Unveiling the truth...

Her first customer was a police man and the when she came out of the room the next morning, she was beaten up by police on orders of another policeman she had turned down. Her name was Nalini. Unable to earn five rupees a day, Nalini Jameela, a young widow stumbled into prostitution. She looks like a simple Indian housewife but in reality she is a commercial sex worker.25 years ago when her first husband died she was forced for prostitution. She had a small kid also. She was being paid more than a factory worker. She always felt humiliated, but she had no option but to continue." She was a 24-year-old widow when she entered the profession to feed her two children. At that time she did not think about the repercussions of her act. Her mother-in-law served her with an ultimatum to either give her five rupees a day to look after her two children or leave the house. She recounted her woes to a friend, who introduced her to a man and promised her Rs 50(less than $1) if I spent time with a man. The first thought that came to her mind was that her children would be looked after for the next 10 days. So finally she went with that man to a guesthouse for VIP politicians. There was a senior police officer .She was a farewell gift for him as he was getting transferred. He asked her to remove her clothes but she refused. She could not bring herself to stand naked before him. After the police officer finished, the driver wanted to sleep with her but again she refused."

Next morning, when she left the guesthouse, a police jeep picked her up and took her to the station Nalini was given a beating. She screamed out in pain and anger, "The police are there to sleep with us at night, and beat us during the day." The force of the beatings only increased. The question she asks to this day is, "Why wasn't the guesthouse raided when we were there? Why did they wait until we had left the premises, to arrest us?" She points out that there had been many instances like this when they got picked up afterwards so that the clients could be protected.
It didn't stop with the police beatings either. Hearing of the episode her family determined to banish her from the area forever and Nalini was told by a friend that she would be chased away, so she left the place and never went back."Now there was no place to stay and no job, Nalini, was obliged to rent a house along with that same friend who too her in this profession and continue in the trade. She managed to send money secretly for her children, through a friend, to her mother-in-law.

To escape the life of prostitution Nalini married twice more but she had to return to it time and again for her survival. Nalini's third marriage lasted for 12 years and it was her entry into prostitution for the third time. When her daughter was 17, Nalini entered this field for the third time. She had to tell her what she was doing. Even if she was apprehensive about how society would treat her, she understood why she chose to do this. She had no other means of living because her third husband had taken another wife and for three years they (Nalini and her kids) begged around temples and mosques."

Like many women in India, Nalini's education was negligible. She finished school after third grade, which is roughly about 7 years old. Now crossing all the hardships of her life Nalini decided to raise her voice against the cruel society where prostitutes are punished and the clients are roving free. She joined Kerala's sex workers forum. In a conservative society of India who is a largely uneducated mother of two are now a best-selling author and prostitute whose outspoken views of sex work as a career choice have stirred controversy.

"People think we are bad because we have sex for money. Nobody understands our grief. "says Nalini and now she wanted to talk about the sex workers to remove the stigma. She has written her "Autobiography of a Sex Worker," which has angered both feminists, who say it glorifies sex work, and conservatives, who think prostitutes should keep quiet.
Now the question comes in front of a prostitute that Book glorifies prostitution? In India, public displays of fondness are frowned upon and talking about sex publicly is still taboo. Prostitution is illegal, but India has more than 2 million sex workers living on the fringes of society with having few rights and abuse by both customers and the police is common. This truth is prevailing that many prostitutes are pushed into the trade by traffickers and by poverty and some and thousands of girls are smuggled in from Nepal each year, are held as sex slaves for a decade or more. Her book "Autobiography of a Sex Worker," the book has sold more than 10,000 copies in less than six months in a market where 5,000 in a year is a best seller.Nalini has so far earned 84,000 rupees (US$1,830) from book sales.

"I am past 51 now. Even now it's my wish to continue to be a sex worker."...This is the opening line of "The Autobiography of a Sex-worker". And the first line itself gives the clear picture of the bold message that Nalini Jameela, a sex worker is trying to give.

A woman who was wrapped in the cruel hands of customers ,who lives in a small state of Kerala, Nalini Jameela - a sex worker who had no freedom of choice because of her economic conditions, today speaks about the other freedoms that she enjoys.