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The Indian Express
July 04, 2005
URL: www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=73793
Barred minds and bar girls
Rakesh Shukla
In a temporary reprieve, the ordinance banning dance bars in
Maharashtra has been returned by the governor. However, with an all-party
consensus including socialist-feminist Mrinal Gore, the ban is bound to
translate into law in the forthcoming assembly session.
The media is replete with reports that the crackdown on dance bars in
Maharashtra has led to minor girls being trafficked into Delhi. By all
accounts, the bar 'girls' in Maharashtra are in fact adult women. In fact,
last year the Bhartiya Bargirls Union, the first-ever trade union of
bargirls, was formed. In August, they held a demonstration culminating in
Mumbai's Azad Maidan demanding better working conditions and had posters
like "Bar bala bhi veer bala hai" (the bar girl is also a brave girl). They
do not appear to have been "trafficked" through coercion into the
profession. Nor do they look too keen to be "rehabilitated" into lowly-paid
sewing work. Like it or not, bar girls clearly want to continue in the
profession.
Women in prostitution have also found strength in numbers, the most
well-known union being the Durbar Mahila Samanvay Committee in Kolkata with
about 60,000 members. In Maharashtra there is VAMP, the Veshya Aids Mukabla
Parishad. These groups work towards less exploitative working conditions and
effective access to health services. In a country, where many wives cannot
ensure condom use by their husbands, it is a remarkable that many of these
groups have successfully enforced mandatory condom use by client-customers.
The vital issue of ensuring less exploitative conditions for bar girls
and sex workers gets bogged down due to their alleged links with
trafficking. In the public consciousness, sex workers and bar girls get
equated to trafficking. Yet a recent study on bar girls by Mumbai's SNDT
University and the Forum against Oppression of Women did not "see any case
of trafficking as is being talked about in the media and by the proponents
of the ban".
The law relating to prostitution/sex work - the earlier Suppression of
Immoral Traffic Act (SITA), which has now been rechristened the Immoral
Traffic Prevention Act - both make the same mistake. The legislation deals
with acts like keeping a brothel/soliciting in a public place. It neither
has a definition of trafficking nor any provision pertaining to it. Yet so
deeply is the association of prostitution with trafficking, that the law
with regard to prostitution is called Prevention of "immoral traffic".
However, the provision merely reflects the second association which
blocks any discussion about steps to improve the work environment of
categories like that of bar girls and sex workers. In every meeting that sex
workers have had with other sections in society, the discussion gets stuck
on the issue of "consent". Sex workers keep trying to take the discussion
forward. However, other participants steadfastly refuse to move beyond, "Are
sex workers not forced into prostitution?" The questions are posited as if
everyone else in any other job or profession has exercised a wonderful free
choice. Persons come into sex work through a variety of ways and for
differing reasons, just like they do in other professions. Yes, some are
forced into it and may wish to continue while others may want to leave.
Caste, class, other factors are ignored and the discussion revolves around
"consent".
Trafficking is abominable. However, trafficking means the use of
threats, force, coercion, fraud or deception on the person involved. No
organisation working towards the de-criminalisation of sex work or the
rights of bar girls to continue their profession, is in favour of
trafficking. Similarly, no organisation is advocating entry of minors into
these professions. There is a consensus that there should be no minors in
the industry. The difference, perhaps, lies in the way to go about
prevention. The age-old methods of raid and rescue have not worked in
preventing the entry of minors. The alternative strategy of working through
gharwalis or 'madams' is being tried out by some organisations with moderate
success. There are still minors in the profession but the numbers appear to
be significantly lower. The strategy needs to be given a fair chance.
Madams, of course, are exploitative. Some treat their 'girls' badly, pay
less and provide no protection against cruel clients.
All the more reason to move away from the association of sex work and
bar girls with trafficking.
The writer is a Supreme Court advocate
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