Cover; Contents; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Immorality, hurt or choice; Women's movements in India; Elusive choice and agency; Different issues/different voices; Ritualized prostitution; Ethnographic study of community-based sex work among Nats; Male sex work (MSW); Ethnographic profi le of female sex workers of Dharwad, Karnataka; The invisibles; Markets, histories and grass-root evidences; Surfacing voices from the underground; The legal framework of prostitution in India; Legal interpretations of prostitution; (Mis)reading through the lines; Ground realities of the legal framework Contesting legal positions on prostitution from a human rights perspectiveFemale sex workers and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in India; In the interest of business and health; There is more to health than AIDS; The veshya ̄, the ganika and the tawaif; What does a language have to say?; Modern theatre as epitome of middle class civilized culture; Producing the spectacle of Kamathipura; About the Editors and Contributors; Index