The police say the cases come when the women sent from local brothels to big city fail to come back after the end of the contract. And that, for every reported case, there must be scores of women held hostages in Mumbai brothels.

According to an unofficial estimate, about 1,000 sex workers from these parts have either taken shelter or been kept hostage in brothels in Mumbai and other big cities. There are a few gangs which operate in the coastal belt of Andhra Pradesh that `export' the women to the cities.

The racket run by organised gangs in the coastal belt came to light last month when a sex worker, kept hostage in Mumbai after theexpiry of the contract, managed to pass on the information to the police through a `customer'. The raids that followed on various brothels in Mumbai freed four Eluru girls, all kept hostage after the expiry of the one-month contract.

The Bhimavaram police recently arrested a broker who sold a local sex worker to a rich man in Mumbai and the crackdown revealed the existence of at least half a dozen gangs in the town and surrounding areas.

The brothel-owners say that the ``gangs thrive on the desire of prostitutes to earn more in a short period''. The gangs hire sex workers on contracts. The contracts range from one month to one year and cost anything from Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000.

The gangs approach brothels, select girls, pay money towards the `contract', take them to far off places and hand them over to the brothel operators there. After the end of the contract, the sex workers are brought back and handed over to their relatives. But, as everything goes according to the ``wish and will'' of the womeninvolved, the gangs rarely get exposed. Most of the sex workers, engaged on contract system, hail from two communities.

In a particular community, whose members are mostly involved in flesh trade, `panchayats' are held to award punishment/fine to the guilty. The police, in fact, argue that what happened on November 30 at a redlight area in Eluru was one such panchayat, called to award punishment to a broker who breached the contract.

The gang steps in with offers of contracts when the `business' gets tough back home. ``After the local police intensified raids on our brothels, we lost our livelihood. For three months, we were without money. What shall we do if we do not yield to these gangs that provide us at least temporary sustenance?'' says Durgamma (not her real name) who runs a brothel at Tadepalligudem.

Though exact figures are not available with either the Government or voluntary bodies, it is estimated that as many as 10,000 women live on the sex industry in East and West Godavari districts. Mostof them are found along the Chennai-Calcutta National Highway No 5.

With their communities and families pushing them, more and more young are entering the trade. Incidentally, all the Eluru girls rescued from the Mumbai brothel were below 18 years of age.

Ask any sex worker in the coastal belt of Andhra Pradesh and they have only one reason to be in the profession. ``We do not want to continue in the profession. But what shall we do in the face of stiff resistance from within the community? Who will rehabilitate us?'' says one.

While the sex workers continue to live in abject poverty, the middlemen prosper. ``We cannot do anything unless we receive a complaint from the affected. As these women and gangs go hand in hand, nothing comes out in the open. In the absence of documentary proof, we cannot take any action,'' says an IAS officer.