Motherhood in Sonagachhi: Sex work, belonging and the fraught intimacies of community

This text blends semi-transcription and personal reflection, documenting a conversation I had with two sex workers in Sonagachhi, Kolkata’s red-light district (India). Facilitated by Namita Bhattacharya, founder of Umar Swapno foundation and an activist by profession, this piece focuses on translating and recording these women’s voices rather than engaging in extensive academic analysis. It reflects on their complex lives, dynamic notions of motherhood, the instability and fallacy of international borders and how the nation-state constantly interrupts intimate spaces of belonging.