Prostitution in India

In India, prostitution (the exchange of sexual services for money) is legal, but a number of related activities, including soliciting in a public place, kerb crawling, owning or managing a brothel, prostitution in a hotel,child prostitution, pimping and pandering, are crimes. Prostitution is legal only if carried out in private residence of a prostitute or others. But many brothels illegally operate in many Indian cities including Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata.

In ancient India, there was a practice of the rich asking Nagarvadhu to sing and dance, noted in history as "brides of the town". Famous examples include Amrapali, state courtesan and Buddhist disciple, described in "Vaishali Ki Nagarvadhu" by Acharya Chatursen and Vasantasena, a character in the classic Sanskrit story of Mricchakatika, written in the 2nd century BC by Śūdraka.

Goa, which was a Portuguese colony in India during the late 16th and 17th centuries, was a Portuguese stronghold with community of Portuguese slaves such as Japanese slaves, who were usually young Japanese women and girls brought or captured as sexual slaves by Portuguese traders and their captive South Asian lascar crew members from Japan.

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