INDIA. — Home to about 10,000 women and children, Chaturbhuj-sthan is a brothel in Bihar, near the border of Northern India. Historians believe it was first established during the Moghul era.
Prostitution has become a family tradition in Chaturbhuj-sthan, passed down from generation to generation.
After reading Jugnu, a 32-page monthly magazine written and published by the sex workers of the Chaturbhuj-sthan brothel, filmmaker Gautam Singh contacted the magazine.
The magazine had been created by a group of sex laborers, led by a girl named Naseema.
Born into Chaturbhuj-sthan, Naseema was abandoned by her mother and raised by a woman she calls her ‘grandmother’. Her ‘grandmother’ decided use the money she earned as a prostitute to raise Naseema and send her to school, Naseema soon became the first girl in the brothel’s 300 year history to receive an education.
When Naseema returned to Chaturbhuj-sthan it was not to sell her body. With the help of local banks, Naseema established several small industries inside the brothel creating alternative forms of employment for the sex workers.
Naseema also sought to persuade the sex workers to send their children to school, now nearly every child in Chaturbhuj-sthan is receiving an education.
Over 50 former prostitutes now work with Naseema in her local endeavors as well as the maintenance of the magazine, which is sold across India. Naseema and the other women work to prevent others being trafficked, mainly from neighboring Nepal and Bangladesh, in the last year alone they have been able to send at least 20 new girls safely back home.
The former prostitutes have many enemies, and the work is extremely dangerous. Rani Begum,the chief of the brothel, has suffered a blow financially as a result of Naseema’s activities. Her thugs have publicly harassed and beaten Naseema and the other women who work with her on numerous occasions. The former sex workers have also had to fight pimps, as well as some police officers and clerics.
This film chronicles the story of the former sex workers and the Chaturbhuj-sthan brothel.
July 6, 2011
Asia, Bangladesh, India, Nepal