|
A woman's right to dance for a living
By Achyut Yuyutsu
May 4, 2005
New Delhi - The politicos’ Mumbai bar eradication movement has been a shot in
the arm of the dance girls who have found themselves under arc lights of world
media, even though their cause has split India straight down the middle.
What the politicians have done is split the society straight down the middle by
trumpeting themselves as the saviours of social mores - they corrupt the young,
destroy the family and promote prostitution.
In the process they have brought the plight of society to the front: what to do
with the bar girls? If you terminate the bars, they are deprived of their
employment. If you let them dance in the bars, it will create a great divide in
the people. They will be split, not on religious lines, but between those
slamming spread of debauchery and those saying there is no harm in bars as they
serve as some kind of a pressure reliever after a long hard day at the office
for males.
The New York Times says, "Their defenders, an odd mix of professional feminists
and pistol-packing barkeepers, have put up a spirited fight, and their sit-down
strikes on a dry dirt field have brought a daily parade of night crawlers -
dancers, bouncers, bar owners - to squint and sweat under the midday sun."
However, at stake is not merely the youth's proclivity to depravity, the more
immediate question is that of depriving thousands of girls off their
livelihood, putting them on the streets with one fell stroke of the
politicians' pen.
One afternoon this week, a dancer who called herself Shoma and gave her age as
25 cooled off with a Popsicle and raged against the politicians threatening to
take away her livelihood of six years. Her family eats because of her earnings,
she said; her daughter attends a private school. "Why is the government saying
this now?" Shoma asked. "Maybe they want more money?"
In a high-society bar, on any given night, it is possible to take home over
$100, an unimaginably handsome sum for a working woman in Mumbai. In less elite
bars, a dancing girl is lucky to take home $10.
Speaking on behalf of the government and adding a personal touch Sanjay
Aparanti, the newly appointed Deputy Commissioner of Police, calls it his
crusade to rid Mumbai of what he considers the exploitation of women. "Man has
no right or reason to project women as a commodity," he declared in an
interview.
The dance bars, Aparanti said, are only an excuse for men to pick up women,
stay out late and ultimately destroy the Indian family.
Soliciting is not permitted in the dance bars, but it is understood that a man
will try to get a woman's phone number, or try to invite her out for a meal, or
perhaps then try to take her to bed. It is also understood that a woman's job
is to milk his desire for as long as possible.
As for the lascivious gazes of the men, the dancing girls brushed them off as a
fact of life in this trade, as in every other. "This thing happens in an
office, it happens in modelling," said a dancer who called herself Bobby. "It's
up to you."
The government has yet to formally ban the dance bars, and some speculate that
a deal will eventually be brokered, particularly given that nearly everyone
pockets something from the trade. One bar owner from a Mumbai suburb, where the
state has already closed some dance bars, said he regularly paid more than
$1,000 to police officers in his area each month.
Some say it is a lowball political tactic by the ruling National Congress Party
to appeal to the base of the Shiv Sena, its conservative, xenophobic opposition
here - a constant refrain in the argument against dance bars is that they
promote the trafficking of foreign women, chiefly Bangladeshis.
NYT Whatever the roots of resentment, the threat of closing brought Shoma to
the Maidan on a hot afternoon before work, after a two-hour train ride uptown.
Shoma has been "in this line," as she puts it, for over six years, and the
story she tells about her entry is a familiar one in the industry: her husband
died, her daughter's school fees had to be paid, her father needed costly
surgery to remove his gallbladder. She gave up a job as a housemaid and started
dancing. Even these days, when business is slow, her take-home pay is twice
what she earned as a maid.
Speaking for the future, all morality questions will go unrecognised so far as
matters related to filling the belly of her child are concerned.
Comment on this story,
click here.
Copyright 1999-2004, AsianSexGazette.com. All rights reserved. No
content may be reproduced in whole or part without written permission.
Please contact us via the link below for re-print and syndication policies.
|
|
Over
10,000 Bombay bar dancers protest ban
5-4-2005
Maharashtra
bar dancers demand rehabilitation
5-4-2005
|
