Renuka (name changed), a sex worker in her mid-20s, held her dupatta firmly over her mouth, her eyes quivering, as a drop of sweat ran down her forehead. Her room was the size of a bed, with clothes hung on damp pink walls battling cobwebs. She looked a bit intimidated as the silence of the room contrasted with the sounds of the Sonagachi streets outside. Just around the corner of the kotha was one of the perennially-loud corners of Kolkata’s red-light district, with the hush-hush of the pimps and sex workers seated on stools outside the brothels engaging in cacophonous banter.