Summary

Authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn describe the brothels Forbesgunge in the Indian state of Bihar as mud huts. Kristof and WuDunn write that Meena Hasina is shunned by her village; she had been prostituted in a brothel operated by the Nutt, a low-caste tribe that controls the local sex trade. It is the tradition in the Nutt brothels that prostitutes teach their daughters to sell sex. Kristof and WuDunn write that Meena was eight-years-old when she was trafficked by sex traders. She was from an impoverished family who sold her to traffickers. She was forced into prostitution at age 12. Kristof and WuDunn learned that each girl averaged ten customers a day, seven days a week. Beatings and the threat of beatings kept them in line.

Kristof and WuDunn write that AIDS was running rampant in these brothels. Meena has never...