THE Koyambedu bus terminus is one of the city’s key cruising spots for commercial
sex workers and pimps, who neither merges nor stands out from the crowds of passengers thronging the place, mostly during peak hours.
“We identify potential customers and approach them with a wink or a smile,” says a former sex worker, now doubling up as a pimp. If the man evinces interest in a sexual encounter, the girl, who often is a call away, is contacted and the deal is struck immediately.
The rates vary from Rs 300 to Rs 1500 for a session depending on the woman’s looks, complexion and age.
In a deal struck for Rs 1000, the pimp
takes Rs 100 and another Rs 300 goes to the lodge owner. There are some lodges in the vicinity and the clients are taken there by the sex
worker. “To escape the attention of the police, we finish the deal fast without much haggling,” the pimp says. On an average day, a pimp takes home around Rs 500, while the a young and good-looking woman gets Rs 1000 per customer, said a woman, who earlier
worked from Parrys, when the moffusil bus stand operated from there.
Some women work in liaison with the auto-drivers, while some operate as groups and others are on their own. Kanaga (40) (name changed) says she works alone. ``I look out for middle-aged men and make around Rs 600 a day,’’ she says.
Some women, charging lesser rates, take their clients into vast stretches of vacant land near the bus stand at night. After 11 pm, as a
woman put it, transgenders take over from them. They normally operate till 4 am in the outer periphery of the bus stand.