Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Selling body to keep soul


Selling body to keep soul 

By R. Akhileshwari

'Papi pet ka sawal hai’ has been a line used ad nauseam in Hindi films. Yet that is precisely the line that is on the lips of sex workers their dependents and caste members of Eluru in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. In fact, that is the harsh reality of every sex worker who has to earn through this means to support her family.

While the media expresses horror at the recently-exposed trade in women sex workers in West Godavari district, the government orders investigations, and NGOs get active, everything grows quiet with the lapse of time. Public memory is short; shorter still the newsworthiness and therefore, the ‘life’ of the event in the media. The NGOs find the problem too vast to handle or solve single-handedly. Without active government involvement, the issue seems to have defeated everybody. And so, the sex trade goes on; women continue to leave their homes to work for a livelihood in cities; they remain in the clutches of middlemen or ‘contractors;’ they suffer ill-health and are in constant danger of contracting and spreading the dreaded AIDS disease.

As the demand for sex grows and as employment opportunities for women, especially for those with little education and no skills, are non-existent, prostitution has turned into big business. It was precisely the violation of this business’ unwritten rules that exposed the trade and the issue made a splash in Parliament last week.

Simple business

The way the ‘business’ is conducted is fairly simple: girls, mostly from two communities, Bogam and Dommara, are ‘contracted’ for a period of time, mostly for a year. The amount is negotiated and paid up to the ‘recruit’ family. The girls are taken by the ‘contractor’ to a city, mostly Hyderabad and Mumbai where she ‘works’ in a brothel or a red-light area. The contractor takes care of her boarding and lodging but she has to pay her medical bills, bail or bribes if caught by the police.

She gets to keep 40-60 per cent of her earnings according to the agreement. While a middle-aged woman fetches Rs.5,000 for three months, a teenager can command as much as Rs.25,000 a month. The two Godavari districts have traditionally been a ‘supply centre’ for girls and according to an estimate more than a 1,000 girls from these areas are to be found in Mumbai’s red-light areas.

At the end of the contract period she returns home, takes a break and waits for another or the same contractor to come forward with yet another contract. The district administration and police have denied that women were ‘sold’ or ‘auctioned’ as reported by a newspaper, nor was anyone forced into the profession. The event that provoked the report was the holding of a ‘caste panchayat’ of the Dommara caste to punish the violater of the contract system. A fellow Dommara man took four girls to Mumbai but after the ex piry of the contract period, the girls did not return. Scouts sent to Mumbai returned empty-handed. One of the girls managed to inform the police through one of her customers that they were being held against their wishes. They were rescued and sent home where the girls revealed they had been ‘sold’ by the contractor to a brothel owner. The culprit was pulled up by the caste panchayat and imposed a fine.

Official denial

While denying any ‘sale’ of the girls officials hide the fact that an auction took place along with the caste panchayat. According to the Progressive Organisation of Women, a women's activist group which led a fact-finding team to Eluru, the services of four girls were auctioned, and the bidding started from Rs 1,000. Both the girls and their mothers have denied that any ‘sale’ took place. As soon as the news broke out, three girls who were on their way to Mumbai were brought back fearing police action. The mothers of the girls maintain they were forced to send their daughters to faraway places like Mumbai and Calcutta because the local police had intensified their raids making it difficult for the families to make a living. However, police say that the main attraction in cities was higher earnings, relative ‘safety’ from the police and to some extent, ‘protection’ from the stigma of being a sex worker.

There are big bucks in this business as evident by the prosperity of the contractors and their financiers. Like all businesses, the business too is supported by financiers who lend money to the contractors and the few individual sex workers at an interest rate ranging from 20-40 per cent. According to an estimate, there are about 200 financiers in the two Godavari districts. If sources are to be believed about Rs 50 crore is invested in this business and the daily turnover is as much as Rs 10 lakh. There are no written agreements or surety or a guarantor; mutual trust is the key-stone of the business. According to police sources, each financier makes a profit of not less than Rs.50,000 a month.

Disgraceful

The President of the Progressive Organisation of Women  Sandhya said that auctioning of women's services based on their age and look was a disgrace but she said this was a natural corollary to women being ‘commodified’ in every aspect of today's commercialised ethos. “How is the auction of women's services any different from today's beauty contests and fashion shows?” she asked. The only difference, she pointed out was that sex workers did it for a living as they had no other alternative while women of middle and upper classes take part in beauty shows for fun and to earn money to be spent on themselves. The most important thing is that the educated, middle class and city-based women have society's acceptance for showing off their physical assets and making a living from it whether by modelling or participating in fashion and beauty shows.

“Both are inhuman, both degrade women; both violate the dignity of women. The only thing is that the auction is crude while fashion parades are organised in a sophisticated manner,” said Sandhya. Unless the society changes its attitude towards women, unless more employment opportunities are created for women, and unless we give up our double-standards, Eluru will continue to happen. Eluru is as outrageous as the experience of several women in cities and towns. As they wait at bus stops or cross-roads, for transport, or even while walking in certain areas, how many times has not a car stopped and a door opened invitingly? At times men in the car even show notes hoping to tempt the women.

Sociologists also point out that the problem is that also of social acceptability of prostitution by all classes. Women from the middle classes practise it in posh hotels or big houses in respectable localities catering to an even more respectable and rich clientele. Such social scourges can certainly be lessened if not eradicated provided the government takes up its welfare role more seriously, women's organisations are supported by society and registered NGOs take up issues based on the need to rid society of evils rather than availability of fund.

Published in  Deccan Herald, 13-12-1998

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