The actual number may be higher as the area has many underage prostitutes and their presence is usually hidden by their mothers or the madams who they work for.

[8] Many 12-14-year-old girls come to Kandapara from poor families or are trafficked from various countries in southeast Asia including Nepal.

[6] These "bonded girls" are indebted to a madam and are unable to go out of the house or keep any of the money they earn until the debt is paid off.

[14] The village was originally built on land owned by the local zamindar Santosh,[4] during the British colonial era.

[4] In October 2006, the "Brothel Eviction Committee", led by the then Tangail Municipality chairman, Jamilur Rahman, and composed of local citizens and clerics, tried to close the area.

On the same day, Aklima Akter Akhi, leader of Nari Mukti Sangha (NMS) and representatives from the NGO Care Bangladesh met with the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission Mizanur Rahman Khan.

Three day later Akhi disappeared after a meeting with the brothel house owners, allegedly taking the funds of the NMS with her.

[4] In a meeting at the Kabarsthan mosque on 11 July, the mayor and local MP, Md Sanowar Hossain, made the final decision to evict the sex workers.

[4] District police chief Saleh Mohammad Tanvir said the house owners had made the order following pressure from Muslim clerics and civil activists.

[19] On 19 July 2014 the sex workers, along with representatives of the Sex Workers Network (SWN) of Bangladesh, Care Bangladesh, Action Aid, ICDDRB, HASAB, UNAIDS, Save the Children, BLAST, and ASK formed a human chain outside the National Press Club demanding to be allowed back into the brothel and calling on the government and local administration to intervene on their behalf.

[17] On 3 September the sex workers tried to repossess the brothel area but were evicted the next day and a police cordon set up to prevent them re-entering.