UNDER THE RED LIGHT

As old as the city itself, Singapore's sex trade operates in plain sight but is shrouded in secrecy.

- Jessica Novia

It is a humid Tuesday morning in Geylang.

As she does every week, 58-year-old Serene (not her real name) walks the narrow lorongs Malay for lanes - with a tote bag of chilli guava chips swinging by her side. Near Lorong 16, she spots two women standing outside a row of shophouses.

"I haven't seen you before," she says in Mandarin. "Did you just arrive?" One smiles, a little wary.

"Last week," she says.

They chat about food and home towns. The answers are short, until Serene asks how long they plan to stay.

"Just a few weeks," one says, before adding: "I won't overstay. Are you a police officer?" Serene laughs. "No, I work around here," she says, slipping a packet of chips into the woman's hand.

After 10 years of these walks, she no longer needs to ask what brings them here. A part-time outreach worker with Operation Mobilisation, a Christian group, she sees her role as simply showing care.

"We're not here to rescue anyone," she says. "But if someone looks troubled, we might ask if there's something we can do."

What she witnesses each week the quiet exchanges, the guarded smiles, the women who come and go is part of a much older story.

HISTORICAL ROOTS

To understand the work she does today, it helps to trace how the sex trade took root in Singapore, a story that began with the colony's founding.

The second census in 1826, nine years after Sir Stamford Raffles arrived, counted just 13,750 residents and revealed a stark gender gap: 5,747 Chinese men to 341 women, and 2,208 Indian men to only 40 women. There were 2,501 Malay males to 2,289 females.

The census highlighted Singapore's growth as a rapidly expanding, male-dominated port city, one with a huge demand for sex workers.