A curious case of sexual entrepreneurship in Indian ‘spas’

It is no secret: most female masseurs in Indian cities and towns, especially those working outside hotel settings in so-called ‘spas’, advertised boldly with garish neon signage or sometimes bright red or white lights, don’t receive a regular salary from their employers. Instead, they have to be content with the space offered to them to provide ‘services’, meaning sexual favours, in return for tips, revealing the underbelly of a growing snare of sex-for-money enterprises silently flourishing under the garb of beauty and massage centres.

These ‘spas’, which are in essence erotic massage parlours, are marked by their brightly lit exteriors, perfumed reception areas, and the illusion of legitimacy. But for many, they function as comfort zones for clients seeking erotic gratification, ranging from genital massages to body-to-body sessions, where masseurs strip and use their naked bodies to perform massages.

The reason for this arrangement, according to one Delhi-based masseur who calls herself Julie and who spoke to Open, lies in the high demand for quick, discreet pleasure and the lure of fast cash. “Clients pay upwards of ₹2,000 for a hand job with a happy ending. The rates go up steeply if they want more.”

This is not to say that no massage parlours offer fixed salaries, but “the vast majority of them, across metro and tier-3 cities, operate without formal pay structures,” according to two individuals familiar with the situation.

Female masseurs from Thailand, who typically work on tourist visas for short stints, are especially in demand. A frequent visitor to a spa in South Delhi observes: “They mean business. They have no hesitation or inhibition about what they offer. You pay and they do it. They’re also experts at making you feel good.”

The scenario is similar in other cities, as echoed by spa-goers around the country. Rahul, a regular visitor who has observed the scene in multiple locations, says: “Rates in Mumbai and Delhi are higher than elsewhere. You can’t blame the masseurs for haggling—they have to feed families here or back home. With no monthly salary, they rely entirely on what they can earn from each client.”

A masseur based in Gurgaon, who again, calls herself Natalie without a surname, notes that her clientele ranges from teenagers to men in their seventies. “Some try to bargain, but we turn them away if it’s not worth our time. On a good day, I might see three or four clients. But there are days when we just sit around, waiting—because others are also waiting for their turn.”

Clients typically pay a fixed fee at the reception: Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500 in cities like Delhi and Mumbai, sometimes less elsewhere—and not a rupee of that reaches the masseurs. “The proprietors act like gig economy giants,” says Rajeev K (name changed), a Bengaluru-based tech professional and frequent spa customer. “They think all they need to do is provide a platform—a space for entrepreneurs.” For fornication, female masseurs are known to charge upwards of Rs 6,000 and sometimes go as high as Rs 10,000 per hour-long session that apparently includes massage as well.

In this case, however, the entrepreneurs are of a different kind: sex entrepreneurs in the age of gig economy.

All this is besides another flourishing sex trade industry online, done through social media and dating sites which occasionally generates news over cyberbullying and in some cases paedophilia.

While consent is a prerequisite for such rendezvous both online and offline, the business model of offering female job aspirants a mere platform and no salary clearly is a flagrant violation of the rule of law as it incentivises prostitution.

 

DelhiFemale masseurs‘services’ for tipsIndian ‘spas’sexual entrepreneurship