‘They are starving’: women in India’s sex industry struggle for survival

Exclusion from government Covid-19 relief has left many reliant on private food donations, as fears raised over protection from transmission after lockdown

Rasheeda Bibi has five rupees to her name. A worker in India's sex industry, she lives in the narrow lanes of Kolkata's Kalighat red light area with her three children in a room she rents for 620 rupees (6) a month.

As a thunderstorm rages through the city, Bibi worries about the leaky roof of her small room.