For generations, one Indian village has seen widespread prostitution, with women passing on the trade to their children. Nat Purwa, a small village in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, is about a two-hour drive from the provincial capital, Lucknow.
In the mornings dozens of young children wearing tattered clothes trot along its dusty streets. It is hard not to notice their big, round, undernourished bellies. The children disappear into the fields, chasing away stray cattle.
Like most other villages around here, Nat Purwa suffers from abject poverty. But one element makes the village stand out from others in the area: Here, prostitution is a hereditary occupation, passed on from one generation of women to the next. When Chandralekha turned 15, she joined the trade like the rest of the village girls.
What difference does it make if you become one? Wrinkles criss-cross the year-old's face as she recounts her past. With the first man, then the second, fourth, fifth, sixth.
Thousands of men come to one woman. I'd say a woman starts feeling bad since the beginning, but there's a weakness. There's a hungry stomach to feed and there is resignation. Chandralekha gave up prostitution owing to intolerable abuse. Chandralekha and thousands of other women from Nat Purwa belong to the Nat community.
