WhatsApp and cell phones among sex workers in India: The impact of ICT in the Banaras Red-Light district
The aim of this work is threefold: first, to show how, in the context of the gentrification process in the city of Banaras (now Varanasi) in India, social networking, and in particular WhatsApp video calls, make up an attempt by young sex workers in the red-light district (i.e., Shivdaspur) to overcome the spatial entrapment, physical and identity displacement issues resulting from the policies of “beautification,” and urban development of the city.