Born into Brothels

In the documentary, Born into Brothels, the girls in the video wore nice, vibrant dresses and coated their eyes and lips in makeup just like in the novel, Sold by Patricia Mccormick, when Lakshmi would talk about their "black-rimmed tiger eyes" and "a mouth red as a pomegranate." The brothels are filled with children; they're everywhere and it's extremely upsetting because each girl born into a brothel has a destined future of working in the line of prostitution. It's also sad because the girls aren't allowed outsi

de their homes but their brothers and the other boys are allowed to go anywhere they wish which shows the difference between men and women in brothels back then and even now. Although the kids don't have education because no boarding school would take a child of prostitution, at least they have toys and clothing and even kites which they play with on the roofs of the brothel while their mother or sister or other female relative works. Additionally, the young boy in the documentary, spoke about his mother and how she would joke about sending him off to London to study. This was similar to when Lakshmi's mother and her would talk about the what ifs in Sold. They spoke about tin roofs, and so much food to fill all of them, and nice dresses made of beautiful fabric. It was a moment of hope that they didn't want to give up despite the fact that they all knew better than to cling onto something impossible. In the video, the girl would soon be sold into that line of work and she was only ten years old. It's horrifying to even think that these children would be forced to work such a horrible job at young ages. I can't imagine how the photographer-who taught the students in Born into Brothels-must have felt seeing them grow up this way. Or how she felt when one of her students was sold away. Or how she felt when they told her that her students couldn't be enrolled in any boarding school because their families were in that line of work. No one chose to work as a prostitute; they had to resort to it. The kids didn't choose to be born into brothels so why should they suffer more than they already have. It just shows viewers how cruel the world truly is. Especially towards people less fortunate than others.

#brothels #children