Mumbai: Mumbai's Grant Road area, traditionally known as a place of brothels and a market related to sexually explicit materials, now appears to have a completely different look.
The change occurred after the local Muslims purchased the building where an infamous brothel was operating, and then attached it with a nearby Mosque, known as Grant Road Mosque.
The mosque is located in front of the Grant Road area station in Mumbai. The already existing mosque was located at the backside of the brothel building.
After a long struggle of twenty years, a local resident bought the brothel structure and dedicated it to the mosque. After obtaining the new building the mosque management attached it with the main mosque structure.
“The management of the mosque played a key role in this deal. They made significant efforts to make sure that the brothel building was acquired.” Says Aslam Khalchi, one of the mosque managers. He adds, “The already existing mosque structure was small but after this new addition, it has turned into a big mosque.”
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Khalchi has been offering prayer in this place of worship for a long time. He says that a prostitution centre adjacent to the mosque was annoying for the worshipers, as the sex workers used to be lined up nearby the brothel and its adjoining streets. The presence of the prostitutes and their visiting clients was always a cause of discomfort to the worshipers and the residents. Thank God, the situation has changed now.”
It is pertinent to mention that besides the Grant Road, many other areas like Playhouse, Lamington Road, Kamathipura are considered as notorious red-light areas of the Mumbai.
In all these areas the residents have been unsuccessfully trying to ensure that these prostitution markets are closed down
