Click to play videoMumbai: The bylanes of Kamathipura, more famous for its night life, have a million stories waiting to be told and it's these stories that are being discussed by this group of women here.
Once commercial sex workers, these women are now reporters, reporting the scoop of the day to their news coordinator, Rupa.
They work in a little newsroom of an exclusive news paper for the commercial sex workers called Lal Batti Dastavez.
Says a sex-worker who has since turned a reporter, Rita (name changed), "We get the stories from the women, and come and report them here.''
Once the news is in, the newspaper is typed out at Apane Aap, the NGO that also prints the low budget paper once a month.
Says the centre co-ordinator, Rupa, "Our main aim is to ensure that these women do not fall prey to cheats, and that they should get out of being sex workers and do something more constructive.''
The paper covers issues ranging from health to human rights and personal stories of the residents of the busy bylane that Kamathipura is.
Getting stories out of the red light area is difficult, and it's these women -- working for the benefit of other sex workers -- who are the strength of the paper.
The brain behind Lal Batti Dastavez is former journalist Anurag Chaturvedi, who is now busy grooming the paper and its reporters.
Chaturvedi, who is also a trustee of Apane Aap, says, "The aim of the paper is to give them a voice, and we want that the women themselves should be reporters and editors for the paper.''
Currently distributed as a printout, the publishers of Lal Batti Dastavez have now applied for a registration and hope to come out with a full-fledged newspaper soon.
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