Ban on Dance Bars

Ban on Dance Bars
(I wrote this sometime back...)

The decision by the Maharsthra Government to close down the dance bars has triggered a controversy. And much of the debate has been on aspects of moral policing and the state. Such a debate is not unprecedented, particularly in Maharashtra. The BJP and RSS along with the parivar outfits are known to have raised the need for such bans in the past. And it is the Congress government this time. The debate, as usual has centred around issues of moral conduct against human rights. Both sides have loaded their guns with arguments. It is very difficult to decide as to which of the two sides is ``correct’’ and the positions have been determined by whether one is a liberal or right winger.

A statement has been made that these dance bars corrupt the moral fiber of hundreds of youth (and it is made out that it intact otherwise), that they encourage anti –social activities, threaten the local culture, encourage immoral habits as the dance bars are also a breeding ground for prostitution. It is, on the face of it, ridiculous to argue that closing dance bars will solve all these problems. What happens in these dance bars? All that the dancers do is to imitate the dance numbers from commercial cinema; the girls are clad in similar kind of costumes as the dancers do in cinema.

Now, we have not banned “choli ke peeche kya hey…” in which Madhuri Dixit literally reveals what is asked for in the lyrics. Or such numbers from the Bollywood hits where pelvic gyrations are becoming a rule and are vulgar in all senses of the term. It is a fact that in most movies the heroine is seen dancing to seducing numbers wearing as little clothes as she can; or take the case of the many advertisements films or the hoardings in our towns now where too clothes are worn not to conceal but to reveal as much as the human body.

We also have programme beamed into our living rooms by Television channels where gyrations are shown as dance numbers. For instance one Malayalam language channel, recently brought the dance girls from Russia (a cheap proposition after the break down of the socialist system there) to do belly dancing on the occasion of celebrating one of the milestones in the channel’s life. The costumes they wore seem to set new standards for ramp shows. The point is that, no government thought of banning them.

Let me make it clear that I am not attempting to take sides on the issue of the closure of dance bars Maharashtra. At the same time, it is necessary to delve into an aspect that the ``liberal’’ position on this issue (to oppose the closure) has conveniently glossed over. For instance, let it be clarified here that running dance bars is a very lucrative industry rather than any effort to promote a liberal culture.

The president of Bar Association of Mumbai, Manjit Sethi’s outcry that the bar owners have to pay several lakh rupees as license fee to get a bar license and that they also spend a fortune as monthly fee at the police commissioners office besides the extortion money to the local police and goons is evidence that it is big business. And despite all this, the fact is these bars fetch them a huge profit. All will agree that they are not running a charity to protect the dance girls; over a lakh of them in the State.

Let it also be stated that for the dance girls, it is certainly not a pleasant or enjoyable experience to dance surrounded by men who ogle at them; many of them in an inebriated state, throwing currency notes at them when they think the girl danced very well. If you call it entertainment, it does smack of entertainment in the medieval, feudal setting. Like the Greeco-Roman past-time where the of the citizens and the rulers were privileged to watch slaves fight between themselves and with wild animals, the middle ages generated developed dance bars where women were objectified.

It is possible to argue that these girls in the dance bars are aware of what they are doing and it gives them a livelihood and that they are in the dance bars not because they were born in such families (as it was, we are told, in the middle ages). One of the arguments is that they are all above 18 years of age and are mature enough and also have the right to chose what they want. But then, let us attempt an honest answer to the question as to whether these girls are there as a matter of choice.

Mumbai’s dance bars are one of the destinations of the girls trafficked from villages and small towns across the country. Many of these girls are trafficked into the bars from places like Bangladesh, rural West Bengal, from villages in the Southern States and from the tribal areas of Orissa. And they do not spend the rest of their lives dancing in these bars. A study recently for the National Human Rights Commission involved interviews with girls arrested by the anti-trafficking cell of Government of Tamil Nadu.

It was found out then that the girls caught by the police in Chennai city were mostly from the rural areas of West Bengal and elsewhere; they were taken to the Mumbai dance bars initially and later on sent to places like Chennai and Bangalore on a contract basis (15 to 20 days) by organized gangs. These gangs, as it was revealed by the study (the report has been released) are well connected and have agents in every major city. Some girls are sent as far as Coimbatore to cater the need of the customers there.

Once the contract period is over (and if they are not caught by the police) they are sent back to Mumbai and a different group will be brought by the gangs in their place. This continues uninterruptedly. The anti-vice squad in Chennai has a record number of such arrests; around 5000 women sex workers a year.

It is in this context that we should place the demand of the Bharathiya Bar Girls Union. Varsha Kale, president of the union demanded that the government formulate a programme to rehabilitate the girls before closing down the dancing bars. And the government, it is reported, agreed to rehabilitate; but only the Maharstrian girls in the industry. It turns out that only 4 percent of the dancing girls are Maharstrians. Nobody, including the liberals, is prepared to see this simple but revealing statistics.

Where do these girls came from? How did they reach Mumbai? Who brought them there? Were they taken to Mumbai and employed in the bars willingly or were they forces into it for want of another option? Do they want to go back to where their homes?

Rather than making it appear that to run and dance in night clubs as an issue of human rights (as it is made out to be by the liberals) it is worthwhile that the idea of human rights and the Right to Life is addressed to in a composite and honest fashion. So that, the idea of life with dignity, which should necessarily include the right to livelihood is taken up. Meanwhile, the National Human Right Commission and National Commission for Women (who will now have to act on the representation from the Bharathiya Dance Girls Union), will justify themselves if they look at ugly side of the industry and recommend measures for rehabilitation.