India: Dance bars facilitate prostitution

Dance bars in Mumbai have become outlets for cheap sex, some even doubling up as brothels. It is a switch that bar owners seem to have accepted without too much reluctance.

Talk to any bar owner or dancer and you are bound to hear the well-practised pitch for the lifting of the ban on dancing in bars.

''When the bars were open we'd earn more. Now that they have shut, they trouble us. The police say show your identity card to prove you are a singer," said a bar owner.