Surabaya's flesh trade slashes fees

Surabaya's flesh trade slashes fees

By Ainur R. Sophiaan

SURABAYA (JP): The country's second-largest metropolis is maintaining its own slice of a certain lucrative business even as the crisis pinches daily household spending.

While there are now more "slow" days for sex workers, they are surviving by offering discounts.

Surabaya now has at least 10,000 sex workers in middle- and upper-class red-light areas. Estimated figures, including workers operating in cemeteries, at railway stations and along the tracks, have reached 13,000. According to the local Ministry of Social Affairs, the latest available statistics -- 1996 -- show that there are 7,500 sex workers.

In the Jarak area, 240 brothels are inhabited by 2,500 sex workers; 750 operate in the famed Dolly area in Banyuurip; and Bangunrejo, the largest red-light area, has 3,000 sex workers.

A neighborhood chief in Bangunrejo said: "The place is really cramped now."

There are about 100 women in the city's mansions who are catering to the high-class segment. Taxi drivers direct men to houses, including at Darmo Satelit Indah, Jl. Gubeng Raya and Jl. Kartini, where transactions are done with credit cards.

"Foreigners and bapak-bapak from Jakarta often ask for them," said a taxi driver.

The women work for panderers; since the crisis, these men have chosen "short-time" fees of Rp 200,000 to Rp 2 million, compared to "long-time" fees of Rp 500,000 to Rp 5 million, local sources said.

One of these women said she received 60 percent of the fees.

Women at five-star hotels say bargaining now can end in fees down 50 percent of the normal rates.

"We're giving discounts now," said a 25-year-old woman, who said she was from Malang, East Java.

Cheaper prices also abound at other places, where the highest fees are usually Rp 250,000. "It depends on the market now," said Rad, a brothel owner in the Dolly area. "The fee can be half that again on slow days. We're slashing fees to liven up the place."

Entrants into the business are similar to those in Jakarta, where preteens operate in entertainment places and malls. An unknown number work in parking lots and bus stops, especially during lunch and after-office hours.

As in other cities, social workers grouped at Yayasan Hotline Surya, who have worked long to build public awareness of prevention of sexual diseases here, find they have much more work on their hands.