Banishanta: world of Sinners

When I reached the Banishanta ghat locally referred as the ‘Banishanta Para (brothel)’, it felt like one has left the city and entered a different world altogether — the world of the condemned. An overpowering stench of garbage and stagnant water violently hits the shore. The narrow alleyways, littered with garbage, human and animal waste, are barely wide enough for an average person to squeeze through. As I made my way towards the heart of the Para, I heard chatter and music; people were seen walking through the roads; girls and madams were washing clothes and cleaning themselves. The bustling Para is comprised of straw houses situated on an important trading route on the banks of the Pashur River. Many of the chhokris (enslaved sex workers) are underage. Unregistered at birth, none of them know their own birthdates, and they don’t have any proof of identity. Officially these girls do not exist. So it is nearly impossible for them to leave the island for a better life after they complete their terms as enslaved sex-workers for their Madame. Some of the girls are runaways who have left home to escape bad situations or marriage, and ended up at the brothels where their lives get written-off. Many others have been kidnapped and sold to a Madame by a parent or relative. Others were born into the brothel. They must take on 5-10 clients a day, most of these girls don’t get paid as they must repay their worth first to their Madame.

‘I’ve no memories of the outside world. I was forced to have sex when I was nine or ten years old and there is no turning back for me now. I can’t even remember my parents’ face.’ Nargis was taken to the island when she was eight years old and sold to a madam. Banishanta is a tiny island of barely one square kilometer, constantly under the threat of the rising waters during the monsoon season. A small riverbank village in Mongla, southern Bangladesh, Banishanta is only reachable via Pashur River. The island has become ‘home’ to these about 150 women and girls live and work inside a state-licensed brothel

Locally called ‘hizra’ living in tiny & remote areas of the city & within themselves mainly but everyday they populates the city where they are living with all sorts of attires & attitudes of their own. Usually they go out for collecting moneys from different populated places such as bazaars & market places as a group lead by the mashi.& end of the day they sit together & distributes money to each members of the group to their ranks. The transsexual people traditionally dance with new born baby & collects money from its parents which they thought as their rights. Rather than these they perform as a dancer or singer in social festivals likes weeding, birthday party etc to provide entertainment occasionally. But in different social circumstances many of them worked as sex-workers at night at bog streets & stations for living.