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Prostitution Issues: Indian Prostitutes Organize for Their Rights Banerjee interviewed prostitutes associated with this protest. Onewoman, Malati Dassaid spoke of working very long hours and spending nightsin damp jails because she had not paid "protection money" to policemen who demanded bribes.

"We want the right to regulate our own lives both within the profession and outside," Das shouted as she led the march. "They (police) often humiliate us and torture us," said SandhyaMukherjee, the secretary of the Mahila Samanwaya Committee (MSC), orwomen's cooperative committee, a voluntary organization formed by prostitutes at Sonagachi.