Behind Bangladesh's Disturbing Brothel Villages

Originally Written : September 25, 2022

By Afrin Pajulallah

At this day and age, we have been fighting for the right to education to all kids, especially regardless of their sex. Sadly, not every girl in the world can receive a proper education, but even worse—receive a proper childhood in which they can truly be children. This is the state of the brothel villages concentrated in Bangladesh, one of the many countries around the world where prostitution is legalized and regulated. This is not the bad part, as the boundaries get crossed all the time. Though it is illegal for minors to engage in prostitution, this does not stop cruel people from luring young girls into the scary line of work, with the youngest being ten years old. A form of sex trafficking, this type of system causes unforgivable trauma. Daulatdia, one of the largest brothels in Bangladesh, has around two thousand women and girls working there for almost three thousand men daily. Some work as they need desperate pay; others are forced to grow up with it, being normalized in their tragic lives. In a study by the Society for Environment and Human Development, around 80% of the 135 people surveyed were trafficked or tricked into joining the brothel. The pay is as little as two dollars per act, and most of these women and girls are trafficked, taken there against their will, having to give up their whole lives for the disturbing version of the occupation. The village is a tightly packed slum, with degrading hygiene and compressed alleyways. Many women end up getting pregnant, resulting in hundreds of small children inhabiting the area, witnessing the horrors daily, possibly having to reenter that cycle one day. Starvation is a huge problem there; with the lack of money, it is incredibly difficult for a woman to keep her loved ones safe and secure with that low of a salary. Along with that, they have expenses on top of that, such as daily rent, in which a whole chunk of their salary is given away. In a video by the Guardian, a 30-year-old woman by the name of Muni, states, “I was sold into it at about eight years old. I didn’t understand much…There was a woman who offered me two chocolates and I followed her here…and then, just like that, I followed her. I left school,” (translated to English.) Muni has hopes of finding her mother again, the reason why she had agreed to do the video. A nine-year-old girl, Disha, has already been exposed to the unsettling practices in the brothel. “You know the people who wander around here? They get drunk and touch people’s bodies…and they even touch people’s bodies from their car,” says Disha. “We just want to play.” For the sake of many young girls that are being sold into this cruel act at such a young age, being unable to pursue education or be a playful child because of the harsh reality of their lives, being forced to stay in a secluded, harsh environment with no money or mercy, we must act. Because if we don’t, a whole generation is in danger.

Sources Redfern, Corinne. “The Living Hell of Young Girls Enslaved in Bangladesh's Brothels.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 6 July 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jul/06/living-hell-of-bangladesh-brothels-sex-trafficking. Accessed 25 September 2022.

Amin, Nazra.“Daulatdia: A Look into One of the World's Largest Brothels.” New Security Beat, 5 Sept. 2019, https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2019/09/daulatdia-worlds-largest-brothels/. Accessed 25 September 2022.

Wright, Rebecca, and Salman Saeed. “She Was Tricked as a Teen into Prostitution. A Decade on, She Has No Work and Faces Starvation.” CNN, Cable News Network, 26 May 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/26/asia/daulatdia-bangladesh-brothel-as-equals-intl/index.html. Accessed 25 September 2022.

TheGuardian. “The Children Trapped in Bangladesh's Brothel Village.” YouTube, YouTube, 17 May 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYPyI1agpiw&ab_channel=TheGuardian. Accessed 25 September 2022.