BANGALORE: Massage parlours across the city are brazenly selling sex, and show no fear of the law.
Posing as a customer, this Express reporter called several parlours and was offered an erotic massage or a massage with sex. The business is frank and up front: men and women who claimed to be managers spoke without innuendo or embarrassment.
The manager of a parlour in Indiranagar promptly laid out a menu.
"We have different kinds of massages. For a body-to-body massage, we charge Rs. 2,500 an hour. For a massage with sexual intercourse, it is Rs.3,000 for two hours."
He also offered a choice of north Indian and south Indian women.
The virtual brothels regularly advertise in the media. A parlour in Fraser Town uses 'full service' and 'half service' to talk about its offerings. 'Full service' refers to a massage involving sex, and 'half' to a massage by a nude masseur.
"We charge `5,000 for full and `3,000 for half. Our masseurs are high profile and you can choose someone to suit your taste," said a woman manager.
She also offered pick-up and drop, just like another parlour in Banashankari.
The parlours thrive in busy locations in Bangalore, clearly indicating that they do not fear the law. Duped customers do not go to the police, fearing loss of reputation.
Selling sex for money is a crime in India (see box). The law also takes a stern view of soliciting and pimping.
Police View
"They are actually brothels, and not massage centres as advertised," Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Hemant Nimbalkar told Express.
He said the police could book the parlours under the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act for sexual exploitation and trafficking of women.
"These centres keep changing their addresses, making it difficult for us to track them down," he said.
Trafficking of women is something that should worry Manjula Manasa, chairperson, Karnataka State Commission for Women, but she says she had found no "actionable evidence" against massage parlours.
"We are meeting to discuss this problem in the first week of September. We haven't received any complaints, though," she told Express.
The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike can do little. Such parlours do not apply for shop licences from the municipal authorities. "We only give licences to reputed centres offering panchakarma and Ayurvedic massages," said M Lakshminaraya, BBMP Commissioner.