PaRCha - JNU - AISA material - 2005 ID-15158
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Pinky or Parvati? This is the morally loaded question that the leaflets distributed by an anti-dance bar lobby in Mumbai posed. Parvati, the paragon of Indian (read Hindu) womanhood and wifehood; Sweety, on the other hand, dancing on the debris of this idyllic conjugality. Not having rest contented by condemning the dance bar girls as purveyors of a depraved morality, the self appointed guardian of morality and the Deputy CM of Maharashtra, RR Patil, doubly othered the bar girls by painting them as a threat to the security and integrity of the country. Seventy five per cent of the bar girls, declared Patil, are outsiders. STD calls made by bar girls have been traced to Bangladesh. Certainly, xenophobia and morality make for a potent brew. Was it a mere coincidence that the closure of the dance bars came into effect on 15th August, as though to re-affirm the purity of the nation-state on its Independence Day. .
These women who dance naked, they dont deserve our sympathy. .
These women loot men and destroy their houses... .
These women who are opposing the ban, we will make their mothers dance
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These were some of the statements made in the Maharashtra Assembly when the bill to ban dance barsa bill supposedly to protect womens dignitywas being passed. Another member of the house declared that it was more honourable to commit suicide than to dance in bars. And the house applauded. The members of the Maharashtra assembly must have derived a great deal of satisfaction at the news of suicide of three bar girls in the last few weeks. .
With the ban, over 75000 bar girls were rendered jobless in a single stroke. The figures thrown up by a study conducted by the SNDT university is revealing: almost all the bar girls are drawn from backward and poverty-stricken districts of Maharshtra, UP, MP and Rajasthan, and a majority of them hail from de-notified tribes such as Bhedia, Chari and Bhatu. Ignored by the welfare schemes and bypassed by the development plans of the State, the girls received no education, or training in skills that would allow them to turn to other professions. A number of girls interviewed by the study said that they had turned to dancing in bars when the factories and units they worked in as labourers closed down. And the conditions of work in those factories, they said, were no less exploitative. The State whose skewed policies in the first place pushed these girls into the bar dance trade, has now washed its hands off by refusing to offer any alternative or rehabilitation package. Desperation has driven many of the former dancers into the flesh trade and we may still many more suicides. (Please add one concluding line) .
We invite you to a discussion tonight on the topic blah blah .
.
PaRCha - JNU - AISA material - 2005 ID-15158
.
Pinky or Parvati? This is the morally loaded question that the leaflets distributed by an anti-dance bar lobby in Mumbai posed. Parvati, the paragon of Indian (read Hindu) womanhood and wifehood; Sweety, on the other hand, dancing on the debris of this idyllic conjugality. Not having rest contented by condemning the dance bar girls as purveyors of a depraved morality, the self appointed guardian of morality and the Deputy CM of Maharashtra, RR Patil, doubly othered the bar girls by painting them as a threat to the security and integrity of the country. Seventy five per cent of the bar girls, declared Patil, are outsiders. STD calls made by bar girls have been traced to Bangladesh. Certainly, xenophobia and morality make for a potent brew. Was it a mere coincidence that the closure of the dance bars came into effect on 15th August, as though to re-affirm the purity of the nation-state on its Independence Day. .
These women who dance naked, they dont deserve our sympathy. .
These women loot men and destroy their houses... .
These women who are opposing the ban, we will make their mothers dance
.
These were some of the statements made in the Maharashtra Assembly when the bill to ban dance barsa bill supposedly to protect womens dignitywas being passed. Another member of the house declared that it was more honourable to commit suicide than to dance in bars. And the house applauded. The members of the Maharashtra assembly must have derived a great deal of satisfaction at the news of suicide of three bar girls in the last few weeks. .
With the ban, over 75000 bar girls were rendered jobless in a single stroke. The figures thrown up by a study conducted by the SNDT university is revealing: almost all the bar girls are drawn from backward and poverty-stricken districts of Maharshtra, UP, MP and Rajasthan, and a majority of them hail from de-notified tribes such as Bhedia, Chari and Bhatu. Ignored by the welfare schemes and bypassed by the development plans of the State, the girls received no education, or training in skills that would allow them to turn to other professions. A number of girls interviewed by the study said that they had turned to dancing in bars when the factories and units they worked in as labourers closed down. And the conditions of work in those factories, they said, were no less exploitative. The State whose skewed policies in the first place pushed these girls into the bar dance trade, has now washed its hands off by refusing to offer any alternative or rehabilitation package. Desperation has driven many of the former dancers into the flesh trade and we may still many more suicides. (Please add one concluding line) .
We invite you to a discussion tonight on the topic blah blah .
.