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Bar girls, thrown out of Maharashtra, face charges of prostitution
By Narendra Kaushik
May 10, 2005
New Delhi - The bar girls thrown out of Maharashtra state after the coalition
government there closed down over 1250 bars leaving over 75,000 nautch girls
unemployed, have nobody to turn to as the police and do-gooder groups in their
native homes are not prepared to accept them back.
The groups and the police contend that since the girls are stigmatized they
will find it hard to get alternate employment, and as a result they may get
into flesh trade.
Around a thousand of these girls hail from Agra, the historical city which
served as capital of India under a better part of Mughal rule and is thronged
by tourists who arrive from the all around the world to view Tajmahal, the
wonderful marble monument, built by Mughal emperor Shahjahan in the memory of
his beloved empress Mumtaz Mahal.
The girls belong to Bedia tribe, which is settled on the periphery of Agra city
and has a long tradition of putting its womenfolk into dancing. The tribe, it
is said, was brought into Agra by emperor Shahjahan to entertain the laborers
who were involved in constructing Tajmahal over 300 years ago.
Earlier this month, the police headed by Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP)
Agra Rajiv Kishan, arrested half a dozen girls from the Bedia settlement and
booked them under immoral trafficking. The girls were released from jail on
Monday after the police failed to press the charges against them. It appears
that the police did not follow standard procedures in conducting the raid on
the girls. They neither sent a decoy customer to trap the girls nor found any
male customers with the girls.
Divisional Rescue Officer (DRO) in Agra, G P Srivastva, who is supposed to
coordinate with the police in conducting raids on prostitutes and call girls,
is now denying that the police arrested them. Srivastva told Asian Tribune that
they merely rescued the girls from being pushed into the flesh trade. The
question arises if this was the case, why did the police charge the girls under
immoral trafficking?
There are reports in the city that the police arrested the girls after they
refused to accompany a Samajwadi Party leader who turned up at their house
seeking companionship. Municipal Corporator of Bedias’ settlement Chandersen
alias Taplu is now threatening to drag the police to National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC) and National Commission for Women (NCW) and accusing them of
humiliating the ‘innocent’ girls. Taplu told Asian Tribune, he had already
complained to the NCW and would soon approach the court to demand compensation
for the girls, wrongly accused of prostitution.
Agra, a city three-hour drive from New Delhi, the Indian capital, arguably has
the highest number of red light areas in the country.
Maharashtra state closed down the bars last month saying that the bar girls
were spreading immorality in the state. Deputy Chief Minister in the state, R R
Patil has so far refused to rehabilitate the girls arguing that a majority are
either from other states in the country or Bangladesh. Patil says that only 6
per cent of the bar girls were Maharashtrians and promises to rehabilitate
them. He is threatening to throw the rest out of the state.
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