Flesh trade: Hotels under police scanner

PUDUCHERRY: Police, on Tuesday, convened a meeting of hoteliers to discuss measures to check the immoral trafficking of women.  This comes in the light of the fact police recently rescused a woman from a hotel in this regard. The police also booked three hotels under Immoral Trafficking (prevention) Act .The immoral trafficking of women is manifesting in new ways in Puducherry after the government closed the ‘Kandoctor thottam’ area, notorious for the flesh trade, by constructing multi-storied tenements for the poor people around seven to eight years ago, said an NGO volunteer who worked closely with commercial sex workers.It has shifted to street-based, lodge- based and mobile-based activity  and some hotels have been providing the space for it. While the sex workers of Kandoctor thottam moved out to various places in Puducherry, they frequent bus stand, beach, park for customers, he said.  Some operate from their houses and get customers through phone calls or through former pimps and auto drivers, but they entertain them in lodges, he said, and added that sometimes the houses maintained by sex workers were difficult to identify as they appeared like normal homes. Moreover, even women living in normal families indulged in flesh trade for money. The business is always in hotels and lodges. In fact, some hotel owners also used the flesh trade to promote their other businesses. The most important concern raised at the meet was that young girls were falling prey to such rackets.Hotels were cautioned against such practices and issued advisories  to comply with, said Superintendent of Police (North ) N T Sivadasan.The police will get stricter on the compliance with C-form which provides all details of hotel guests and has to be sent to police station in that area, said Sivadasan. In case of young girls accompanying hotel guests under suspicious circumstances, the hotels would have to report the matter to the police without fail.  CCTVs have been installed in 75 per cent of hotels. The others who have not installed the cameras, have been told to do so at the earliest, he said.