Thai Massage Parlours in the most populous cities across India is a growing phenomenon.
However, it is not the Spa therapy business that is driving the popularity of the massage parlour business in India but the functioning of some massage parlours as an outlet for sexual gratification.
Something regulars to Thai massage parlours term a ‘A taste of Bangkok in India’.
Nan (named with held) left her village in Thailand in hope of finding a better job in India.
She came from a poor family, with many siblings and not much financial resources.
She was led to believe that India would be kind and prosperous for her. She could earn around USD 15 dollars daily.
She came to India on a visit visa and was told that she would get a work visa as a ’Spa Therapist’ in India in a couple of months.
She worked in a Spa at the popular Huax Khaus village in New Delhi.
She realised that her Spa Therapist job had more to it than just a massage therapies.
She was asked to service the clients in a sexual manner.
She refused at first. But relented because her money depended on the massage therapies she offered.
She is now back in Thailand after her visa expired to stay in India.
She is not sure if she would come back to India as massage therapist, for now she wants to enjoy the little comfort she bought herself by servicing a few Indian men.
Mink (name changed) – a 29 year old girl – working at a Thai massage parlour in Mumbai is on her second visit to India.
She is non apologetic of her career choice and believes that if she has a skill as a masseur and if it leads to sex with a customer, she is fine with it, as long as the price is good.
Her employer – an Indian from New Delhi – is a frequent visitor to Thailand and is known to recruit Thai girls to employ to work in massage parlours in India. “I first came to India in 2016. I made good money in Delhi. So I came back again,” she expressed.
When questioned on the services she offers, she revealed that it is up to the customers needs. “We offer a hand job, body-to-body and even sex. It is upto the manner the customer wants to get satisfied and his budget.”
Lily (name changed) who works out of spa in Bangalore is a 24 year old girl from coastal region of Thailand, close to Pattaya. She loves Bangalore and India.
“I make every day minimum 10,000 rupees for myself after giving a share of my earnings to the employer. I give extra service to customer. We never force or seduce the customers. We ask the customers and if they agree, we ask for a payment and then we proceed with the extra service. We are professionals.”
Lily like Mink was hired by her employee from Thailand directly. She is in India on a visit visa which is expected to expire shortly and then she will return to her village in Thailand a little more affluent than she was before she left her country. She is keen to come back soon, if her employer brings her back.
Only last week the Pune Police who conducted a raid on Le Victoria Spa and Salon Centre. According to the police officials, the suspects had allegedly brought the Thai women to Pune, under the pretext of employing them as masseuses and trafficked them into flesh trade instead. The victims were in the age group between 31 and 41. The women were brought into the city on a tourist visa on the promise of employing them in a job where they could get at least Rs 50,000 a month.
In the last six month Pune alone rescued over 40 girls from Thailand..
Last year during a raid in Visakhapatnam, four Thai girls were rescued from a massage parlour. These girls arrived in the city on a tourist visa and they were working in the parlour illegally.
Even in Rajkot in January this year, seven Thai women were working illegally in the country at a massage parlour. They were between the age of 29 to 44 years. Some were on tourist visas and some surprisingly were on business visas.
From 2010 to 2017, 683 women were rescued from commercial sexual exploitation in Goa. Out of this, 171 were rescued from massage parlours. Out of which 17 women were from Thailand. While Goa continues has several massage parlours, the government has initiated a strong crackdown on cross-gender massages. However, the menace still continues but now most Thai masseurs prefer to opt for booking online route.
The Thai women, some of them sex workers from Bangkok and other cities, are lured by the prospect of earning more money in India. While in Thailand the women would earn between USD 10 to USD 15 per day in Thailand; in India they would earn two to three times that amount.
“I am not ashamed to offer extra services to clients. I make a lot of money, sometimes Rs 20,000 a day. We are working illegally in India because that’s the only way we can work in India. There is a demand for our services; therefore there a growing number of Thai girls bringing brought into different parts of India,” expressed 39 year old Hom, working at a Suburban Mumbai Thai Spa.
Human trafficking has been one of the national agendas in Thailand since 2004. Thailand has zero-tolerance policy.
However, the illegal human trafficking of women of Thailand into India is real. It is a full-fledged business operating in many cities in India.
From charging a minimum of Rs 2000 to as high as Rs 10,000 for a particular service.
The men willing to spend money for a momentary satisfaction coupled with a massage has been one of the reason for the mushrooming of parlours across the country.
More importantly, IndianExpose has learned through some Spa owners that because of the assumption that most Thai women are comfortable with their body and with sex in their country there is a huge demand.
The popularity of Bangkok as a sex destination amongst most Indian men is legendary.
Now the fantasy too fornicate with Thai women is being made a reality in India.
Most girls are hired through agents who co-ordinate with massage parlour owners in India.
The owners are then invited to Thailand to check-out the girls or if there is a trust built over the years, then the girls are sent directly to India.
Rajesh an IT professional from Bangalore, confesses that he is Thai massage addict. He ensures he get at least a massage a week. He sees it as an investment in body healing and mind of Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 a month. He likes to wary his therapists.
When asked if he saw it as a taboo, he laughed it out saying, “I don’t care if is legal or illegal. I am not harming the women. I am just getting pleasured and I pay them for it. I am not forcing myself on them. This is a profession. I get my kick, the girl gets her money.”
A small-time businessman from Mumbai Roger opines that he has frequented massage parlours outside Mumbai in particular Delhi often. He refrains from doing it Mumbai for fear of being spotted by someone known. “I am enjoy the massages and the extra services. I like Thai women. They have good skills. It is a good relaxation.”
So what are the Indian officials and official from the Embassy of Thailand doing about the influx of women from Thailand to India on the pretext of a business or tourist visa.
Indian police in some states have ordered a crackdown but this has not stopped the trafficking of women from Thailand because Thai massage parlours have not stopped mushrooming across the country.
While the phenomenon of Spas has huge market in India, some however, are operating within the realms of the underbelly of human-trafficking Thai women from poor backgrounds into the cesspool of massage and sex in India.
