The pimp-police nexus has also exposed the existence of a parallel economy in Goa’s most popular tourist destination, which has stakeholders from cheap lodges to starred hotels, from online escorts services to taxi drivers doubling up as pimps
“Yummy” Service: This advertisement isn’t all that discreet. “Indian andForeign based escort girls that offer a high class companionship service…willvisit your hotel for outcall service and are available as tour guides andtraveling escorts. You will soon discover that our escorts are extremelyattractive, educated and pleasant companions which are also available for yourdiscreet pleasures and secret naughty wishes” promises Yummy Flavors, a HotTeen Escorts service, whose location is shown near Baga on Google Maps. Thisand dozens of other websites, blogs and even professional networking sites suchas Linkedin have just mobile numbers that guarantee you excellent, pleasurableescort services. (source: internet)
Girls On Wheels: Elsewhere in Dona Paula, a Mumbaikarlooking for a raunchy time in Goa is shown a Maruti Wagon R loaded with blondesand brunettes from Georgia, Russia, by aGoan ‘guide’. The deal: choose your girl and meet her at a room in a starredhotel in North Goa. While the client has a good time, the ‘guide’ stays guardat the hotel reception. The act over, payments are made in the hotel lobby andthe protagonists go their separate ways.
(source: confession of customer who did the deal)
Guided Tour: Calangute-Baga is not just about policeextorting from hapless prostitutes. It is also about an economy of a variety ofstakeholders who support the system, not as direct as a Kamatipura (Mumbai) ora Sonar Gachi (Kolkata) or a G B Road (New Delhi) but maintaining a civilizedfaçade on the outside and running a web of deceit and exploitation within. Theconfessions of the two sex workers, currently lodged in Merces, has exposed alarge part of this elaborate network.
The victims have revealed that at the heart of thematchmaking between clients and sex workers are ‘the guides’, the civil namefor a pimp. He is often the point of contact who manages one or more commercialsex workers operation. The window shopping of sex workers often happens in thenight clubs of north Goa, say the victims, in their statement to the SpecialDistrict Magistrate (SDM). The night clubs teeming with locals, domestic aswell as foreign tourists help in soliciting customers easily.
Phone A Friend: Most of the prostitution nexus is managed oncell phones and there are specific taxi drivers and rickshaw drivers who comeon call to pick them. “Right from landing in Goa to boarding arrangements inrooms, all is done by these people via phone calls,” confess the victims.
Most of the taxi drivers, rickshaw drivers, motorcyclepilots and more importantly tourist guides have formed a syndicate with theprostitutes. “These are the people who get us customers and take their cut,they are the people who have tied up with hoteliers” the victims go on. “If thecustomers come through guides, the guides would pocket more than 50% ofearnings. If it was through taxi drivers and others, they would take 50%. Ourboyfriend however, would give us more than 50% share of our money, which comesfrom the customer,” victims informed.
“The increase in transgenders and female sex workers in Goaduring year end needs to be investigated”, informs lawyer/activist Auda Viagas,who is also a panel member under SDM for the victims currently under governmentprotection. Goa’s seedy underbelly has more than drugs and politicians. It isliving upto its popular perception of a fun place, only the idea of fun is notwhat the Goans had asked for.
