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In the village of Dauladtia, Bangladesh, on the banks of the Padma River, the landscape is flat dusty and dotted with corrugated roofs. The air is filled with the sounds of trucks’ horns, train whistles, and the orchestral hum of humans buzzing through the village. At first glance this does not look any different to countless other poor villages in this country, which is one of Asia's poorest and most congested. But just off the main street down a narrow alleyway, is a densely packed collection of tin shacks, shops, cafes and narrow streets lined with prostitutes, mostly underage, fiercely competing with one another for customers. It is the largest brothel in Bangladesh, with over 2000 women servicing over 3000 men every day. They have usually been kidnapped by gangs, sold by stepmothers, or lured here by boyfriends with promises of good jobs. In the brothel hierarchy, those who are bonded have the least freedom, but even those who chose to come here feel they have no alternative. Despite Muslim strictures on sex outside marriage, there are 100,000 women selling sex in Bangladesh and clients are surprisingly open about the fact that they visit them. The brothels are like ghettos where sex workers are confined in order to keep what is considered an “unbearable business” from spoiling the social environment. Such places are deliberately kept in obscurity and hidden from the eyes of the mainstream society. Inside their narrow alleys and crumbling lanes, a life full of hardship, extortion, rape, abuses and harassments of any kind, are an everyday occurrence.

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Underage sex worker Bristi applying heavy makeup to appear more mature for her evening clients at Bangladesh's largest brothel in Daulatdia, on the banks of the Padma river.