By Mian Nadeem

Prostitution is not legal in Pakistan, but at a time when the widening gap between the rich and the poor has given rise to armed thefts by boys, some girls, too, have taken the extreme step by adopting prostitution to support their impoverished families. And their number is on the higher side due to growing poverty.

Hailing from a small village of Okara district, Mumtaz is a poor woman from a poor family. Her husband’s idleness coupled with the dream of a better future for her children, unwittingly landed her in a ‘dera’ (brothel in local lingo). Such deras shelter female sex workers, who offer their services on and off the premises. Women known as madam or auntie usually run these deras. Having served in the dera for long, a pimp sent Mumtaz to a Mandi Bahauddin dera to help her make quick bucks. For being educated and proficient in basic mathematics, she took no time in becoming the in-charge of the dera. In the meantime, her husband somehow got wind of her activities. The irate husband won her over to visit his village, but fired gunshots in her leg. It followed separation between the two. Mumtaz then became the ‘middle woman’ and began arranging prostitutes for clients on payment ranging between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000.

The more beautiful a girl is, the more price she fetches. Mumtaz holds out an assurance to clients that the girl picked up by them for sex service will stay with them until the time is over. In most of the cases, poverty-stricken parents, siblings or even husbands leave girls or women with Mumtaz for prostitution. They receive money in advance and on a monthly basis. In some cases, girls themselves approach Mumtaz for formally getting into the sex trade for money. They charge between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500 for a few hours from clients, but have to give major chunk of the money to Mumtaz like ‘middle women’. And the girls spending whole night with clients get Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000, but don’t know what their mistresses pocket. According to Mumtaz, she supplies female sex workers to the deras allover the country, but Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Bahawalpur make most of their clientele. According to her, mostly abject poverty forces girls into prostitution.

In Mumtaz’s dera, there lives Shazia, a 20-year-old girl with fair complexion and charming face. She began prostituting herself to pay Rs 10,000 loan borrowed by her mother, but couldn’t get stop doing so despite having an intense desire because she has little siblings to care for. Like other girls, she wishes for walking down the aisle, but feels this wouldn’t happen. She wants to quit the profession she hates, but can’t do so.
Unlike Shazia whom her mother pushed into sex trade, Maria is in this profession out of her free will. In her words, her husband was work-shy, and, therefore, she had to step out to earn a living for herself and two children. She opted for prostitution just because it’s the only profession, which fulfilled her financial needs. Having served in deras in the country’s various towns including Rawalpindi and Islamabad, she is currently settled in Lahore. She used to visit hotels, houses and even gora sahibs (westerners), who, she says, besides due payment, also give generous tip.

According to her, Islamabad’s clients don’t introduce themselves to her but their demeanor shows they’re big businessmen, bureaucrats and politicians. In the federal capital, her earnings fluctuated between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1,00,000 a month but she struggled to make ends meet. Every month, she has to undergo certain medical tests including that of AIDS. Her children being brought up by her sister go to expensive English medium schools, so despite having a keen desire, she’s unable to quit profession in view of her and family’s growing expenditures. Maria has a unique offer. An affluent businessman wants to engage her as a keep. In return, he is ready to give her a house, and bear expenditures of her children. Surprisingly, even his wife doesn’t object to her husband’s desire. Maria is seriously considering the idea in view of her growing age, which, she says, is shrinking her demand on the market.

There are many instances where female sex workers were subjected to violent behavior of their clients. According to Shazia, once she sent a girl to some Mandi Bahauddin clients, who were in fact hardened criminals. They gunned down, one of their gang member before dumping his body in a nearby canal. The girl was so upset that she remained bed-ridden on return to Lahore for many months. Likewise, a girl was shot down by her lover, but neither the culpable people were arrested nor had they registered a case against them. The girls, who don’t fulfill demands of their clients, run the risk of being killed and buried in an isolated place. Families of such girls were told that their daughters or sisters had fled the dera.

While insisting that more and more girls are getting or being pushed into prostitution, Shazia blames it on growing poverty.

(The article first appeared in The Pulse Weekly)

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