August 14, 2011:(Phuentsholing)As dusk settles, they appear at Zangtopelri premise and like any other people who come at the altar of God to worship or to circumambulate the holy temple; they too look innocent and lonely. But, in reality, they are the commercial sex workers and it is their rendezvous to meet their clients.

Zangtopelri, thus has become an ill-reputed place and people have started complaining about this misconduct.

“They are mostly Indians who come across the border. They meet their customers and make appointments and make a deal here, but this is a holy place, not a brothel to carry out their such activities,” said 62-year-old Ugyen.

To his respite, police in Phuentsholing have started patrolling and apprehending suspects.

Police in Phuentsholing on Wednesday raided a few hotels in the town and apprehended 11 suspected commercial sex workers, excluding five male customers who were caught red-handed when the raid was carried out.

According to the police officials, two women are Bhutanese and the rest are non-Bhutanese residents of Jaigaon.

“Two of them have been produced to the court and two have been released on no-evidence ground. We are investigating the case,” said a police official.

Police mentioned it is very difficult for them to charge sheet such commercial sex workers as they cannot produce concrete evidences.

“Only if we catch them red-handed or somebody gives us in writing that we can arrest them. Otherwise, it is difficult for us to arrest and produce them at the court, but we have started implementing law and order in the town by raiding and patrolling,” said a police official.

Talking to one of the arrested women, she said she is innocent. She said she was sleeping with her friends in one of the hotel when police apprehended them.

The women arrested were of 20-35 years old. While the women found guilty will be charged for prostitution, the two men will be charged for patronizing or enticing prostitution.

Apart from those arrested, a BT source said there are more restaurants and bars in the town operating flesh trade business in the town.

One of the beauty parlour (which people refer to as ‘the Pink Parlour’) in the town operates sex business on the pretext of doing massage business. Source says there are about five girls in the parlour who are actively engaged in flesh trade.

However, according to police officials, they have also raided the parlour. “We also got a tipoff. We took them in custody and interrogated but we could not produce sufficient evidence to charge sheet them,” said a police official.

Who are the sex workers and the reasons

Mostly, the commercial sex workers come from humble family back ground. They are mostly young women with age ranging from 18 to 25 and financially deprived. A few are Bhutanese but most come from across the border, as far as from Kalimpong and Siliguri.

Young Pinki from Jaigaon is not qualified to fetch a decent job. Due to the social burden and with aging parents, she has resorted to bargain her body against a few hundred bucks. Similar to Pinki, some of her friends do it to earn bread and butter despite knowing the fact that it is not just and an undignified job.

There are also a few Bhutanese divorcees who have entered the trade. They are mostly mother of a few children. In order to keep their kitchen light burning, they trade their bodies to some unknown men.

“Every morning I cry realizing what I am doing but being uneducated with three small children, I have no other way to feed them,” said a 33-year-old-lady from Trashi Yangtse.

Employment and modus operandi

According to the source, some of the hoteliers and bar owners employ sex workers to attract more customers. But mostly, they find the customers through friends or networks.

One of the commercial sex workers said her appointments are made over the mobile phone. “I get calls from the customers. I make a deal and then meet them wherever they tell me to come,” she said.

Asked how she finds her customers, she said most of her clients are known to her. She said she hardly attends stranger.

Source said there are also some pimps who operate and make appointments from Jaigaon.

According to the owner of one of the hotels which was raided by police on Wednesday and from where police officials arrested a woman, the accused is not their employee.

“We have seen her around for the last few months but she is not our employee. That day, as soon as she entered our hotel, police came and took her,” said the owner, denying that her hotel was engaged in such trade.

Charges for prostitution

As per the section 373 of the Penal Code of Bhutan, a defendant shall be guilty of offence of prostitution if the defendant offers, agrees to engage, or engages in sexual conduct with another person for money or property. It also states that offence of prostitution will be a misdemeanor.

Meanwhile, most of the people in the town said prostitution is a social ailment and it should be stopped. They said after the police raided hotels and restaurants a few years ago, to some extent, it had been controlled. But recently, flesh trade business has become more rampant again in the town.