Bar Dancers Case: Meeting of the Bar Owners Association I
Duration: 00:33:34; Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1; Hue: 22.631; Saturation: 0.109; Lightness: 0.469; Volume: 0.358; Cuts per Minute: 8.580; Words per Minute: 108.649
Summary: This is footage of a public meeting organised by the Bar owners association against the proposed ban on dancing in bars in Maharashtra.
Dancing in bars of Bombay and other parts of Maharashtra began in 1970s. In 2005, the Maharashtra government proposed to ban dancing in the bars. The proposal sparked wide public debate on sexual morality, women's rights and right to livelihood. The civil society division on the issue was sharp as many women's organisations, left parties and trade unions supported the ban on issues of public morality and degradation of women's body. While many others, including Majlis, Forum against oppression of women, Women's studies research unit of SNDT university and other feminist groups opposed the ban on account of gender assault on right to livelihood, sexuality and performance. The ban got implemented on 15th august, 2005, the Independence Day. The ban was challenged in Bombay High court by the Bar dancers' union, feminists groups and bar owners associations. Majlis represented the bar dancers' union in the High court. On 12th April 2006 the Bombay High Court struck down the ban as unconstitutional. The Govt. appealed to the Supreme Court and thus affectively kept the bar closed inspite of the High court order. Presently the case is subjudiced.
This meeting was organized in the interim period of proposing the bill and actually implementing the ban. The bar owners and the bar dancers are traditionally not allies as their relationship is that of employers and employees. Many bars also exploited the dancers is severe manner. The stigma attached with dancing in bars prevented the women to raise voice against the bar owners. But in the present scenario the bar owners and the bar dancers are together against the Govt. decision to ban dance bars. Their survival are intertwined. The bars would suffer huge loss and many would close down in the eventuality of banning dancing.
Here Manjit Singh, President of the Bar Owners Association and Varsha Kale, President of Bar Dancers Union speak to the bar owners about the situation, their perspectives on the situation and how they need to work together to be able to combat the ban and its effects.
Manjit Singh addressing the Bar Owner's Association, a day after the ban was proposed. Though the desperation and vulnerability is evident, it was quite amusing that he quotes from history of holocaust. That he suggests that Hitler committed suicide because of remorse shows us Singh's own version of history, or rather his own interpretation to suit his speech! This is the same Manjit Singh whose establishment was talked about for some special arrangement where women danced in cages. Then it was frequented by many politicians. The speech starts off with a personal attack, and as it progresses we see the same trend. It is more an anti-R R Patil rhetoric in many places than a clarion call to unite the bar owners.
...if they try to throttle common people, there would be protests and their place would be shown to them. Then they would be helpless. I think they have forgotten that Hitler, after realizing his mistake, his wrong decision of killing lakhs of people, had to kill himself with shame. So Mr. R.R Patil, hope this doesn't happen. But we don't think this would happen, because you have no conscience.
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Satara, Maharashtra
Sion, Mumbai
From history to politics, Singh uses any and every example that strikes him, trying to put it in context of the ban. His theory that the ban is a fall-out of a larger historical-socio-political set-up holds very true. It is also rather interesting that his choice of the states are - Haryana known for its rustic rural population and strong patriarchy, Jharkhand known for its tribal population and strong Maoist movements and Goa, considered as haven for tourism, sex and drug trade. This kind of shrewd political observation and frank speaking later landed him in lot of trouble. The home minister of Maharashtra took it personally on himself to punish Manjit Singh. In later months he was arrested and jailed without trial for long periods under the special privilege of the elected house.
Goa
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Not only him, but no one in our political circle...
While on one side, Manmohan Singh and L.K. Advani are being awarded as Best Parliamentarians. On the other, APJ Kalam is also showing them the lacunae, that if the situation persists, if your standards continue to fall like this, no one would be able to save this country. You can look at Jharkhand, Goa or Haryana, it's the same situation. Let me also remind you of one more thing. Look at the timing of yesterday's announcement. We are being made the sacrificial goats. Congress and NCP... Manmohan Singh declared in the morning that a decision has been taken over the bill that was pending for years. The decision is to allow women to work overnight and in late night shifts. They feel that Manmohan Singh will get great mileage out of this. Now this is terrible. Cutting the Prime Minister's decision, our "respected" R.R. Patil sir announced in the afternoon that the dance bars would be banned.
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Ironically Manjit Singh as well as many bar dancers take refuge under the same patriarchal logic of sexual morality -'bar dancing is not sex work'. By attempting to derive some dignity and acceptance for themselves they denigrate the professional sex workers and thus ultimately weaken their case. However much the feminist activists tried to change the wind towards recognition to all sex based works and right to sexuality and livelihood, the debate ultimately goes back to the basic of dancing in bars is not sex work. It is important to note that sex work and soliciting is not illegal in India. In fact, in an interview viewable at
http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/apr/15inter1.htm, Manjit Singh talks like a social worker, a man who is running the bar business for the sake of the bar girls. He would go into construction and make money, he says, but what will the girls do? To counter the issue of public morality he is foregrounding issues of social responsibility.
The biggest attack in this is on the ladies, bar girls, they would be affected the most by this decision. Business men would get into other businesses. What would these women do? They'll have to come on the streets. We've said the same thing again and again. The task of making lives better for these women, which was a responsibility of the government, NGOs and us... this task has been done by these women themselves. They have moved out of red light areas, stopped prostitution and chosen bar dancing as their profession. This profession is not new; it has been going on since Mughal times. Their used to be dancers in the court. Today they are saying that giving money to the dancers is a crime. They have forgotten that even King Akbar used to give his necklace to the dancer as a token of his appreciation.
(Applause: this is a reference to popular Hindi film 'Mughal-e-Azam)- Singh's only way to know about Akbar's mannerism.)
Sion, Mumbai
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Maharashtra
Mr. R.R Patil says that youth is being corrupted, that Maharashtraian morality is being corrupted. He probably doesn't even know the history of Maharashtra. Tamasha, Nautanki and Lavani (popular folk dance form) is the oldest culture of this state. They have been accorded their place ever since the inception of the Maharashtrian culture. There is no district in the state where there are no red light area., whether it is Mumbai, Poona or Satara. He talks of values, he has no clue what values really are. I don't think he must have spent even ten minutes of time with his children...
Pune
The speech, though it seems emotionally charged, is actually carefully planned with answers to all of R R Patil's arguments. It is to be noted that India as well as Maharashtra has many forms of dance practices. One is classical dance as part of temple dancing which is enjoyed by the privileged. The second is folk dancing enjoyed by the mass in public place. The third is related to courtesans. All there are community practices and there has always been a thin line between dancing and sexuality related entertainment. In the popular imagination too commercial dancing existed in the border line of cultivated fine culture and immoral debauchery. Interestingly, these institutions of commercial dancing existed as long as the concept of bazaar and cash exchange existed. Singh uses all these references.
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Manjit Singh attacks the State for doing moral policing. He calls for building strategic alliance among the rival bar owners. He prepares for a long drawn political battle. Being in the sleazy business of dance bars, he obviously knows the moth eaten holes of the system. It is difficult to asses how much he knows and what influence his knowledge might have on the whole scene. Obviously he could not be ignored and thus was jailed again and again. But eventual closure of the dance bars also prove that his political clout was not as adequate as it seemed in this meeting. Larger agendas and vested interests were obviously at work for the ban.
Sion, Mumbai
Yesterday I felt that if we have to answer this, we have to give up the internal tension amongst us. We will not show ourselves as separate, broken groups. In a family of four, if two are hungry and on the streets, we will be with them, we will support them and not eat when they go hungry.
(Applause)
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Manjit Singh seems to be the right person to lead the owners against the politicians because he seems to think like the politicians! He knows how to get the bar owners, all with individual and vested interests, to believe in the collective interest. He has worked out a strategy in detail and yet makes the other bar owners feel like they are a part of the decision-making process. Very clever, and very political as a strategist.
Sion, Mumbai
This is a double-faced policy. Some people (hotel owners) tell us that we should keep our hotels open. I am not R.R Patil, I will not force anything upon you. If there is any decision to be taken amongst us, the industry would take them. Only if all of you agree, will the bandh (closure) be declared. If you would not want, no one would close down. But it is important to remember that if we don't close with dignity, then within two days, the Government will officially close you down after passing the resolution. Those two days would also be on the mercy of these people. They will hit you, their men would come, the police would come. You'll be caught in the middle. We'll live with dignity. Who are they to shut us down; we will shut down ourselves. But, with all your support.
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Manjit Singh's battle strategy. He wants to depend on the role of opposition in parliamentary politics. But when actually the bill came up in the assembly for discussion it got passed unanimously. The treasury bench, opposition - including the left and all the women members- voted in favour of the ban. The home minister R R Patil knew that on the issue of public morality no political outfit would dare go against the orthodox grain. Singh had depended on the Opposition parties natural response against any initiative by the Ruling Party, but did not realise the delicate nature of the issue, especially in context of the vote banks.
Remember that this Maharashtra government is not R.R Patil's fiefdom. If we are here, god would take care of us. We'll have some difficult days, but we'll survive together. But we won't prostrate in front of any leader (politician). We won't flatter any leader. I said this yesterday too, that no such news should reach me. We have people amongst us who don't mind going after the leaders and begging them. I am ashamed to say that some people here play pimp for the ministers, provide them with women. We have to keep ourselves out of such things. We have to show these ministers their place. You ask your own conscience...
Sion, Mumbai
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Sion, Mumbai
This sudden eruption of moral policing, in the era of globalization and service industries, seems to be prompted by either some political mileage or hidden economical deal. Wonder how Manjit Singh and co, with all their acumen with which they have run this volatile industry, could not anticipate this development well in advance. Or is it a case of business fall out with the power to be?
We are free. This is our country. If they gang up on us... but if they approach us with love... we are ready to meet them more than half-way. But if they consider us weak, they want to threaten us to close down our business, we would not let that happen. The opposition hasn't said anything yet, and I don't know why. But if you would get on the streets and ask for your rights, the opposition would support you, and Maharashtra government would have to cow down and take this decision back.
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Lot of people must be tensed today, but are enthusiastic too. Mr. Manjit has filled us all with enthusiasm. But one thing that we have to do is that this battle has to fought with our minds. Our enemy is ready to strike in all manners because they have all the means to do it. Because it is the government, it has all the means.
Sion, Mumbai
Varsha Kale, President of Bar Dancers Association addresses the bar owners. Varsha Kale comes from a broad socialist background and started unionizing the bar dancers more as a voluntary activity. The union wanted to work towards service benefit, medical benefit, post-dancing re-employment from the bar owners and against police atrocity etc. The talk of the ban has brought an abrupt halt to the growth of the union and forced the bar dancers to ally with the employers.
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varsha kale
I will put forth some issues for the owners to think about. I had asked yesterday if everyone has a copy of the GR (Government Resolution) that government had published to close down the bars. Many owners had said yes to that. If yes, people who have it today, please raise your hands. If you don't, then we'll have to discuss a bit about what this GR is. Copy of your license would be with you. As this GR is in Marathi, it's important to know it, though most of the Shetty's who own the bars have been living in Maharashtra for long now, probably for many generations, so they know Marathi. This GR has many allegations against us. One of them is that we run prostitution rackets in the bars. And this is like one stamp on us that we do wrong things. This is the image of us today in the society. Image of bar dancers is also very bad. The stamp that has been put on them is of a prostitute, or that they earn lots of money without doing any hard work. In 1996, there was a book on dance bars called Sanshodhan (correction), which I doubt you all must have read. But there were many of you from here who had helped the researcher in her study. The book spoke about women who embrace morality and the ones who leave it. People from the bars had spoken to the writer. It has been 8 years since the book came out. I have read one research study in Marathi and it is called the problems of the women working in beer bars. Now there is a stamp on the women that they do immoral work. Allegation on you is that you run pick up points, and that you are in a bad business and that you continuously break the laws. So I feel that today, bar dancers and hotel owners are at the same place. Bad things are happening to both the groups. So Union and Association can plan something together.
Maharashtra
Varsha Kale insists on the bar owners reading and understanding the Government Resolution passed by the State Assembly. She felt that this would be crucial in understanding the legal steps that Bar owners and Bar dancers associations could take in the court. Government Resolutions GR) are public announcement of important orders/decisions passed by the Government. In a country like India, or maybe in all countries, there is a large gap between laws governing the people and people's understanding of it. Often the litigants seeking justice in the courts cannot follow the logic and process of the law and thus get cheated. Varsha, as a leader wants her colleagues to be well informed and well prepared for the struggle. According to her the ignorance about and callousness to the broader society has landed them in the soup that they are in today.
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According to Kale, in all the years that bars were raided by the police on various grounds, the owners never tried to understand the implications of that. Thus strong legal precedents against the dance bar had already been created by the state. The owners were too busy to temporarily resolve the issue in hand and resume the business. So, charges and legal allegations used against them kept mounting up which would be now used by the state. This is a typical problem of democracy where laws function without a culture of rights. The unscrupulous bar owners tended to rather buy temporary freedom to run their controversial business than fighting for their rights to do so. Most probably they too were culturally conditioned to believe that they were involved with a morally wrong profession and thus networking and bribing were the only way to deal with it.
I have been working with the bar dancers and you for a year now. I had been thinking that the sections under which we were being charged in the GR would be 110, 294 and PITA (Prevention of immoral traffic act). But here, 110, 111 Mumbai Police Act, 112, 113 etc are being used. The social workers and I found that the total sections used to charge the bar owners, dancers during different police proceeding amount to 26. We haven't tried to find out why and how we were charged with these 26 different sections. Many times bar owners' don't take a copy of FIR(first information report), or the FIR number. Copies of some of the answers for the summons have been given to me by a few people. But many bar owners feel ashamed that police proceedings are happening on them, therefore they hide this kind of information. From whatever little information I have, I found that total 26 charges have been put on bar owners, bar dancers and dance bars.
Sion, Mumbai
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Sion, Mumbai
Varsha tries to educate the bar owners. She is convinced that it would be a long drawn legal issue. She prepares them for a long wait and a long fight. She was proved right later. The case against the ban is still pending in the Supreme Court as in June 2008. Though the Bombay High Court has struck the legal provision as unconstitutional and recommended to open the dance bar conditionally in April 2006, the state has gone on appeal to the Supreme Court and thus practically managed to keep the bars shut.
You must be wondering why I am talking of sections when the bars are being closed down. But a big issue in front of us is about what the GR says. Government says that we are running discos and pick up joints. People who are not doing this know what their business is about. We work on dance bar and performance license. I would read out the points in the GR that proves the basis on which it has been given to us. It's written here all the things that are allowed as performance. There is an article numbered 12. If you want copies, it'll be given to you. If even the media asks you questions, please pass this information on to them as well, as people don't know about this. (quote from the GR in Marati)
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It's written here under 12 that you can play any kind of music in the bar, it could be western or (Indian) classical or instrumental. Under 12, it talks of dances performed in Western countries and their folk dances. If you perform a folk form, you will have to wear appropriate, suitable clothes. So, when we were reading this lightheartedly, I was thinking of those small islands and the kind of dresses they wear when they perform their folk dances. It is part of dancing to wear clothes that go with that kind of dance. If this mentioned here, then western dances are also allowed for performance. GR says this, not me or you. You haven't read it or you don't know it. I respect the Parliament where our fates are decided, I believe in the people's rule. But, if there has been such a decision regarding us, we must be informed officially through a circular, which it has not been.
Sion, Mumbai
Varsha Kale speaks about the intricacies of the performance license that dance bars are suppose to run on.
Kale is a powerful orator. She carries the crowd with her as she jumps from sub-issue to sub-issue within the major problem.
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in a related study.....
After this, under 3, it says, Ras Garba, Dhandiya, Disco Dhandiya, kinwa Parjanya Dhandiya, Raen Dhandiya - Indian folk dances like these. If the girls dance the Warli, what kind of dresses will they wear? (Warli is a tribal community in western Maharashtra. Warli dancers, most probably would wear very little clothes) I might not know much about the dance forms of other states, but I do know about Maharashtra. That, and the knowledge cinema and Bollywood has got to us. If you want to make the girls perform to Indian folk forms in the bars, what will happen? Think about it, because this (the GR) says that those can be performed. Have you ever made the girls perform such dances? Tell us if you have, that the the girls have performed Warli, Kolin where you wear 'those' kind of clothes. It is a folk dance. Based on all this and more from this GR, we request R R Patil to kindly explain the meaning of culture to us. My husband who teaches history at the Maharashtra College, my father-in-law who taught history at big universities and my mother-in-law who taught Marathi literature
could not give me a proper definitions. R R Patil knows and has practised law, so let him define folk art for us, it should be a well-defined term. If you run the country and the law, you need to give us well-defined term. You can't just say, "that man". Who is that man, his caste, his state, his language? Give us well-defined terms. If we Shettys (a Kannadiga community who are majority as bar owners) didn't ask these questions, then what will happen? We can't ignore this, because this is a psychological war and there are many cases under Article 294 against you.
Sion, Mumbai
The regulation allowed performances of folk dances in the bar and permits the dancers wearing costumes appropriate to such dances. Yet it seeks to ban immodest and vulgar clothing for the dancers. Varsha rightly senses a catch here. The genre of folk dance is large and varied in India. As they are popular and pedestrian cultures they could be very well be considered 'vulgar' by the modern state and urban populace. This is a case of clash between modernist sexual morality and robust sexual energy of popular cultures. The state mentions about 'Folk Dance' as an exemption to ban on bar dance based on the erroneous belief that sexy dances are part of western culture and Indian traditional culture is overtly modest. As Varsha rightly points out, though little mildly, what would happen if the bar dancers really start dancing in clothes appropriate to folk dances - some tribal dance forms would require the women to be in nude or atleast bare breasted. This is a ridiculous example of ignorant parochialism and cultural bankruptcy on the part of the state.
Varsha, being a politician who is also exposed to contemporary feminist debates has caught the govt. documents at the right places. At this point she also put her Marathi, middle class background to use. The politics of Maharashtra, specially in Mumbai, has always been overwhelmed under the issue of autonomy of Marathi (people of Maharashtra) culture and its decay due to the influx of non-Marathi migrants. Even the phenomena of Bar dance is attributed to this - as the bar owners and the bar dancers are allegedly non-Marathis.
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Sion, Mumbai
Varsha Kale is at the best of her wit and oratorical quality. How does obscenity gets defined, what is the degree and scale? The subjectivity involved in the issues of morality, the absurdity of controlling body language and gestures in a performance and the audacity to make a law which can be defined and defied in hundreds of ways - Varsha explains it all with ease.
We have a lawyer with us: 294, the Obscene Songs and Dance Acts in the Bombay Police Act. These people have cases under 292, 293 and 294 against them. Define obscene songs now. Did any of you get circulars from the Government saying which songs to play and which ones not to? If you did get one, raise you hands and shout out. Our fight has begun. Did anyone get the circular?
Chorus: No...
Kale: Then, without the circular in hand, how did you conclude that the said songs are obscene or the Act is obscene? It has happened to one, to two, to ten, to hundred. Now, I know the maximum cases under 294 are on people associated with the bar, like dancers, owner, managers and audio system controllers. Your committee should ask the Government for a list of obscene songs and songs that won't invite 294. That is how it is in Singapore. Snake dance (nagin) is banned there. The dancers are actually asked that - has anybody instructed you to dance lying on the floor, the way you do in India? And if the girl says - yes, then she may get in trouble. But, here, there is no circular with you about the obscene and decent songs. So, if someone feels at night that a certain song is obscene and R R Patil feels during the day this it is not, how can we run the bar?
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Kale tries to contemporarize the context of the ban. Morality is not only subjective and culture specific, it is also time specific. An art work or piece of literature termed immoral at one time of history could be considered as classic in other time. Currently in India there are waves of moral policing and censorship. It could be sexuality oriented or religious. To name a few in recent past, an acclaimed film on lesbian relationship (Fire by Deepa Mehta), works of eminent painter M F Hussain on issues of blasphemy (claimed by Hindu fundamentalist), books on Marathi king Shivaji on the issue of public sentiment were banned. The culture of ban comes from the practice of treating the citizens as ward of the state.
Interestingly the legal age to vote in India is 18 and the entry to dance bars is restricted to people below the age of 21. It is strange that when you know what's good for your country at 18, why can't you know what's good for yourself. When exactly does adulthood, as defined by the law, begin?
Look at Mona Lisa... does her smile seem sexy to you? That painting was considered obscene and the woman, sexy. She was just wearing a boat-neck that common in those times, but a painter had caught her smiling in his painting. Just by this, Mona Lisa and her painter (Leonardo Da Vinci) were ostracized. But, we don't see it as obscene now. It seems to me like a mother's smile, but in that day and age, they thought it sexy. Our question is, what is sexy and what is not, what is obscene and what is not. I think R R Patil can answer this for sure, because maybe he knows all Bollywood numbers, and their obscenity or otherwise and if obscene, how they passed those in the censor board. Because, my next issue is the performance license granted to you. In it is Clause F, under Conditions and Restrictions, that says, the permission to performance should be to adults only. Adults means over 21, not 18. Even the performance to those over 21 is filtered. I question this.
Sion, Mumbai
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mona lisa
moral policing
morality
objectionable
obscene
painting
practice
public sentiment
r r patil
religion
sexuality
sexy
shivaji
state
subjective
ward
In India the art practiced by the traditional artists were never formalized through institutions. The skill ran into the family and the community as legacy. The modern nation-state is trying to formalize them under the law. And the result can be as disastrous as a police constable issuing certificate for dancing skill. The police must have thought of this idea in order to curve prostitution under the disguise of dancing. But there again prostitution is not illegal. Besides, the courtesan tradition exists on a thin line between performance and sex work. The utter confusion arises from the attempt to criminalize sexuality based works under the influence of post-colonial morality, presently fuelled by the dominant AIDS campaign.
In fact, I personally met the Nagpur CP (Commissioner of Police) because he asked the girls about Clause A: "Performers must be genuine artistes having genuine experience in this regard". So the constable called each of the girls and asked them to demonstrate their dance. He used to write in his form that a certain girl cannot dance. We asked the CP if dance as a skill is required to be judged by policemen. What right did the constable have to scrutinize the girls? The CP, as you all know went to Nagpur on a promotion from Bombay, said it was not the case. I asked him if he knew how much trouble he could get into. The form says the girls don't know classical dance. But, the license given by none other than him does not mention classical dance. I showed him the GR and asked him where it said that classical dance is a compulsory skill. He said it's not mentioned, so I asked him for a well-defined term. He asked the girls for a certificate to prove their dance training. Where will the girls produce these certificates from? We argued with them that these girls are from traditional entertainers' community. You know the communities these girls belong to, with surnames like Raj and Singh, and from Rajasthan and Agra. I have repeatedly named these communities, so I wouldn't care to name them again. I asked him, have you seen the certificate of flute player, Hari Prasad Chaurasia? Additionally, we called up Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia and asked him if he could produce any such certificate. He laughed and said he is from a wrestlers' family and his father wanted him to wrestle, but he started playing the flute and he gave me the history of it. Whose certificates will he demand during performances? The Nagpur CP will say something, the Mumbai CP another, the Thane CP something, the Pune CP something, it doesn't work that each CP interprets it differently. All of you, present here need to be very angry about this, and ask for a common definition, the term genuine artiste to be defined properly. We went to the extent of telling the CP that if he says only 50-year old women can be allowed to dance, then so be it. But say it on paper. (on record). If you say two women and two hens ought to dance, then we are ready for that too. But, put it down on paper! Whatever is written down is not well-defined and people can be fooled using this. Forget about them setting up a committee; we tell them to set up a committee and tell us. We need to do business. All you have to do is point out shortcomings, get bribes, and gorge freely. (Mufath mein khaana hai) We need to do business, and for that, we will follow the given instructions.
Sion, Mumbai
agra
aids
bar dancer
bribes
campaign
certificate
classical dance
clause a
commissioner of police
committee
community
constable
courtesan
criminalize
cultural practices
disguise
entertainers
flute maestro
flute player
hari prasad chaurasia
illegal
legacy
mumbai cp
nagpur cp
nation-state
performance
post-colonial
prostitution
pune cp
raj
rajastan
rajasthan
sex worker
singh
skill
thane cp
traditional
Sion, Mumbai
The fault, it seems, lies on both sides. The establishment that asks and the industry that gives. Apart from the high license fees, bribes are so common in the bars that police officers pay superiors to be transferred to dance bar neighbourhoods! The bars pay the policemen, the officers pay their superiors to stay on in that area and the cycle goes on. Even the bars that are completely authorised and legal have to pay up to avoid raids.
There's only one clear instruction here, Mr. Manjit, and that is about the license fees that the Government gets.
Manjit: (low volume to Kale)
Kale: Yes! They read even what is unwritten. They can read how much hafta (weekly bribe) goes to them. Bar owners have told me how a senior PI (Police Inspector) argued because he was receiving lesser bribes than his predecessor and showed diary entries saying that he (the earlier PI) received more. So, they read out the unwritten to you and you listen. We, the people from this industry, listen to that too.
authorized
bribes
corruption
dance bars
document
fees
government resolution
gr
hafta
instruction
license
manjit singh
pi
police inspector
police officer
raids
revenue
system
transfer
varsha kale
vicious cycle
Most of the legal provisions which are used against women are actually enacted in the name of protection to women. Indecency, immodesty, immoral, trafficking etc. are dealt with in many legal acts constituted to safe guard the women. Even the women's movement, in its initial days, asked for such laws to safe guard the women. Somehow it was understood that 'women' means middleclass, marriageable or married, non-working or working in normal office structure kind of females. It was not considered that the sex workers, female entertainers, non-heterosexual women, traditional courtesans and many other women in unusual life style could also come under the same law. Today it is proved that the number of women in the second category is very large and the current legal statues do not protect them. Laws such as SITA or PITA, about immoral trafficking which was constituted to protect women from being sold in flesh trade, are being used to harass the women who opt for jobs in entertainment industry.
Varsha Kale, calls for citizens' participation in making laws. She also attempts to counter the parochial campaign of the state (regarding Marathi culture etc) by calling for an assertion of Shetty community (they run most of the restaurants in Bombay)
Sion, Mumbai
We had asked the girls what they are asked... Soliciting is covered under Section 7-8 of PITA (Prevention of immoral traffic act, currently called SITA - suspension of immoral traffic act) and after we are booked we ask the police the where, how and why of the soliciting... if they need witnesses, they arrange for fake ones, fake customers. But, the law says the girls should not be subjected to trauma. But I feel, not just the girls, but all of you have undergone this trauma - what if there's a case against me, what if I raise my voice today and get harassed tomorrow, what if they increase the bribes, what if there's a second case against me, what if my license gets cancelled... don't these fears they create keep you in trauma? You can see now, I went to Nagpur, all the three bars are shut down. The faces of the hotel owners seem as if there has been a death in the household. Girls were showing the money they had, and telling the owners that that's all they had. These people are not aware about all this, and the post raid trauma. Because they are blind and deaf, thick-skinned and so, they will not understand anything until you show them the papers. They understand the language of papers very well. So, every Shetty (a community from Mangalore who are majority in bar owners) should question them on what is not there in the papers. It is so that the girls know their rights on being arrested, that we start training the girls on legalities. If you get arrested, what are your rights? We need to gather at least some information about all this at least now and if you need this translated into Hindi, Kannada and then read it, please take it. I feel this can be your biggest weapon. And we can start fighting, and from tomorrow we can say that Fight for Rights (the bar owners' association) should also be a member of the Committee. There has to be a representative member from the Bar Girls Union on the committee. If this is a democracy and R R Patil is our respected representative, then we need the respect too, because we need to tell them about who they represent and force them to take the decision accordingly. If they want to take decisions based on the Maharashtrian / non-Maharashtrian, like Shettys, as the events since yesterday suggest...then if all of you can come together, we can show them...the Shettys have provided delicious food in Maharashtra for long and it's not difficult for you to reach their hearts. For as they say the way to the heart is through the stomach. If you are the providers of food for them, then you can also put pressure, even in the name of community. I request you to understand your own strength. If you have a GR, a license, then please take a copy... we can provide it to you, along with a set of questions you need to ask on behalf of your community. So, without much work, let this problem pass, and then we will think about training, bring in some lawyers too. Please don't just say you have it with you. If you don't have it, say so, as most people don't take the trouble of having a GR, but we have it.
assertion
bar girls union
citizen
class
community
courtesans
democracy
entertainment industry
fake customers
female entertainers
fight for rights
flesh trade
government resolution
gr
hetro-sexual
identity
immodesty
immoral
indecency
laws
legal
license
life style
maharashtrian
marathi
middle class
normative
parochial
pita
prevention of immoral traffic act
protection
provision
r r patil
raids
representative
restaurants
safe guard
section 7-8
sex workers
shetty
soliciting
statues
traditional
trafficking
trauma
women's rights
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