Sahni believes her book will take the reader beyond the clichéd definition of a sex worker. "For many, the impressions of a sex worker are most unrealistic. Chastised as much by self as by society, her portrayal is a sheer mockery of reality.

Sahni says, "It is very difficult to estimate the number of sex workers and which state has the highest number of sex workers etc. So my focus is on the profile of sex work in India.''

For Sahni, several questions are unanswered pertaining to the economics of remittances that the prostitute creates and sustains as long as she can earn, the artist in her who preserved a wealth of music and dance in the past. Should her association with the society be viewed merely as a high risk group in the transmission of AIDS? What are the underlying value systems at work that highlight only the negative aspects, while not acknowledging the possibility of anything positive about her?

So, more than nine experts -- including senior scientist with National AIDS Research Institute Dr Sanjay Mehendale, Gayatri Chatterjee from Film and Television Institute of India and others from the ctiy and across the country —feature in the book addressing the issues like feminist discourse, ethnographic studies, socio, economic, legal, health frameworks and cultural reflections.

The book is divided into four sections, each concerned with different issues around which research on sex work in India has got segregated.