Unstemmed desires have a way of sapping integrity without the conscience-tugging caveats of guilt. Seema Shrivastava should know. She had a good life: a husband employed in the Reserve Bank of India, two children and an apartment in an elite neighbourhood in Bhopal. Clearly, it wasn't enough. Swayed by consumerist aspirations, she consciously strayed into the flesh trade. When arrested by the police last week from her flat with two girls and their "clients", she was unfazed, even brazen. "I'm not a prostitute. I just like to live a good life and the people who come to me have a good time. I'm only giving back to society what I have got from it," she said in custody. Her companions, a college girl and an 18-year-old school dropout, said they were promoting their careers.

Sexcursion: Shrivastava (left) with the arrested girls

The call-girl scandal that hit conservative Bhopal last month failed to create the stir that it would have a few years ago. Not because of its limited spread but because sexual mores in small towns and cities have undergone an imperceptible, yet significant, shift. "There is a new class of social offenders who indulge in sex of their own volition," says Inspector Archana Singh, head of the mahila thana in Bhopal. "They are looking for a good life and fulfilling desires that can't be done on a middle-class income." Which is why a girl from Indore who was held in Bhopal in a similar case confessed to going out with men "friends" as they bought her things she couldn't afford on her husband's salary. A private-sector employee, her husband, however, never queried her on the new acquisitions like a cell phone and a vcd player.

According to the police, a racket of housewives seeking a bit of action on the side is flourishing in Bhopal and Indore. In most cases, the husbands themselves act as pimps. In Shrivastava's case, when she complained to her husband about his boss' advances, he only encouraged her. So when senior government officials visited the flat, Shrivastava prompted other girls in search of careers to meet them.

The fact that the "good life" is being promoted by powerful people in the Government gives it a seal of approval. "The line between temptation and action has become very thin," says Bhopal-based Dr Rajesh Patel . "The veneer of gentility and the edifice of middle-class society in small towns are crumbling." Peer pressure and rampant consumerism are also playing a big role. "There is too much to buy in the market today. With television making our lives lonely and full at the same time, established social mores are breaking down," says Ajita B. Pande, an ias officer.

Materialistic yearnings notwithstanding, the disturbing trend has also moved to respectable homes and well-to-do families where young women find nothing wrong in selling their bodies to promote careers. Many encounters originate in the so-called clubs that make little effort to hide their real purpose. One such club in Bhopal busted last year by the police was the Anil Gupta Broad Minded Club. Set up by Anil Gupta, the club claimed a national presence with the sole aim of facilitating short-term friendships with emphasis on sex.

"We found more than 250 names from small towns like Jhansi and Gwalior who had joined the club. Even people from reputed families were members," says Sofia Qureshi, a sub-inspector who helped in the case. It had a network of over 3,500 members nationwide who had paid a one-time entry fee of Rs 1,800. From Delhi, Gupta played Cupid, redirecting mail and bringing together people. The members even answered 31 questions on sex, including some like whether women would like the company of gigolos.

Investigations reveal defined parameters within which the trade is developing. Phoney companies claiming to recruit models for ad films advertise in regional papers and then wait in plush offices for girls to show up. The ones who do, mostly from middle class, are advised to get a "professional portfolio". The inducements begin while taking photographs that eventually lead the girls into the world of sleaze.

"Sometimes the girl is trapped, but mostly she takes a conscious decision to join the flesh trade to become a model, find employment or just enjoy male company," says Singh. Trading flesh for a flashy lifestyle is obviously no longer an ethical dilemma. Just a bad decision.

-Neeraj Mishra