Often the 300-metre-long shoreline of Sundarbans’ Banishanta Para, once one of the biggest government-registered brothels in Bangladesh, crumbles into the Pasur River.
Almost every year, tropical cyclones only worsen the situation - transforming the river's fast-running current into turbulent tides to accelerate the sinking of Banishanta Para.
“Perhaps we will drift away soon,” sigh the residents - around 190 female sex workers inhabiting the ramshackle brothel.
Many of them lost their belongings such as food, water storage, cooking materials, and clothes when Cyclone Remal hit the coastal area on 26 May this year.
Most importantly, as they say, the cyclone damaged their tin-shed cottages that serve as the brothel.
Rebuilding the cyclone-affected cottages would require at least Tk50,000 each an amount the sex workers can't afford as their income from prostitution has decreased. Photo: Noor-A-AlamNoor-A-Alam/BFirst
“Soon after the cyclone warning signals were hoisted, customers stopped visiting us. Even though two weeks have elapsed since the cyclone we are still not getting customers,” 34-year-old Nasima told Bangladesh First.
At 12, Nasima was trafficked to the brothel. She could never escape from the place that has been often termed as hell for the sex workers.
With her hard-earned savings, Nasima had built four cottages. She used to earn Tk3,000 as monthly rent from each tenant (sex workers) of the cottages.
All of the cottages are now decimated due to the impact of the recent cyclone.
Nasima said rebuilding the cottages would require at least Tk50,000 each. Nasima wonders how she can afford the costs as her income from prostitution has decreased.
According to Banishanta Para residents say younger sex workers fetch more money than aging ones.
Located in the northern part of the Sundarbans, the Banishanta Para brothel was set up in the early 1950s. Some 1,200 sex workers lived and worked there. Photo: Noor-A-Alam/BFirst
The managers of the brothel, who are retired sex workers, say a young sex worker is paid Tk520 while an elder gets Tk320 for every session of their service.
Located on the northern part of the Sundarbans, the brothel was set up in the early 1950s - coinciding with the commissioning of the Chalna Port (now Mongla Port).
According to senior residents, some 1,200 sex workers lived and worked at Banishanta Para.
In those days, sailors and merchants from foreign vessels docked at the seaport. Some of them spent their leisure time and money at Banishanta Para.
“Those days are gone. No foreign visitors come here. Our regular customers are the fishermen of the Sundarbans. They are not rich,” said 58-years-old Sultana.
Photo: Noor-A-Alam/BFirst
“Why should a rich person step into this dilapidated brothel?” she questioned.
Sultana came to Banishanta Para 40 years ago and witnessed how it survived natural disasters such as Sidr, Aila, Bulbul and other cyclones amid regular erosion.
Before Cyclone Remal, she owned three cottages and one grocery shop. The two cottages and the shop got damaged by cyclone.
After the disaster, each resident received only a saree, soap and one plastic bucket as a relief. A non-government organisation also provided them with one meal a day.
Expressing her frustration, Sultana said, “We have lost our tin-shed homes. Nobody has aided us with tin sheets yet.”
Besides homes, cyclone Remal damaged most of the pit latrines at Banishanta Para. The residents were now forced to rebuild the crucial structures on loan.
“We would pay the loan from money earned through prostitution. But only a few customers are showing up here,” said Rina, a 30-year-old sex worker who has been residing in Banishanta Para for the last 15 years.
Photo: Noor-A-Alam/BFirst
When she first arrived in the brothel, often she got frightened seeing turbulent tides, gusts and river erosion.
However, every disaster-like situation has become normal to her now.
When asked if she would leave that place since she is still young, Rina replied: “I will not move anywhere. I will not be suited in other profession or place.”
Asked what will she do if the river Pasur eroded her home someday, Rina replied, “Let the river Pasur wash me away.”
Residents of Banishanta Para said that many of them were denied refuge at the nearby cyclone shelter when Remal hit the area because of their profession, they were isolated from mainstream society.
Banishanta Union Parishad Chairman Sudeb Kumar Roy told Bangladesh First that local authorities have long suggested to the Banishanta Para residents that they should move to another place, but they didn’t pay heed to the call.
“This place is very much vulnerable to river erosion. But they [sex workers] don’t move,” Sudeb said.
He added that a plan to build an embankment along the Banishanta Para shoreline has been under process.
Photo: Noor-A-Alam/BFirst
