Parsi prostitutes of yore

The following nugget appeared on the blog bombaywalla.org started and run by doctoral candidate Simin Patel who is at Balliol College, Oxford University completing her thesis on colonial Bombay with an emphasis on the Parsis:

"While the census of 1864 listed 44 Parsi prostitutes in the city, the census of 1872 listed none. This swift cleansing of the Parsi prostitute population was spurred by the enforcement of the Contagious Diseases Act in 1870. The Act required prostitutes in the city to register with the police with details of their caste, residence, age etc, pinning down community members’ participation in the profession, much to the embarrassment of Bombay’s many communities.
"Parsi leaders responded briskly, much as they do today, and drew up a proposal for excommunicating any Parsi prostitute and her offspring.”