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Small-town Indian sex workers put up a big fight
By Meena Menon
March 7, 2002
MUMBAI - Many of the women had lived there for years, and although their lives
were obviously far from being perfect, they thought their lot was only
improving now that they were getting help from a non-government organization
(NGO).
Indeed, the sex workers in the small town of Nippani, which lies on the border
of Maharasthra-Karnataka in western India, had no idea how much they were
resented and despised by many in the local community. Until, that is, they put
together enough money to buy land on which they could hold their monthly
meetings within the town itself.
That was when what they now describe as a "campaign of terror" against them
began. Soon after they started using their new meeting place in January, people
started stoning it. They were also showered with more insults and threats than
usual and an armed mob even tried to break into the house of Shabani Kazi, one
of the more visible members of their group, the Veshya AIDS Muqabla Parishad
(VAMPS).
"Over 70 thugs came to kill me [that] night," recounted Kazi in a recent news
conference here. "They knocked on my door and almost broke it down. My daughter
was also threatened. I had no choice but to leave my house and run away. For
the last one month I am staying with friends," she added. "I first thought I
would dissociate with the collective but then I decided now I will go back and
face the consequences. If my landlord had not saved me, I would have been
killed."
On the surface, the incident seems an isolated one. In truth, Karnataka State
Home Secretary A R Infant has already ordered an immediate inquiry into the ill
treatment of the sex workers in Nippani and the apparent inaction of the police
there. But observers say there are other Nippanis across India, where sex
workers are treated viciously and are often even looked upon as the cause of
the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country.
As in other societies, they say, sex workers are being made the scapegoats for
a crisis that in reality feeds largely on denial and a macho culture. Although
India has a relatively low HIV/AIDS prevalence rate - seven infections in 1,000
adults - this still translates into a huge number of cases, given the country's
population. India was estimated to have 3.7 million people living with the
human immunodeficiency virus in 2000, second only to South Africa, with unsafe
sex as the top mode of transmission.
Western Maharasthra itself has a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS. But in Nippani,
at least, the 80 sex workers there have benefited from the HIV/AIDS awareness
and prevention work done by the NGO SANGRAM for the past decade. Some had even
formed groups such as VAMPS, or Women in Prostitution against AIDS, which works
not only to protect the rights of sex workers but also to educate their male
clients about the disease, especially how to limit its spread.
Such efforts, however, had apparently failed to impress officials there.
According to the sex workers who visited Mumbai last month, they had to endure
verbal and sometimes physical abuse from the police. The situation got only
uglier when they began to use their new meeting place. In fact, many of the sex
workers there are now essentially homeless after being forced to flee their
houses because of death threats.
Meena Seshu of SANGRAM said at the news conference here that the local
officials in Nippani even found it "unacceptable" that sex workers could arrive
for their meetings in jeeps. She said, "Women should not get down from jeeps
and should use a side road formerly reserved for untouchables, according to
this official."
When VAMPS members, accompanied by SANGRAM representatives, went to the local
police to complain about what was being done to them, they were met with more
maltreatment, this time from police Inspector Satish Khot. As the VAMPS members
tell it, Khot refused to take down their complaint, including that of Kazi's
about the mob at her door, and even threatened to strip all of them and beat
them black and blue, among other things.
Said Seshu: "I have never heard such demoralizing and filthy language being
used in the 10 years I have worked with women in prostitution."
Kazi also recounted, "Khot told me I was a veshya [prostitute] and not a
citizen and therefore not entitled to file a complaint of torture/harassment."
Another was told that since she was "a prostitute, therefore I am not a woman".
Neil Pate, a Times of India reporter who had gone with the women to the police,
was not spared from Khot's diatribe, and was accused of being the women's pimp.
The VAMPS members visiting Mumbai wondered aloud why, if they were neither
women nor citizens, their votes were courted by political parties during
elections. One also noted, "Where do our clients come from? They don't drop out
of the sky. We are here because we are helpless in some ways. Why don't they
make men who use us outcasts?"
Still, there has been some good news since. For instance, some Nippani
residents have stepped forward to express support for the women. More than 25
human and civil rights groups have also submitted a memorandum to the state
government, the National Human Rights Commission and the superintendent of
police to look into the matter and rectify the situation.
Infant has directed the police as well to ensure the safety of the women so
that they can continue to hold their meetings.
Even National AIDS Control Organization director J V R Prasada Rao has
expressed shock at what the women have had to go through and remarked that such
incidents cannot be allowed to go unpunished.
Observers say, however, that much remains to be done not only in correcting
people's misconceptions about HIV/AIDS and how it is spread, but also in the
way society at large treats those in the sex trade.
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