Every country has red light areas and so does India. Though not every state has a dedicated red light area but some cities like Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi have a famous dedicated red light districts.
Well, yes in India it is not looked on as a respectable occupation this is the reason only gangsters and mafia mostly live and operate in these regions. This makes these places as a dangerous place to go alone without any knowledge of the area.
So if you are not aware of any of these districts, I would recommend please don’t visit and be safe. Despite you can book an escort girl from some well known Premium escort agency like ChennaiPassion.com.
Here in this article I have included top 10 largest red light districts of India.
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Sonagachi, Kolkata
Sonagachi is a largest red light district of India which is located in North Kolkata near the intersection of Shobhabazar and Chittaranjan Avenue with Beadon Street. This red light area has hundreds of multi story brothels with approximately 10,000 sex workers working every day.
The name is derived from the name of women named Sona Gazi, who was sister to the famous dacoit named Sanaullah. Later the name was converted to Sonagachi, which in Bengali means “Tree of Gold”.
The area also became famous when a documentary movie named Born in Brothels: Calcutta’s Red Light Kids won an Oscar of best documentary movie in 2005. The story of the movie is showing the life of kids who are born to prostitutes. There are many other movies which specify Sonagachi in their stories.
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Garstin Bastion Road, Delhi
A road which runs from Ajmeri Gate to Lahori gate called G.B road (full name Garstin Bastion Road) has a largest red light district in Delhi. The road has hundreds of multi storey brothels where approximately 2000 sex workers.
These brothel buildings have shops on the ground level which works during the day time and the first story or second story are reserved for sex workers which operates during the night when below shops closes.
During the day time it is one of the busiest roads of Delhi with famous machinery, automobile and hardware market. But during the night time it becomes a dangerous place for someone new or unaware. Mugging, snatching and even murders have happened here during the night. In September 2012, one policeman was stabbed to death when he tried to same another man from gang of criminals.
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Budhwar Peth, Pune
Budhwar Peth is India’s third largest red light district. Located in the heart of the city this red light area has an estimated 700 brothels and approximately 5000 prostitutes.
Despite having one of the largest red light districts in India Budhwar Peth suffers from child Prostitution, sex trafficking and police corruption.
HIV was problem once but after education program given to the women, HIV prevalence have become negligible.
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Kamathipura, Mumbai
Image Credit: Mumbai My Love
Initially known as Lal Bazaar, Kamathipura is neighbourhood in Mumbai which is well known for its red light district. Previously it was the labour site with huge amount of ongoing construction. Labour from all over India came for work and made this place their residence.
The place became famous when in 1990 there was rise of AIDs and government helped the workers there to leave their profession as a sex worker behind.
During 1992 there were total 45,000 sex workers in that area but with the help of the government the count was reduced to only 500 in 2018.
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Meergunj, Allahabad
Meerganj or Meergunj is a red light area in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, which is mostly known for sex trafficking and involvement of gangsters and violence.
Off course area has some local sex workers but most of the girls are trafficked from the states of Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Nepal and Bangladesh.
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Shivdaspur, Varanasi
Previously the red light area of Varanasi was located in Dalamandi, near the Kashi Vishwanath Temple. Since it was closed, all the sex workers move to Shivdaspur.
But the popularity of the place declined hugely because of the HIV cases. From then many locals and politicians are requesting to close the area.
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Chaturbhuj Sthan, Muzaffarpur
Chaturbhuj Sthan is a red light district in Muzaffapur, Bihar. This red light area is in existence since the Mughal period and is a home of approximately 3,500 sex workers. The name of the place is derived from the Chaturbhuj Sthan Temple which is located very near.
The place is filled with the gangsters and is very dangerous. The area is also facing sex trafficking issues. The area is surrounded by one kilometer long lane where women and girls perform mujra for the clients.
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Kalighat, Kolkata
Kalighat is a red light area located around the banks of the Adi Ganga canal. This district has around 1,500 prostitutes living and working there.
From many years Kolkata is facing sex trafficking issues and girls are mostly brought from neighboring countries like Nepal and Bangladesh against their will.
Some girls are also trafficked to Mumbai, Africa and Europe from Kolkata.
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Kabadi Bazaar, Meerut
The only red light area in Meerut is located at Kabadi Bazaar. According to the sources, there are total 75 brothels in this red light district and approximately 500 sex workers live and work here.
But recently in 2019 police sealed 57 brothels and said that the sex worker was shifted to Delhi red light area. But on research this was found not true the workers from these 57 brothels were still living in some private apartment in Meerut and are operating from there.
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Ganga Jamuna, Nagpur
The only 300 years old red light district in Nagpur is locate at Itwari. The name Ganga and Jamuna is derived from the name of the two dancers of the same name. It is believed that these dancers were called by the royal families to perform dance in their functions.
These dancers got settled in the outskirts of the city and since them other sex workers also started living there.
There are approximately 1,500 commercial sex workers living in this area.
