Sex Workers At GB Road Stare At A Harrowing Wait For The Pandemic To End

NEW DELHI: The situation for sex workers in Delhi’s redlight area remains grim - seven months after the COVID-19 outbreak in the Capital - as a sharp drop in clients has created a huge financial burden on the already struggling women. Delhi’s GB Road houses more than 1,200 sex workers, of which more than half the women have already left for their hometown.

- Nikita Jain

Bindu (50) (name changed) sits in her small room, placed above the brothel where she works. Post-lockdown, the business has been zero, however, the women continue to struggle even as the city has reopened.

“We hardly earn Rs 200 or so as clients don’t come here anymore. I was sitting for one whole day and managed to get just two clients,” she said.

Most sex workers are scared to talk as they say the police harass them if they speak to the media. “We are living in deplorable conditions and COVID-19 pandemic has changed things for the worse. We have no money but earn enough to manage food for our children,” she added.