Little Voice - Underage Sex Workers of Daulatdia Brothel
Imagine a young girl, no more than 13 years old playing dress up, putting on heavy makeup to disguise her youth beneath a mask of paint. Imagine the smile on her face and her innocence. Imagine, that instead of playing make believe she must go out and sell her body to male clients up to 12 times a day. This is the daily routine for underage sex worker Bristi, who lives with her mother, a former prostitute in Daulatdia, Bangladesh’s largest brothel. Bristi has been actively working for no more than 3 months but, like most girls who are brought up in the brothel, she was most likely sexually active or abused at a very young age. Because of Bristi’s youth, she is one of the most popular sex workers. All the money she earns must go to her mother, who beats her if she does not fulfill the wishes of the customer, which is most likely not to use a condom. When asked what Bristi wants to be when she grows up, she says “A madam, so I can make a lot of money”. This is the terrifying and vicious cycle for so many of the girls who are either born into the brothel or brought here against their will. In the village of Dauladtia, Bangladesh, on the banks of the Padma River, the landscape is flat dusty and dotted with corrugated roofs. The air is filled with the sounds of trucks’ horns, train whistles, and the orchestral hum of humans buzzing through the village. At first glance this does not look any different to countless other poor villages in this country, which is one of Asia's poorest and most congested. But just off the main street down a narrow alleyway, is a densely packed collection of tin shacks, shops, cafes and narrow streets lined with prostitutes, mostly underage, fiercely competing with one another for customers. It is the largest brothel in Bangladesh, with over 2000 servicing 3000 men every day. They have usually been kidnapped by gangs, sold by stepmothers, or lured here by boyfriends with promises of good jobs.
