TWO WOMEN'S HEARTBREAKING FIGHTS TO SURVIVE – THIS IS THE REAL INDIA WE DON'T TALK ABOUT

 

TWO WOMEN'S HEARTBREAKING FIGHTS TO SURVIVE – THIS IS THE REAL INDIA WE DON'T TALK ABOUT

Here are the raw, honest stories of two ordinary women – Sunita and Ritu – who ended up selling their bodies just to keep their families going. Their lives show how desperate things can get when the money runs out and nobody helps.

Sunita's Story

Sunita is nearly 30 now. She's got a little boy and a husband called Hemansu. When she was a teenager she fell madly in love with him and thought marrying him was the best thing ever. Looking back, she reckons it was the biggest mistake of her life.

After they got married, Hemansu never bothered getting a proper job. Instead, he kept borrowing money from anyone who'd lend it. To pay one loan they'd borrow another, then another… until they owed an absolute mountain of cash. In the end Hemansu just sat at home and left Sunita to pay for everything – food, rent, the loans, their son.

Desperate, Sunita bumped into an old friend who was already working in the sex trade. With no other way to earn decent money, Sunita started doing the same, even though she hated it. She told all this openly on a podcast.

She said, "A normal job would give me 10-15 thousand rupees a month, but that wasn't nearly enough to clear the debts. I'm not qualified for anything that pays 50 thousand." So she began meeting clients she picked up at the airport or railway station, then taking them to cheap hotels.

The hotels charge 4,000 rupees for two or three hours. Half of that goes straight to the hotel owner, so Sunita keeps 2,000. She always tries to keep the men happy (whatever they want, except kissing – she hates that). Some get violent, some bite, some hurt the girls badly. She told an awful story about her friend who was injured so badly she needed a week to recover – and all for just 1,500-1,800 rupees. The friend couldn't even tell her family what had happened.

Once Sunita got caught in a police raid. She wasn't even with a client that day – she'd sent a friend instead – but the police were there because of a tip-off about human trafficking. Loads of people got arrested, including ordinary couples who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sunita spent a night in the cells, went to court the next day and was let go. It was the only time she ever got caught.

She says these days it's easier because of a Supreme Court ruling – anyone over 18 can check into a hotel with ID, so the police leave them alone.

Most people think once a woman starts this work she can never get out. Sunita says that's rubbish. Every day women travel into Sonagachi (Kolkata's huge red-light district), see a few clients, then go home to their families like nothing happened. "For money," she says, "even the respectable lady next door would do it if she had to."

Now Sunita has nearly paid off all the loans. She's planning to quit for good and give her son a better life – one where he stands on his own two feet.

She told some shocking stories on the podcast. One man pays lakhs of rupees in a single day to be with thirty different girls from morning till midnight. He spends five or ten minutes with each – some just massage him, some chat, whatever he fancies. He isn't fussy; any girl in ordinary clothes will do.he sometimes provides food for girls and for her family too.

When the host asked if she'd ever fallen in love for a client, Sunita laughed bitterly. "Never again. The last time I fell in love it ruined my life. Clients say sweet things whilst they're paying, but the moment it's over they won't even pick up the phone."

Ritu's Story

Then there's Ritu, who lives in Mumbai with her useless boyfriend. He does nothing but smoke, drink and take drugs – all paid for by Ritu. He wanted to be a film actor but never got a break, so instead he started finding clients for her and taking a cut.

One day Ritu stole jewellery from a shop and got caught on CCTV. The owner said, "Pay for it or I'll call the police." Terrified of getting arrested, Ritu agreed to sleep with him instead. Even after that, he still demanded the money. When she couldn't pay, he posted their intimate video all over social media to shame her.

The video went viral overnight. The next morning Ritu's phone wouldn't stop ringing – TV channels, film producers, modelling agencies all wanted her. Suddenly she was famous. She signed with a production house on one condition: they had to give her boyfriend a role too. They agreed.

So what started as total humiliation turned into a whole new career in the glamour world.

What It All Means

Two women, two completely different lives, both forced into selling their bodies because the men who were supposed to look after them did absolutely nothing. One is trying to crawl out of the dirt and start again. The other accidentally turned shame into stardom.

That's the world we live in. You never know how one bad day – or one desperate choice – can change a life forever.