In his decision, Governor Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna may have considered a
study conducted by the Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey (SNDT) Women's
University in Mumbai, which said that rather than being rehabilitated into
"respectability" the women likely would have to turn to sex work to survive.
Based on interviews with 153 of the 60,000 girls working Mumbai's dance bars,
the study, released earlier this month, indicated that more than 60 percent
were the sole bread-winners of families with typically five or more dependants.
But the findings of the study, which seemed to indicate that more than 80
percent of the women came from outside Mumbai and Maharashtra state, may only
encourage the state's politicians -- already caught up in competitive regional
chauvinism -- to pursue the ban even more vigorously.
It was after all a "Maharashtra-for-Maharashtrans" attitude which led the
state's leaders to carry out ruthless slum clearances in January, leaving more
than 400,000 people who lived and worked in the city for years suddenly without
a roof over their heads.
Thursday's reprieve from Krishna, a non-Maharashtran himself, was welcomed by
the Bar Girls Union (BGU), whose president Varsha Kale told IPS in a telephone
interview that said would now focus on extracting "an effective rehabilitation
package for the girls when Maharashtra's provincial legislature discusses the
issue."
As governor, Krishna can stop an ordinance (bureaucratic fiat), but not
legislation duly passed by the majority of members in the state legislature,
which may yet happen because both opposition and ruling members are anxious to
be seen as pro-Maharashtran, although Mumbai itself is rated as India's most
cosmopolitan city.
Sensing the drift, the feisty Kale said her efforts from now on would be
concentrated on rehabilitation rather than opposing the ban head on with
demonstrations, litigation and political lobbying in the national capital as
BGU has been doing.
"What people do not realise is that many of these girls have children who are
attending schools in Mumbai and face disruption in their studies because their
mothers are being asked to vacate rented accommodation -- thousands have
already left Mumbai," Kale said.
The study by the SNDT University, which received support from the Forum Against
Oppression (FAO), a well-known rights organisation, found that half of the
girls had no education and almost none of them spoke any English or possessed a
practical skill -- findings which cast doubt on the viability of
rehabilitation.
Mumbai has more than 700 dance bars where the girls do dance routines timed to
catchy tunes churned out by the city's popular film industry. The study
confirmed that many of them earn an average of 2,000 dollars a month.
But the girls also support a whole industry that hires thousands of bar
attendants, bouncers, chefs, janitors and support staff who are also likely to
be unemployed if the ban comes into force. Conservative estimates say at least
a million people face unemployment as a result of the ban.
Many of the respondents to the SNDT survey said they were seriously looking at
turning to sex work since they had little other option if they wanted to
continue living in Mumbai. This city of around 18 million people is known as
much for its sleaze and organised crime as for its glamorous film industry.
The study rubbished the stated ideas of Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister
R.R. Patil, the driving force behind the ban, that the girls could be trained
for alternative work and rehabilitated. Patil was careful to say that only
girls from Maharashtra would be rehabilitated, while the others would be sent
back to the states they came from.
Patil did not cite any study or survey before pursuing a policy that has the
potential to leave hundreds of thousands of people unemployed. He merely says
he is convinced that dance bars were a "corrupting influence on youth."
Among those who have openly opposed the ban on dance bars is Julio Ribeiro, who
earned the nickname of "supercop" for the relentless crusade he led against
organised crime in the 1970s as Mumbai's police chief.
"There is little doubt that the girls will gravitate into the hands of pimps
and brothel owners who operate from residential areas," Ribeiro said in earlier
interviews.
Among other public figures who oppose the ban is Poornima Advani, former
chairwoman of the National Commission for Women (NCW), a statutory body. She
recently wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking his intervention
against the "shocking victimisation of young girls."
"The sudden closure of the dance bars which were (previously) licensed by the
government of Maharashtra... has again brought to light an example of
victimisation of the powerless, poverty-ridden young girls of our country, as
well as the struggle between the haves and the have-nots," said Advani.
"The gravity of the matter is underlined by the fact that an estimated 75,000
bar girls have been thrown to the streets by the decision to close dance bars,"
she said in her letter.
Inter Press Service
