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Statistics in India are as confusing as the demographics of the subcontinent.
At last count, in 2016, it was reported that there are 657,829 women sex workers in India. The number of children involved in the sex trade is estimated at 1.2 million. However, “in 2007, the Indian Ministry of Women and Child Development reported the presence of over three million female sex workers in India, with 35.47% of them entering the trade before the age of 18 years. The number of sex workers rose by 50% between 1997 and 2004, with nearly 100% of the children of sex workers also engaging in the same profession, or other illegal activities, like pimping, bootlegging and drug peddling.” (cf: Ashoka Foundation)
The number of sex workers in Kolkata, India’s third most-populous city , is unaccounted, ranging from 6,000–30,000 and counting. The estimate is low in a city of 14.5 million people.
Though sex work is not illegal in India, trafficking is.
Amidst this backdrop, DIKSHA (Discovering Inner Knowledge & Sexual Health Awareness), an NGO, was started by 16 teenagers and Paramita Banerjee in 1999 in the Kalighat area of Kolkata. “The acronym was a play on different themes that the kids wanted to include in the…
