Women on the fringe, on the run

[Guest guest]

Women on the fringe, on the run

The Indian Express March 3, 2002

For a week now, Shabana Khazi, a middle-aged prostitute from the border town of

Nippani, 40 km from here in Karnataka, has been on the run. She has been hounded

out of her property by a gang of armed hooligans, happily aided by local

residents and politicians.

Shabana's offence- as is that of 29 other prostitutes displaced from Dewekar

colony, the town's red light area for 80 years-is her activist role in the

state-sponsored HIV/AIDS awareness programme among women in prostitution. The

programme has been coordinated by the Sangli-based NGO Sangram in parts of north

Karnataka and western Maharashtra for the last ten years.

When the Veshya AIDS Mukabla Parishad (VAMP) - a prostitutes collective headed

by Shabana - recently bought an 18-room property in the red-light area, it had

not bargained for the sharp reactions and vicious retribution from local as well

as elected corporators. The 30 prostitutes were hounded out of town following an

armed attack on Shabana's house on the midnight of February 17. The women are

now living in temporary shelters in places like Ichalkaranji, Sangli and

Kolhapur.

The looks on the row of houses once occupied by them bear witness to the

tension. The incident reflects the hurdles that anti-AIDS programmes which

involve prostitutes run into. " Five years ago, there was a similar problem in

Belgaum, " observes Vasant Bhosale, a senior journalist from Sangli.

According to Sangram's Meena Seshu, the property was bought with a view to

having a central office for the 5,000-odd CSWs participating in an awareness

programme from border districts of the two states. " Holding interactive and

training sessions on aspects like safe practice of sex and the need for health

check-ups, providing shelter to orphans and treatment for STDs prompted the

purchase move, " says Seshu.

The programme is funded by National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) through

respective state governments and is being implemented by NGOs across the nation,

she points out.

However, local residents and politicians fear that VAMP's activity would lead to

a rise in prostitution, which has been on the decline over the past few years.

Corporators Baba Khambe and Vijay Shetke dismiss the move as " a bid to revive

flesh trade under the garb of AIDS awareness " . And residents insist that VAMP

would 'sully' their 'respectable' lives.

Local police go a step further: " they are bloody veshyas, not normal citizens.

They deserve no relief, " Circle Inspector Satish S Khot is said to have

thundered when Seshu had taken the CSWs to the Townhall police station on

February 18 for lodging a complaint against the attack on Shabana's house.

Seshu's years of widely acclaimed social work was reduced by the police officer

to an offending description of " commission agent " . Not surprisingly, Khot's

action led to a furore among the NGOs working for women in Banglore, Sangli and

Mumbai. It has drawn condemnation and forced the Karnataka state home department

to direct an inquiry into the matter by Deputy SP Shivanand. The circle

inspector has since gone incommunicado.

The Dewekar colony, which was once an isolated slum-mostly inhabited by

prostitutes-on the outskirts of Nippani off the Pune-Banglore highway, has

witnessed considerable development in surrounding areas over the past few years.

Residential and commercial properties and even schools like the Nippani

Municipal High School, an English and Urdu medium school, and a balwadi are

located a stone's throw away from the red light area.

Khambe insists that residents are bound to be affected by prostitutes who land

up here from outside and frequent the colony each week. " Can't they (the

prostitutes) hold their meetings in just one room, " asks an angry Pandurang N

Bhise, who lives in living in the house across the road facing VAMP office. " My

daughters are of marriagable age, and our guests avoid visiting us due to the

increased activity of these women, " adds Bhise's neighbour, Shanta Gadkari.

The residents cannot permit any legitimisation of the trade in the colony, adds

Madhavi Shivaji Jadhav, a teacher from a neighbouring balwadi. " On several

occasions, our children have been found playing with used condoms discarded

carelessly by men visiting the brothels. It is unhygienic and we have brought

this to the notice of the prostitutes but to no avail, " she adds.

Seshu dismisses all apprehensions, while maintaining that VAMP's objective was

not to promote prostitution but to carry on with awareness. " For six years

before they acquired this property, the CSWs have been holding regular meetings

at my house in Sangli. Nobody ever complained, nor did my house turn into a

brothel, " she says.

Seshu also has the support of Nippani's former legislator, Subhash Joshi. He

points out that the number of prostitutes in the town had reduced from 200 to 29

over the last several years, and that figure has since remained stable. " It's a

baseless apprehension, " says Joshi, who feels that the opposition to VAMP's

activity can be attributed to jealousy by local residents against Shabana-whose

activist role under the programme has seen her jetsetting to NGO conferences at

places like Nepal and Chennai-rather bristling that morality. " They (residents)

feel, how can she deserve this, " Joshi says, adding that Khambe, who is a

building contractor by profession, had a vested interest in the property

acquired by VAMP.

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Dr.Jagdish Harsh ( jharsh@... )

Director of Administration and Operations

François-Xavier Bagnoud (INDIA) ( www.fxb.org )

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