A non-profit organisation has, for the first time, started a banking service exclusively for sex workers in Kamathipura, Mumbai’s red-light district

Under the Sangini project of the Washington-based non-profit Population Services International (PSI), sex workers in Kamathipura, Asia's largest red-light area, are being provided banking services at their doorstep.

Prostitutes in Mumbai have long demanded a bank so they can safely access their earnings.

Armed with deposit envelopes and a pen, a collector for Sangini takes the money the sex workers wish to deposit and makes an entry in the deposit book she carries. She visits the 294 rooms in Kamathipura, where the sex workers ply their trade, every day.

“Some of the women stay up all night. They tell me it's good we come to get the money because they can't deposit it during the day,” says Akkatai, a collector.

Sex workers usually borrow from moneylenders and pimps who often exploit them. Since prostitution is illegal in India, the women are unable to complain. “If we get unwell, men don't want to come to us. If we have a little money in the bank we can use the Rs 10-Rs 20 when we get sick,” says Maya, a sex worker who heads a community rights group.

The money is pooled into a single interest-bearing account at the State Bank of India . The account is in the name of the Sangini cooperative, which manages the women's individual accounts. Sangini, like a bank, keeps cash on hand and facilitates deposits and withdrawals into the account.

Over 2,500 women, many of whom have no papers and would not be allowed to open normal bank accounts, have so far deposited $ 160,000 with Sangini.

“Some women said this was the first time they felt they owned their money,” says Jiwan Prakash Saha, PSI's finance manager.

In February, Sangini also began issuing one-year loans of up to Rs 15,000.

The bank has expanded to two other red-light districts, hoping to reach more of the 100,000-plus women and girls estimated by several non-government organisations and the US State Department to be working in Mumbai's brothels.

“Before, I would keep my money with someone and they would deny having it or they would run away with it,” says Simla, a prostitute from Nepal.

Now, Simla can walk into Sangini's small office without any papers (the staff use a webcam photograph stored with her file to identify her) and manage her own money.

Simla says she is saving money for her seven-year-old son and her five-year-old daughter whom she has sent away to boarding school to protect her from the area's lifestyle.

“My life's been wasted but I save money so my children can study a little and do something with their lives,” she adds.

The smarter ones who can count what they owe and make sure the money is paid off can save enough to get out of the trade, says Diane Cross, PSI programme manager. Savings can also help smooth the transition to middle age when clients begin to fall off and earnings, consequently, drop. Those who have the funds return to their villages to purchase land or buy apartments they can rent out to others.

Source: AFP, June 16, 2008