Massage parlours: A cover for prostitution?

KOCHI: Massage parlours being a cover for prostitution is no secret in the city. In fact, across the country, in the last decade or so, the police have been busting several such operations. Increasing levels of income, a growing preference for decentralised apartments as against red-light areas, and demands of industries like tourism have meant that prostitution in massage parlours continues to exist and grow in spite of repeated arrests and raids.One of the highlights of Kerala tourism, the ayurvedic herbal massage has been drawing huge crowds from across the world. But for many on the wrong side of the trade, ‘ayurveda massage’ is now a convenient cover for marketing and promoting sex tourism and prostitution.In fact, Wikitravel, one of the most-frequented sites on tourist destinations, makes this observation quite bluntly on its Kerala page. In a segment on ayurvedic spas and ayurvedic hospitals, the site goes on to say, ‘unauthorised massage centres are mainly sex shops in disguise'.When contacted, the Tourism Department officials washed their  hands of the issue. “Such incidents happen only in unauthorised spas.  The ones which have been rated and authorised will not risk losing their accreditation by going in for this. Moreover, many of these things happen through tour operators. They have links in  foreign countries too. So the tourists know which operator to approach even before they reach here. So the Tourism Department has no role in it. Most of the deals happen via the internet,” says an officer from the Directorate of Tourism in Kochi.More than a decade ago the Tourism Department had come under fire for its advertisement showcasing a scantily-clad foreign woman being given a body massage. While the issue raised several eyebrows on the direction of  tourism, today such posters and advertisements  are a common affair on hoardings and newspapers.Many explicitly state their intentions with words like ‘Real relax nice touch massage', ‘Massage at home and hotel', ‘Massage by young boys’ and so on and so forth.