costs no less than Rs 40,000.

"The demand is for fair skin. Well off clients will pay more for a better 'product'," says Preeti Patkar of Prerna, an NGO that works against human trafficking. Girls who arrive from Uzbekistan and Kazakistan often find themselves in the net of pimps, their passports confiscated. "They don't know the language and have no support system," says Patkar.

Girls who come as escorts to go pub hopping, don't come cheap. You could end up coughing up between Rs 40,000 and Rs 60,000. Gigolos from abroad flag a higher rate card. While Krishna charges Rs 1,000 for two hours, 'hunks' from Bangkok, Singapore and Africa earn Rs 3,000 an hour.

What's great though, is that sex is a leveller. A late night drive down linking Road in the upmarket suburb of Bandra down to Juhu, and you'll see the spoilt brats screech their machines to a hault to pick upu00a0 small-town prostitutes wearing gawdy make-up.

Mobile flesh trade
The sex bazaar that once upon a time, opened after dusk, now awaits customers 24/7. And you don't have to frequent seedy pockets like Kamathipura, frequented only by the low end patrons. Sex workers are just an SMS away. "Aapna to chalta phirta dukan hai (I'm like a mobile sex shop)," laughs Krishna.

Different strokes for different folk
The stereotypical notion of poverty dragging the vulnerable into the flesh trade is fast fading. It held true five years ago, when a young boy like Krishna arrived from a small village in Uttar Pradesh to find work in Mumbai. "I slept on the streets, went hungry for days, wore the same clothes for weeks... until I was walking down Dadar one evening and a Mercedes Benz picked me up."

Today, some may do it to make ends meet, others do it for pocket money. Bored homemakers give it a shot for excitement, air hostesses and starlets do it to land a role.

Rate card
Night with an air hostess: Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000
Sex with Ukrainian girl: Rs 40,000
Favourites: Husband watches wife have sex with a gigolo. Gigolos are asked to dress up as women before they do a striptease

Delhi wants a gigolo wearing nothing but medals around his neck
CWG mascot Shera might be facing a challenge seducing patrons, but some have responded to the 'come out and play' call with a passionate fervour. CWG kicks off today, and other than the sporting industry, it's the paid-sex business that's working in overdrive. Escort agencies personnel, massage parlours and 'erotic service providers' have moved in. When it comes to sexual orientation and taste, they are geared up to please all.
u00a0

Kotha Number 52 at Delhi's GB Road. PICS/ Subhash Barolia

"While it's usual to see a rise in prostitution during such large-scale events, we have been monitoring media in the capital of late, and have noticed a critical increase in advertisements in dailies and the Internet," says Rashmi Sinha, Director Field Operations, ApneAap, an NGO that's spearheading the CWG anti-sex industry pimping campaign.

Escort girls and massage boys in and around Delhi are ready to play the 'prefect host' for the next 20 days. Sources from the Ministry of Tourism indicate that there is a rise the number og 'girls' arriving from Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan. "We are likely to see an almost 50u00a0 per cent increase in the arrival of girls," says Amrita of Delhi Krazy Kats, an escort service that claims to provide 'the most beautiful escorts' in the capital.

The approximate cost of an amorous tryst with a 'college girl' is between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 (for two hours), and Rs 30,000 for a night. The rates are likely to spiral with the expectation of loaded foreigners who are seen as 'more sexually adventurous'.

The dress code is seeing a change too. Leather skirts and nurse frocks are pass ufffd. It's sexy sporting gear that they plan to experiment with, keeping the theme in mind. We wonder if Venus Williams' lingerie on-court apparel had anything to do with it. "Keeping the games in mind, I can choose to dress like an athlete or a tennis player. The look comes complete with a mini skirt, racquet and tennis balls, but it costs an additional Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000," says 25 year-old Tanya (name changed), an executive with a Gurgaon MNC who moonlights as an escort.

The gigolos are willing to strip down to their boxers, don gloves, or wear nothing at all except a bunch of medals around their neck (for a 25 per cent hike in rate, though), says a 27 year-old male masseuse who is known as RK among Delhi's page 3 circle.

This is the story of star-hotels. But in Delhi's red light area in Swami Shradhanand Marg (notorious by its old name GB Road), things are far from glamorous. A Ministry of Home Affairs' advisory (dated 10 September 2010), acknowledges that minor girls are being trafficked for the games. "Media reports of GB Road sex workers learning English, and kothas being decked up with air conditioners and LCD TVs is b***shit," says Rishikanth of Shakti Vahini, an NGO active in the area. Paan-stained staircases lead to women who wait in dingy cubicles. "Those goras won't touch us. Everybody wants high class, powdered gori chamri," says 25 year-old Shabnam.

Here, the sporting extravaganza will simply provide a few minutes of relief on an old TV on a stand, before the next customer arrives.

Rate card
Sex with a 'college girl': Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000.
To dress her like a tennis star? Pay Rs 5,000 extra.
Favourites: Tennis star get-up for female sex workers

Chennai is ordering inflatable dolls over a blog
He calls himself 'Call Boy Akshay', and promises to send us almost anything out of a detailed catalogue, anywhere in the country, in just four days. A blog (https://chennaicallboyakshay.blogspot/) isu00a0 his only tool. 'Flesh-like' vibrating vaginas designed to replicate the sensation of penetrative sex? Penis covers? He has it, and with creative titles like Thunder Lightning and Tarzan. All products comes with pictures and price details for easy decision making.

Representational picture. Pic/AFP photo

And if that isn't enough, he also offers personal services 'for extra pleasure'. Look under a section he calls 'About Me'.

"I source most of the toys from China; all made from high-quality silicon," he says in a telephonic interview. He has been a sex toy supplier for eight months, and receives most of his orders from hometown Chennai, cities in Punjab, and Mumbai.

"The Thunder Lightning (vibrator operated by battery) is best for couples, and it's very popular. I have sold 400 of these in the last eight months," he says about the hit item.

Inflatable dolls (you won't find these in the catalogue, so ask for them)u00a0 can be sourced if he's given a notice.

Rate card
Vibrating vagina: Rs 4,675
Penis covers (available in magenta, Violet, Chocolate and sky blue): Rs 320- Rs 530
Crystal Egg vibrator (functions on pencil batteries): Rs 420
Thunder Lightening: Rs 950

Bengaluru wants it blow-by-blow
As she walks down Brigade Road in a busy commercial district of Bengaluru, wearing a denim mini, hot pink pumps and a tee, her poker straight hair falling casually over her slender shoulders, she looks like any other out-of-towner studying in one of the city's colleges.

But college lectures are now a distant memory for 18 year-old Catherine, a Manipuri student, who quit college in 2009 to become a full-time call girl. Her face accentuated by high brows wears a matter-of-fact look as she sips a cold coffee. Giving a blow job to a client who insists on not using protection, is a put off, she admits, but one she has to work around on most days.

"Depending on who the client is, I charge between Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 per hour. Most of them demand blow jobs, especially without using condoms. They insist we swallow. Even if it's not preceded or followed by intercourse, they are fine," she says. Her 'general rate': three blow jobs in one hour for Rs 15,000.

The southern city has seen a rise in escort services, with an estimated 200 such agencies in operation, providing Indian and foreign, male and female sex workers to entrepreneurs and professionals typically aged 25 to 55. Here too, most of them function under the guise of massage parlours, and insert adverts in popular media.

The nature of the service can vary from an actual massage (with chocolate or strawberry sauce, or cream) to naked walks, accompanying the client to pubs, and protected intercourse.

Most sex workers are aged 18 to 30, and service heterosexuals, homosexuals and bisexuals at various three-star and five-star hotels across the city. The escort agency charges 60 per cent of their fee as commission. Escorts earn anything from Rs 30,000 to Rs 5 lakh au00a0 month.

John (name changed), who operates his escort agency online, says, "Group sex is popular these days, but clients ask for it discreetly. Most of them are corporates or software professionals; singletons desperate for good sex or people bored in marriages." The visibility of the gigolo, of course, continues to be low.

For 24 year-old gigolo Karan (he has a day job as a website designer), the demand for oral sex from middle aged homemakers is high. "Whether it's group sex, oral or striptease, most clients are looking for visual pleasure in sex," he says.

Around the world

World Cup
The FIFA World Cup in South Africa was expected to attract a hoard of sex workers. Thanks to Africa being the land of HIV, global awareness campaigns encouraging safe sex proved crucial.

Cannes
Police authorities broke up high-end prostitution ringleaders at yachts and luxury hotels at the 2007 Cannes film festival, France. The festival is becoming a hotbed of high-end prostitution networks that function effortlessly among the glamorous world of spendthrift celebrities and wild parties.
Sex workers come disguised as models, actors and producers.

Copenhagen Summit
The summit held in 2009 may not have been a success at discussing climate change mitigation, but prostitutes in Denmark made themselves heard. Prostitution in Denmark is legal but regulated.u00a0 Unions who protect the rights of commercial sex workers were outraged by a council notice urging delegates to "be sustainable, don't buy sex". To this they declared that all its 1,400 members would provide free intercourse to anyone with a climate conference delegate pass.

'Girls are being pumped with Oxytocin to make them voluptuous'

One woman is standing up to prevent sex tourism during the Commonwealth Games. Will you join her?

What started as a routine journalistic assignment for Ruchira Gupta in 1994, became her crusade in 2002. This 'Abolitionist' is the founder of Apne Aap Women Worldwide, an NGO that has spent almost a quarter of a century fighting sex trafficking.u00a0 She talks to Sunday MiDDAY about her petition to the President of India to prevent CWG from becoming a pimping opportunity for the sex industry.

Ruchira Gupta has found support from the likes of Ashley Judd, Demi
Moore (in photo above) and singer Ricky Martin

You testified in the US Senate and it led to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, 2000. But you have hit a wall when it comes to amending our Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956. Why?
My testimony to the US Senate did lead directly to the passage of the Traffic Victim Protection Victims Act, and my work with coalitions of women worldwide led to the UN Protocol on Trafficking as well as new laws inu00a0 Sweden and Norway.

I have hit a road block in my own country on amending the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act for two reasons: the failure of the government to understand trafficking of women and girls, and its outcome. And secondly, the resistance put up by condom manufacturers working with AIDS functionaries in the government who find that the sex industry creates a huge market for their product.

Your petition to The President of India has been based on reports in the media and revelations made by NGOs. But how big is the problem?
The sex industry was organised around the CWG faster than any systems set up by functionaries of the Secretariat -- they have bought girls from villages in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, kept them in Alwar, and pumped them with oxytocin injections to turn voluptuous, before tying up with the sex industry in Eastern Europe to make white women available too.

What are 'sufficient mechanisms to stop the proliferation of sex trafficking in the run up to the Commonwealth Games' that you are demanding?
We asked for information booths to be installed at airports, bus stops and train stations for girls and women. We wanted plans developed to provide safe passage home to migrant women in Delhi, training of police officers on the subject, and media campaigns to warn sex tourists.

What has the response from people and the government been?
The National Committee for the Protection of Child Rights contacted us last week to ask what could be done. It is very last minute. People have been sympathetic to our cause, and several have signed our petition to the President of India, or asked us how they can help, but we can do little without government support. Students have come forward to collect signatures for our campaign, celebrities have signed on, and people have written asking for more information.

Ashley Judd and Ricky Martin are supporting you. Demi Moore is Tweeting about it.u00a0 Is any Indian celeb you involved?
They have signed the petition as has Nandita Das. It would make a huge difference to the most marginalised girls in our country if an Aamir Khan stood up for them.

Ruchira has Hollywood's hotu00a0 support
Don't let the sex industry turn the Commonwealth (Delhi) Games into a pimping opportunity! Sign Ruchira's petition! https://bit.ly/c47kLV
Thursday, September 23, 2010 6:02:38 AM
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