Bar Dancers Case: Television Interview with Manjit Singh
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Summary: Dancing at beer bars started in Maharashtra in the ‘70s. These bars are popularly called Dance Bars. They were recognisable by the heavy door at the entrance and by the uniformed bouncers. In order to increase the revenue from alcohol sale the govt. kept issuing licenses for the dance bars and over the three decades these bars sprouted all over the state and specially in Bombay. In 2005 the Govt. proposed a bill to ban dancing at the bars on the pretext of public morality. But by then around 75,000 women were employed in the unorganized sector of bar dancing. Most of these women were migrants from the other parts of the state, country and the subcontinent. The proposal sparked a huge public debate on the issues of morality, sexuality and livelihood. The home minister in the state govt. R R Patil took it as a mission and persuaded it till the end. The civil society got vertically divided on the issue. While all the right wing outfits supported the ban, some old school women’s organizations too were vocal against bar dancing based on the argument of commodifying women’s body. Some feminist groups and other social movements campaigned against the ban foregrounding issues of right to livelihood, validity of sex based works and against moral policing. The media too got its share by producing substantial amount of programme around the debate. There were many theories for the Govt.’s motive to ban dance bars. Some says that it was a ploy to decrease the sale of beer and boost the outreach of wine as the wine industry had just started picking up in Maharashtra and many senior politicians were stake holders in wine industry. Some other claim that it was a populist measure to woo the middle class voters. Another theory ascribed the operation as an exercise to evict smaller eateries and pubs to make space for big franchises and multi-purpose eateries. It could also be a simple act of gentrifying the city.
Amidst the frenzy of campaign and counter campaign the govt. implemented the bill on the midnight of 15th August 2005, the independence day of India. In the campaign against the ban most vocal were two organizations – Bar owners association and Bar dancers union. Both these organizes quickly consolidated their base in order to make the protest campaign substantial. They were public meetings, press conferences, press statement, rallies and television interviews.
This event is a television interview of Manjit Singh, the president of the bar owners association at the peak of the campaign. His apparent confidence in this interview proves that initially they were very hopeful to win the battle. But later things detoriated fast as R R Patil, the home minister in the state cabinet took up the issue like a mission. Mr. Manjit Singh was persecuted, harassed and jailed many times by the state. But this interview was taken at the beginning of the season.
Not Just Page 3 is a show on Zoom Channel. After the ban on bar dancers, they invited President of the Bar owners' association. (Page 3 of the newspaper is usually dedicated to trivias of the glamour world. Though the channel claims to be counter that by the title of their programme, in practice they are only enhancing that. The logo of the programme which punctuates the proceeding reads
"Scandal, Scoop, Champgne, Rich & Rumour, Life Style, Glamour, Controversy, Celebrities, Revealed" in dizzying pace.) The programme starts with the mandatory disclaimer: The view and opinions expressed on this show are not necessarily those of the channel's. The glamorous host enter the set which have in the background images from Bollywood films which in turns is the life line of dance bar culture.
On screen text: Baar baar dekho (view it again and again) – a popular Hindi film song referring to the singer's girlfriend and in this case a pan on Bar and 'baar' (again).
Another text: 'Inside a Mumbra dance bar'. Short sequences of the bar dance.
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The Research Centre for Women's Study, SNDT Women's University, and the group Forum Against Oppression brought out a study on dance bars, that addresses some of the common myths regarding bar dancers. These include inflated ideas of how much they earn, morality and that most dance bar girls are minors. It also deals with police harassment of dance bar girls.
A more detailed account of the report is available here.
Dancers in the dark, Freny Manecksha
http://infochangeindia.org/20050907339/Livelihoods/Features/Dancers-in-the-dark.html
Show opens- jingle
Pooja Bedi (P)- Hello and a very warm welcome to Not Just Page 3.
Headlines- An evening dedicated to bar dancers and a no-holds barred face to face with the President of Bar Owners' Association Mr. Manjit Singh.
P- Come, let me take you to Mumbai's bars where some people go regularly (baar baar).
Show's jingle
Voice over- Evening 7 o'clock. When it's time for some people to go home after hard day's work, there are some people who head for almost hidden, dimly lit dance bar. Here, made up ordinary looking girls wearing shining chaniya choli (a kind of Indian traditional wear for women), dancing on latest hindi film music are entertaining their customers. But, what's these bar dancers' own condition?
Bar dancer- If I have come here for the sake of family, someone should look after the family. That person should take care of me, fulfill my desires. What can be better than that?
Voice over- These colourful evenings are accompanied by drinks and money in hands, and of course, some laughing, coquettish, teasing and tantalizing bar dancers. But what about security?
Bar dancer- There are both indecent and decent people who come here. It depends on us, the way we behave with them that's the way they behave with us. If the customer gives money, we take it in our hands, he can't touch us. If any customer behaves indecently, then there is our manager, bar owner who takes care of him. We don't have a problem.
Voice over- What is the reason that the girls have to dance in these bars?
Bar dancer- There are reasons. My father no more. That's why.
Voice over- message for other girls from bar dancer?
Bar dancer- don't go in the wrong profession. Earn as much as you can only by dancing in the bars.
Interview with a dancer. The bar dancers appear alluring, in imitation of seductive Bollywood heroines. But the voice over, which is full of Bollywood terminology, creates the agenda: 'what could be their compulsion' – making it impossible for any woman to say that I am here not out of any compulsion but by choice. Thus the morality of the issue is already determined irrespective of the programme to be followed. The next question is: 'what about the security' – expecting a worker to sit at her workplace under the threat of her profession being declared illegal, to honestly answer this question for the whole world to view. Well, television journalism means such silly trivia and self grandeurs. The next is 'the message' and the interviewee promptly takes the opportunity to communicate that they are not sex workers and their morality is superior. Implying the wrath of the moral brigade should fall on the lesser mortal , the sex workers and not on bar dancers.
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Jingle
P- Aaj phir jeene ki tammana hai, aaj phir marne ka irada hai (line from a hindi film song which means I desire death today, yet I aim to live today). This is the story of the bar dancers. We'll take a short break, but don't go anywhere because we are going to introduce you to a very interesting personality who knows bar dancers and bar owners very closely.
M- Both things can not happen- we bribe policemen and give government tax- this can not happen.
Jingle
We had taken you to Mumbai's dance bars. Now it's time for NJP3 to lock horns with Manjit Singh. He is the president of Bar Owners' Association. He is constantly ready to fight for the rights of bar dancers and bar owners. Let's welcome, Manjit Singh.
P- Hello Mr. Manjit Singh.. Welcome to Not Just Page 3.
Pooja Bedi, the glamourous host of the show is a former actor and model. The teasers leading to the programme has already promised a lot of polemic to its viewers. Manjit Singh. The bar owners' association is introduced as someone 'constantly ready to fight for the rights of the bar dancers and the bar owners'. For people like Manjit Singh 'bar dancers' are employees and human assets for his business that make him 'bar owner'. In normal circumstances the interest of these two would be opposite of each other and the dancers' rights would be fought against the kinds of the bar owners. But politics makes strange bed fellows. When the govt. is proposing to shut down the entire industry the employees and the employers are forced to share the same platforms to fight for survival. The earlier issues of employment benefits that the bar dancers' union was fighting for with the bar owners takes a back seat.
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Chandni Bar is a film made by Madhur Bhandarkar 2001. The film depicts life story of a migrant working class girl and how the labyrinth of the city ultimately takes her to the dance bar. Once inside it she could never escape the trap. One of the major critiques of the film is that it only shows victim hood of the character. Bar dancers believe in their agency and don't always consider themselves as victims. Films like chandni bar don't take into consideration women's choice or agency or even the power of autonomous earnings.
P- Mr. Manjit, there was a film named Chandni Bar. How much of truth is shown in the film, and how much is it glamourisation?
M- See, reality is very little in the film, it is much glamourised. There are some things shown that do not happen either in normal lives or in dance bars. Because they have to sell a product they have exaggerated and represented. Ultimately, their product was sold very well, but they created a problem for the whole bar profession. They got the bar dancers into so much problem that authorities are still after us.
P- It's because of that film?
M- Yes.
P- So do you think such film should not be made?
M- You make films, but don't distort reality. Just because you have to sell a product, don't show it wrongly. I am so involved in it that no one can know more dance bars better than me. What they have shown does not happen anywhere.
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P- Mr. Manjit, it's not only the film Chandni bar, people usually feel that dance bars are den of vice.
M- Police says the same thing repeatedly. In order to amend the law they said that underworld elements visit dance bars. Now if police has such information, then there can't be a better trap than this to arrest such people. Show me one record where they have nabbed underworld related people
P- There are two kinds of dance bars. One kind is the genuine dance bars where girls dance; and the others are dance bars which work as pick up joints. So how does one differentiate between them?
M- I have said the same thing to the government. You grade them. Like you grade adult films, you grade these bars as well. Because due to some people doing wrong work, others also get labeled similarly. Like you said rightly about differentiating. Public should know which are the dance bars and which are the pick up joints.
P- But no one would run a pick up joint officially? So the grading system would not work.
M- Today, our government knows all about pick up joints? So can't the government shut them down? It's a small job for them but there is no political will for that, they don't want to do it. They portray things in the wrong way to the public and want to brainwash them. They say that to close the pick up joints they raid bars constantly. They don't raid for this reason, they raid to get money. And we are soft targets of such tactics.
Police has constantly raided dance bars and they continue to do so even now. State morality plays a big role in such activity. It is no new news that police takes lot of bribes from dance bars. The beer bars so far were licensed by the govt. Yet police would raid the bars and arrest the dancing girls. The girls often get abused, both verbally and sexually, in the police lock up. No case gets lodged and the business resumes the next day. The dancers have come to fear the police more than any other elements in their work place.
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Manjit Singh talks provocatively. This candid ways of talking about the corruption among politicians have cost him dear later. Later in 2005 the state invoked a rare special privilege to arrest him without any criminal proceeding at any point that the assembly wishes. It was invoked for a press statement that he made to the effect of 'if the elected representatives harm the dancers we would make their women dance'. The statement created great furor and Manjit was arrested and kept in jail multiple times for long durations.
P- So you are saying that such laws are being made that they increase corruption.
M- Absolutely. If you make good laws, and some good laws exist. But conscience of the people who implement these laws should be clear.
P- So there is no honest official?
M- Of course not. There is no doubt about that. In today's time an honest official is not allowed to work. A Commissioner like Pasricha, who was so honest and people were happy with him. Yet within three months he was not thrown out of his position by the politicians. He was known for being honest, but he was not allowed to work.
Why? Because they need a puppet who would work according to them.
P- So are you saying that all politicians that you interact with are corrupt?
M- No one is right. See, it's really not funny. It is the reality. The way this thing is going…you must have read about R. Gopal who has been Anti- Corruption Chief. He was caught with bribe of a lakh rupees. If someone who is Anti- Corruption Chief, does this, what can we hope from others?
P- Is there a nexus between dance bars and police?
M- Yes, it is an open and transparent nexus. The whole world, politicians- everyone knows of the nexus. Government, if it wants, can completely stop this nexus.
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Manjit Singh claims that he is active in this issue not because of his business interest but for the human rights issue involving the bar dancer. Actually the bar owners have realized that the only way their skin could be saved is by foregrounding the livelihood rights of the dancers, the same dancers whom they have exploited for years – by not providing job security, no pay scale, getting rid of them as they grow older, occasionally forcing them to indulge into the sexual demand of the police and the customers and so on. Such is the gain of years of human rights and women's rights movements that it turns out be the only recourse for this business establishments. So they quickly learnt the terminologies of rights discourse.
P- Infact Mr. Manjit, you had led a demonstration to a famous politician's house. Can you tell me what the purpose of that demonstration was?
M- There is only one reason. I have also appealed to international human rights bodies for the girls. Are the bar dancers human beings or not? Do they have a right to live or not? However you project them, they are also human beings. The have many dependants that they have to take care of, they have to run their families. Either you provide them with alternate jobs or you let them work honestly. You punish girls who are doing sex work in any way. But you are harassing girls who are working honestly. As you get money out of girls who are in sex work, you don't try and stop them.
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Manjit Singh raises the issue of class discrimination in public morality. He has a valid point that the high end minority cultures such as belle dance in 5 star hotels go on undisrupted while the cheap water holes come under scrutiny. He also mentions the amount of bribe that goes to the police respectively from the dance bars and from the pick up joints. Obviously he is an accomplished party to the game. Then what had gone wrong? Was it a matter of percentage of share or some kind of gang war? Some people opine that it is a war between the alcohol manufacturers. The beer was produced outside the state. While wine production had just started in the state. So the politicians some of whom have large share in the wine industry, wanted to suppress the sale of beer in favour of the wine. So the beer bars were made a target. Some says it was a populist gimmick on part of the state govt. in order to woo their middle class voters. According Manjit Singh it was a matter of weekly bribe to the police. Whatever maybe the cause, the women dancers stand at the bottom of the effect. Yet the whole public discourse is being played over their bodies. Sexual morality has its own slippery ways. Once the arguments start moving in the direction of one instance against the other rather than over the merit of the issue it becomes counter productive. The bar owners would say the pick up joints are worse, the pick up joints would say the sex work is the worst and so on, but nobody would foreground the issue of choices, rights to sex based practices and state policies.
P- Approximately how many girls are involved in dancing at the bars?
M- In Bombay, there are at least 75000 women working in dance bars currently. Can government provide jobs for 75000 girls?
P- But if there are 75000 girls involved, how much time can police spend in differentiating between women who are involved in sex work and which ones are bar dancers.
M- Same question was posed to me by a DCP (Deputy Commissioner of Police). He asked me how could they differentiate between dance bars and pick up joints. I will tell you how police can differentiate between the two. One police officer gets Rs. 5000 weekly as bribe from dance bars, while from the pick up joints they get Rs. 25000. When they get the list they know what kind of place is each bar. See, this is only to fool all of us. It is to fool us that they say that they are serving the law and that they are raiding various bars. You know they have raided hundred bars in one day! Ultimately when we opposed them, we have also writ petition pending in high court. Believe me, the judge at high court asked the government pleader why they haven't arrested anyone from the belle dancing performances that happen. Why? Because these performances happen in five star hotels, you don't have power to go there. Because common people go in dance bars, you go harass them. If you have guts, go raid those big hotels. No, you can't do it because it's elite crowd there. Everything is allowed for the higher society. The lower society does not even have right to entertainment? That's not good. I also asked them why they don't object to similar dresses when they are worn by women other than bar dancers.
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P- In hindi films, women wear short clothes that are also for people's enjoyment. Do you present that view too?
M- I saw the film Hulchul recently. An item song in it was so obscene that I felt the film should have been X- Rated. A child can also watch this film sitting at home. The crowd that comes to us is above 21 years. It's an excise rule that we can not serve anyone below 21 years of age. We can't give them entry.
P- Are you very strict about this rule?
M- Absolutely. We don't allow any young person or student inside the bar. Yet, there is nothing wrong happening inside. We don't have a cabaret, we don't have any nude shows. Women dance on Hindi films song. There is no question of obscenity here.
P- It's time for a quick break. And while I toast our special guest with a glass of Goan feni (locally brewed alcohol), you stay tuned as we will be right back with more on Manjit Singh.
(Coming up ad – excerpt from Manjit Singh's interview: All the pick up joints, the so called pick up joints that the police make so much noise about – are all owned by the police officers)
Jingle.
The problem of not-yet-evolved democratic principles is that while one sector seeks for respite they tend to victims the other sector under the same clause. 'Why should I be censored while so and so is been licensed' is not a critic of state censorship. But that is exactly what happened during the bar dance banning case. The logic in defense of the dance bar that was floated by Manjit Singh and others and even by the bar dancers unions and feminist organizations was that – if you want to stop dance bar then you must also close down Hindi film songs or pick up joint or sex work and so on. It might be a good strategy to expose the hypocrisy of the Govt. which falters within its own regressive policies when it comes to bigger revenue collection. But on the long run this kind of logic is suicidal as it does not critisise the policy but merely its bias implementation.
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Manjit goes overboard to portray the dance bars as a public park or family picnic spots. He is still arguing for an approval from the sexual morality brigade.
P- Welcome to NJP3. For those of you tuning in now, we have with us today Mr. Manjit Singh, President of Bar Owners' Association.
P- There is an opinion that there is no difference between women who dance in films for money and the bar dancers who are also dancing for money. What do you think?
M- I agree. In fact, I think we have a much better work environment. No one in bars wear short costumes. They are fully dressed in our own traditional Chaniya choli.
P- They only dance in chaniya choli? Nothing else? No short skirts?
M- Absolutely not. This is where dance bars are wrongly portrayed. The pelvic movements in the item songs in all the films are so vulgar, that if we are home with children around, we can not watch television. We have families coming to dance bars, we have educated women coming there as well.
P- Really?
M- Yes. And they don't find it offending. That's because there is nothing wrong happening. It's the portrayal of dance bars in a particular way to defame them.
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P- Mr. Pramod Navalkar (Senior Shivsena lader and Minister for Culture and Transport in the previous state govt. of the Sena-BJP alliance) gets very angry and he says that girls are not safeguarded in the dance bars, that girls get raped when they travel to work. What do you do for girls' safety?
M- We are the ones who really make sure that they are safe. It is our responsibility to get them to work and to drop them back home after work. Till they work with us, we ensure their safety. If Navalkar has said this it's a misguided statement, especially after I have seen him sitting at Tarzan bar myself.
P- He goes there to see what is happening there. He does some spying.
M- Spy well then. You should find out if a bar dancer has ever complaint against any bar owner? If employers, employees and audience are happy, why should anyone else have a problem? Now we can not take responsibility, if a bar dancer is harassed on the road. Tell me, if an air hostess after work is harassed, would the airlines be stopped?
Various questions about safety of bar dancers have been raised. Bar dancer themselves say that they feel safe at their workplace and that the real danger for them is from police.
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It is an unorganized sector, a kind of sweat shop. There is no employment scheme, no retirement plans and no job security and yet according to Manjit Singh 75,000 women are employed as bar dancers in Bombay alone. But Manjit Singh thinks that it is anyway still a better option for the bar dancers who would have otherwise had no option than to become sex workers. He may not know that the sex workers too are getting unionized these days. He wants to piggyback on the threat that closure of dance bar would force the dancers to take up sex work, with the belief that the state and the middle class society would find that very difficult to digest.
P- It is said that work span in dance bars is short. After a certain age, the girls can't continue, younger girls come. So do you do anything about the girls' future? Do you provide for any social security or pension.
M- To be frank, we don't provide such service. But the girls, while working here, plan their future very well. I don't know if you know this, but the mothers, grandmothers of many of the bar dancers are from the red light areas. The work that we and the government should be doing to reform them, these girls are doing themselves. They have moved away from flesh trade, and have chosen to work in dance bars. Many of these have come out of the red light places, and bought flats. Children of many of the bar dancers are studying in hostels, many of them have married, they are running their families.
P- So you are saying that for them, this is an escape from prostitution?
M- Absolutely. And I am saying it today that if government tries to be strict and stop this work, all these girls would have to stand on the roads. No one would be able to provide solutions then.
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According to Singh sex based works must continue because the men in the society need it. Not because it is a means of transaction between adults of two sexes. Nor because some women may choose to get into sex based industry over the grueling chores of some low paying jobs. We also should not talk about sexual morality of the bar dancers as all working women are basically immoral as per general norms. Naturally for Singh it is not the issue of dubious sexual morality but only the case of shutting down his business. Yet he brings forward certain valid issues in the public debate.
P- If all the dance bars are closed, what effect would that have on the society?
M- It would have a big impact. In many countries red light areas are marked. Prostitution also happens by giving licenses. Why? There is a need for it. If there are no such things available, common women would find it difficult to walk the streets. See, everyone has needs. Today there are people coming to Bombay from all over the country. They don't have families with them. We can't deny the needs that people do have. Someone works hard 12 hours a day, whisky is not allowed at his home. If in the evening, he has two drinks, sees a live performance and feels relaxed, no one should have a problem with that. There is no immoral activity happening in the bars. I ask the people who have taken decision to ban dancing, are all the women who work in offices morally good? Come with me to Nariman Point, I'll show you. All women got o pubs, lodgings, sometimes with bosses. Is that good? Just because here you have labeled dance bars, it becomes morally wrong, otherwise it is fine? The women who work with us are far superior to others.
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P- You are President of Bar Owners' Association. What do you want to achieve through this position?
M- I want to work towards getting the bar dancers the respect that they deserve in my lifetime. We have only one thing to say, we are not inferior to anyone else. So don't treat us like a doormat. The basic rights remain same for everyone including the workers at dance bars. These girls are not of low moral character. They work honestly for eight hours, earn Rs 500- 1000 and go home. Don't project them in a wrong way.
The president of the bar owners' association concerns only about the state of the bar dancers. The claim completely camouflaged his business interest in the case. But since for the time being it helps the cause of the bar dancers or since at this particular moment in history the survival of both, the bar dancers and the bar owners lie in getting the ban revoked So he becomes the spokesperson for all.
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Manjit Singh flaunts his knowledge about the corruption among the police departments. He is proved to be a good leader to have access to this kind of information. But question remains since he was almost an insider what had gone wrong between him and the authority that had caused the ban. A dispute over the share distribution in profit? Entry of a rival business interest? An internal war between the alcohol manufacturers? Whatever it is the women who dance in the bars are only pawns in the game.
P- But, Mr. Manjit it is also said that funding for dance bars come through underworld. Now that is a problem.
M- It is not so. Probably common people don't know but most of the so called pick up joints are owned by police officials. I have said this on record before, I am saying this today and I am ready to provide proof as well. That is the reason why there are no raids on these pick up joints, as some or the other police official is always involved.
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P- What do you do for the safety of the girls when they go home so late?
M – You won't believe this but we have started giving them training. We have floated Bhartiya Bar dancers Union. The first objective of this training is how to deal with police. We train them that if policemen misbehave or hit them they have a right to answer back. Through this, there is support for the women from the entire industry. Public support is also with us against the police mishandling women. In the demonstration, speeches of the bar dancers were worth listening. One newspaper wrote that it felt that the girls would rip the police officials apart. We have garnered support after the demonstration. Earlier women were harassed at police checkposts. Now they know that they women are aware and that they have support of two organizations. No one harasses bar dancers now. I am not saying that they are afraid of us or the women. But they should understand the limitation of their rights as police.
Various questions about safety of bar dancers have been raised. Bar dancer themselves say that they feel safe at their workplace and that the real danger for them is from police.
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Everyone has a right to live with dignity including bar dancers. This right has been denied to them by objecting to their work and denying them right to choose their work. Therefore pushing them towards the margins of the society.
P- You are fighting for a life of dignity, you are fighting for legalization of your rights.
M- Motto of our organization is Live With Dignity. That is what we want. If everyone else has a right to live with dignity, then we as well as bar dancers have that right too.
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Today girls are air hostesses, they work in five star hotels and call centres. All of them have night shifts, they work till morning. No one has pointed fingers at them till now. But bar dancers have been black-marked, which is what, if god wills, we would clean. We don't want this black-marked life. P- Well, Mr. Manjit, I really wish you best in your fight. M- Thank you very much
Women are unsafe in this society. Women are unsafe at home. Women are unsafe at their workplace. Women are unsafe at public places. So the system goes on pushing women out of all spaces and let the spaces remain what they are. This ridiculous logic of protection from the benevolent patriarchy has been exposed long back. Let women choose the kind of lack of safety they want to live with and fight out... bar dance, late night commuting, service industry or whatever…
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