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Over 10,000 Bombay bar dancers protest ban
May 4, 2005
Bombay - More than 10,000 dancers protested under a scorching sun in Bombay,
India's entertainment heartland, against government plans to shut bars
employing them, shouting "Save our jobs."
The dancers gathered in a landmark Bombay park where many pro-independence
rallies were held before the end of British colonial rule in 1947.
The women style their performances on elaborate Bollywood song-and-dance
musical routines and customers shower them with rupee notes.
"You have no right to steal our bread and butter," the women cried at the
protest that lasted three hours as curious passers-by gazed on.
The government of Maharashtra say the bars where they work encourage
prostitution and breed crime.
"We entertain only music lovers and do not sell our bodies," said Dolly, 22,
who refused to give her surname.
The union says some 100,000 dancers across the state have been affected by the
ban that still has to be passed into law.
The government shut down an estimated 1,500 cabarets outside Bombay on March
30. It later extended the ban to include Bombay but has not yet closed the some
700 dancing girl bars in the city.
"For these girls, it's a question of survival. We want the ban scrapped," said
Varsha Patil, president of the Bharatiya Dance Bar Girls Union or Indian Dance
Bar Girls Union.
The union says many of the dancers would be forced into prostitution if the ban
is not repealed and say that if the government wants to implement the order it
should give its members other jobs.
In ritzy Bombay bars frequented by well-off businessmen, dancers can earn more
than 100 dollars a day but they earn far less in down-at-heel establishments.
The dancers at the rally were dressed mainly in traditional Indian salwar
kameezes, a long top worn over baggy trousers.
State officials say the clothes the dancers wear at the bars are too revealing,
even though they remain fully clothed, and object to them sitting in customers'
laps.
A delegation of the dancers led by Patil last month met ruling Congress party
president Sonia Gandhi in a bid to stop the state government passing the ban
and said she promised to look into the matter.
Critics of the government's move say the bars are an essential part of Bombay's
thriving nightlife.
"These dancers are continuing a tradition that has been part of Bombay's
vibrant lifestyle. It just can't be killed because of the whims and fancies of
some prejudiced ministers," Patil said.
Reuters
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