By Arpita Raj and Indu Pandey:
Glittering attire, loud makeup, a bold personality and sex appeal to impress or to attract their clients, this is how a sex worker is depicted in movies like “Chameli”, “Chandni Bar”, “Dev D” etc. Actually, these are few characteristics which come to our mind instantly when we hear or read about the term ‘sex work’.
A sex worker has nothing to do what others think about them, as for many of them it’s a noble profession. Once their into this profession they have to keep their soul, emotions and more aside in order to be able to work. It is the monetary aspect for which they are into this profession. Sometimes it’s by choice and most of the time not by choice. But after a certain stage that becomes irrelevant.
But one should know as well as make efforts to understand the facts, figures and reality of this profession. Sex work is not only restricted to the act of sexual intercourse only but it goes beyond that. Sex workers face exploitation and violence as their clients know that they are not going to report to the police because no one is going to help them for who they are. Men seem to think that their bodies are up for sale. They think that, with some amount of money, they bought them. In most cases, clients vomit, urinate (clients apparently refer this as a ‘golden shower’) or excrete on them or on their beds. But with time, they have had to adapt to such ugliness.
Due to lack of precautions and sanitation, which is heavily required in this profession, many women die due to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis etc. Sometimes they get pregnant for which they are not compensated and subsequently they have to attend to more clients for survival. Now the situation seems to have changed slightly as these women are now very well aware about the side-effects of having unsafe sex which leads to HIV/AIDS or other infectious diseases as some NGOs are trying to educate and make them aware about protecting themselves from diseases.
There is a video uploaded on YouTube about the village of sex workers called Natpurwa in Uttar Pradesh. The most unusual aspect of this video is that it makes you familiar about one such village whose generations have seen and practiced sex work as work. This is mostly because the people in these villages are solely dependent on sex work as a source of income. The village is named after the Nats who are known as traditional performers or dancers. This community has slowly shifted from its talent of dancing as source of entertainment to sex work as a means of survival. People in the village call it a tradition that has passed on from one generation to another. It was a bit shocking to see the existence of this village whose generations have lived with the help of sex work. These villages are neither able to educate their children nor make them capable of fetching jobs.
According to a Human Rights Watch Report, there are 20 million sex workers in India and about 35% of them enter into this profession before the age of 18. However, according to the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act (IPTA) the client may be punished if the sex worker is below the age of 18. The causes which drag these women into this profession are primarily poverty, pressure on women within families after husband’s death or divorce, human trafficking, etc. Sex work in India is largely unorganised and unmonitored.
In the Indian legal context, sex work is not explicitly banned but brothels, pimping, and soliciting are. In India, the law that governs sex work is Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act (IPTA) of 1956. This targets the trading aspects such as pimping, brothel keeping etc. There is a difference between trafficking and sex work. This law doesn’t make sex work illegal.
On August 31, 2016, the Delhi Police busted the biggest trafficking racket (over 5,000 girls from Nepal and West Bengal trafficked) in the red light area of G.B. road, Delhi. In this case, Delhi Police arrested the culprits under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999 (MCOCA) which is to control organised crime and terrorism. MCOCA can be of great help in dealing with such cases as it can help in punishing those involved in trafficking. Recently, the Union Minister for Women and Child Development drafted a bill called Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill 2016.
According to a report, more than 1500 sex workers living in the red light district of GB Road in Delhi had their names in electoral rolls. They believed that they were exercising their rights as they felt the need to replace the existing government. The question that remains to be asked is why these people are still fighting for the right to equality, even after being around for a long period of time. There’s hardly any political party that had addressed their issues after winning elections at any point of time. Sex workers are still unnoticed, neglected and made invisible from social strata.
It will be absolutely wrong if we continue to neglect their demands for identity cards, voting rights, health facilities and old age pensions. They should have access to all these as citizens of India. It is only at the time of elections that the major political parties pay attention to their Voter IDs or Aadhaar cards. According to this report, in the 2008 assembly elections of Delhi, over 80% of sex workers had cast their votes. This was possible with the help of enrolment camps which were organised by the Delhi State Election Commission.
The other side of the story reveals a negative and hopeless one that there are many sex workers who are being forced to cast votes by various politicians, policemen and brothel owners. These sex workers believe that elections arrive every now and then but there hasn’t been any significant change in their living condition.
We can’t cover them under the blanket term ‘victim’. They are independent women who can exercise their rights if allowed to do so. They need better working conditions, proper monitoring and better health care facilities for their survival. Legalisation can help them in fighting with dignity and breaking the silence. The LGBT community have come on the streets to fight for their rights. But so many sex workers are still fighting against the society to come out of their homes and walk freely on the streets. They have become mute spectators who are forced to survive with hidden identities. The only solution seems to be collaboration of these identities to stand against the exploitation and ask for reformed law that can change their lives and living conditions.