We Are Under Attack

The time: 11 p.m., August 29, 2002

The place: Tollygunj, a red-light area in Kolkata, India

The incident: Local mastans (anti-socials), who masquerade as the neighbourhood big brothers, severely beat up Rekha Lodh, a sex worker. They said she needed to be punished for having had a public altercation with her current husband. In the middle of the night Rekha and her two young children are thrown out of her room and locked out. The reason — she needed to be taught a further lesson, the beating alone was not enough.