The Children from ‘Born in Brothels’

Born into Brothels, the Oscar winning documentary by Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski, documents the lives of the children of prostitute families in Calcutta. Growing up in the city’s infamous Red Light district is simultaneously grim and mundane. For the girls in particular it’s only a short time before they join their mothers, sisters and aunts ‘in line’, becoming prostitutes themselves.

The film actually started as a photography project by Zana Briski documenting the lives of the women in the district. She got to know the children of the sex workers and began teaching them photography, encouraging them to document their own lives. The children take the pictures you would expect, photos of friends, family, neighbours and the streets around them but with an immediacy that is startling and beautiful (you can see and buy the photos here).

The children are all keen to go to school to better themselves and escape the life that otherwise awaits them but their family background means local schools won’t take them. In the end, foreign-run religious schools enrol them but the some of the families sabotage the children’s chances, taking them back out of school. The sale of the children’s photos help pay for their education, including some now studying at university overseas.

This is a great film but especially good for anyone interested in Asia - it’s a reminder just how people on the fringes can be dismissed and underestimated but also how it’s not just society that holds them back, it can also be their own peers and families.

the children today