SINGAPORE: Soft lighting. Garish interiors. Smoky surroundings. Sylphlike, eighteen year olds swaying seductively to loud bollywood music. Wealthy men, generously showering money on dancers. The sights and sounds are familiar; nearly identical. The setting isn't that of a dance bar in Grant Road or Tardeo ? but of one in Singapore's up market entertainment district, Boat Quay. While the moral police clamped down on the infamous hotspots of Mumbai, dance bars have been thriving in this part of the world. Around 13 such bars have set up shop in Singapore, three in Malaysia and one in Jakarta.

?Dance bars have been operating here since 1994,? said the owner of Khazana, the first of its kind in Singapore ?and it is a perfectly legal to run them. We are required to have an entertainment licence from the government which is the same for people wanting to set up a lounge bar or a pub. In addition we have to get a dancers licence.? The bar owners are required to pay a bond sum of S$3,000 (Rs 75,000) for each dancer, refundable on their return to India. The girls have to obtain a professional visit pass, lasting for three months.

Bar owners have a wide range to choose from and occasionally things get uncomfortable. ?Sometimes mothers urge us to select their daughter,? notes Belani.

This is cache, read story here