Amongst them live 951 children like Samreen struggling not to be swallowed up by the town's only trade.
Samreen has seen too much.
She is wise beyond her years.
Her mother is a bonded sex worker who was stolen as a child. She was sold to a pimp to whom she owes a debt, a debt that will take many years, and many nights, to pay.
When she was a baby her mother hid her under the bed when customers came to their house. Now that she is older she plays outside with her friends, dancing and singing in the darkness until it is safe to return home.
And when she is too afraid to go outside, she waits there in the dark pretending she is asleep, trying not to listen.
That is why the children who were born here do everything they can to escape. But the odds are against them. The average age when girls enter the trade is only 14 years old.
The primary cause is poverty.
You need a job to buy food to eat.
To have a place to live
To support your family
Poverty is a dangerous thing. It makes us desperate and forces us to make the most horrifying of choices. In Daulatdia poverty teaches you to sell your body to survive
But Samreen is a little girl with a big dream
She plans their escape.
She wants this suffering to end.
She hopes one day she will learn to forget.
She reads her books
She practices her maths.
She does not complain about homework.
She is desperate to learn.
