A study of public establishment-based and private network commercial sexual exploitation in Kolkata and Mumbai, India

ABSTRACT

This article details the methodologies and results from studies on the commercial exploitation of children in known sex trade areas of Kolkata and Mumbai, India. The results include the number and attributes of sex workers and minors observed in public establishments and within a more private network. The study among public establishments entails the use of a conventional sampling design and sample calibration-based inference strategy for analyses. Based on a network/link-tracing sampling design, the private network study maps the social network of this side of the phenomenon, and inference is based on mark-recapture and weighted regression analyses. Minors are present in both public establishments and private networks. The study illuminating the private network highlights the intricacies of relationships between the key players and gives insight into this more hidden side of the sex trade. Both sampling procedures allow for observations and data collection of exploiters and victims in the midst of exploitation. This study is the first of its kind amongst those undertaken in the study region. The Governments of West Bengal and Maharashtra have worked towards improving anti-trafficking efforts, and the results provide invaluable insight and recommendations for policy purposes, training and mapping exercises for future studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Sex trafficking
• mark-recapture
• commercial sexual exploitation of children
• prevalence estimation
• population size estimation
• sample calibration

Acknowledgments

We thank Richard Valliant and Saman Muthukumarana for providing comments that helped with the statistical analyses of the public and private establishment analyses. We also thank the data collection teams in Kolkata and Mumbai for their conscientious efforts in this study.

Notes

¹ Garia used to have an established red-light area among the slum communities and near the railway stations. Now that is no longer the case. Recent developments in the area, such as the expansion of the road, buildings, use of space for other businesses and shifting of the sex trade to more private houses, have caused its descent.