Subtitle: Women in the Sex Trade in Calcutta
Author: Carolyn Sleightholme and Indrani Sinha
Subject: Women's Studies/Sociology/Asian Studies
Cloth ISBN 0-8135-2380-X
Paperback ISBN 0-8135-2381-8
Pages: 160 pp.

Carolyn Sleightholme and Indrani Sinha write with rare perception and sensitivity about the lives of sex workers in Calcutta who have shared their stories with them. Through interviews, surveys, and case studies, they interrogate the double standards of sexual morality that govern the lucrative sex trade in India, thus making visible the more than twenty thousand mothers, heads of households, and community members whose activities and voices have been silenced so that others may profit from their activities. Linking the social and economic vulnerability of sex workers to the trade's supply, the authors reveal the harassment, economic insecurity, health hazards, and stigmatization these women face, and they offer recommendations for intervention programs by government and other organizations so that their needs may be addressed and their exploitation halted.

Carolyn Sleightholme is a sociologist with an M.A. in Gender and Development from the Institute of Development Studies in Sussex, England. Currently coordinating a project on the legal rights of sex-workers, she has worked with health and women's organizations in London, Calcutta, and Rajasthan. Indrani Sinha is a founder and member of Sanlaap Women's Rights Centre, a nongovernmental organization that serves sex workers. Associated with several women's groups in West Bengal, Bihar and the Northeast, she has worked since 1976 with development agencies such as Oxfam and Lutheran World Service.