Response to: Alternative views to SANGRAM/VAMP activities

[Guest guest]

This is in response to the message posted by Mr Pravin Patkar of..

I am shocked at the tone of hostility and prejudice the message is suffused

with. His personal diatribe against me and my organisation, his complete

dishonesty in distorting and taking our words and position statements out of

context - these are not ingredients for fruitful debate and discussion.

I refuse to respond to these references to 'crocodile tears'. If only Mr

Patkar really heard the voices of the women who were hounded, attacked and

abused, he would understand their plight better. Shababa Khazi, general

secretary of VAMP told a reporter that being abused as a woman in

prostitution was not the same as facing abuse for helping to organise women

against their oppressive conditions. Can there be a better indication of the

collective sense of self-worth and self-respect the women have wrested for

themselves as a collective? If this is what the local politicians and police

fear, are the Patkars of this world any different?

Unfortunately or fortunately, I know Mr Patkar well, both as a lecturer in

the TISS, which I graduated as a master in social work, and as a fellow

social worker who slogged for several years running an organisation in

Raigad district of Maharashtra called Parivartan '84. I feel that he is a

sincere person, misguided certainly, but still sincere. Hence, I shall make

one last attempt to explain my position and reply to the charges he has

levelled against me.

Here goes:

1. As far as the quote in the book the heading actually says `Do not bring

children into prostitution.'

That was a campaign we did requesting women in the devadasi belt to push the

age of entry because it gave us breathing space for negotiation. besides i

deeply beleive that women who are in prostitution once empowered can take

informed decisions about such issues. and we can then together deal with the

violence that exists within prostittuion.

The outside world is so hostile to the women. i feel it is wrong to direct

them, raid them, rehabilitate them from the outside. a collective once built

will take informed decisions and it is their life. Durga who is a devadasi,

after our non-judgemental intervention has decided not to make her girl

child a devadasi. i am happy for her and we are doing everything to help her

educate her girl child. i firmly beleive that our intervention will help

many such Durgas. this is a process it will take time and it is a process

that encourages women to collectively help redirect their lives. it is so

convenient to say Ban prostitution. this only helps it to go underground.the

women suffer. they have suffered for generations because no one cares enough

to hold their hand and help them help themselves.

2. Sangram supports the human rights of women regardless of the nature of

the work they do. We believe that rights are essential tools for fighting

exploitation and abuse, including in the sex industry. Mr. Patkar's solution

to the problem of `prostitution' and `exploitation' is not through

supporting the human rights of these women, but to eliminate the women, that

is, to eliminate the prostitute. In a democracy, the solution to the

exploitation of oppressed and stigmatized groups has always been to provide

them with the rights to fight the abuse, not to eliminate the group

altogether, (which happens in totalitarian regimes.) Our fight for women's

rights is quite simple and consistent with what Mr. Patkar describes as a

`radical' idea - that these women are human and that human rights are

non-negotiable.

The allegations of Mr Patkar are not only false and malicious, they

undermine and are harmful to the rights of the very women he professes to be

helping.

3. Working with women in prostitution and sexwork in the HIV/AIDS prevention

program has helped address our own double standards and biases while

dealing with issues of sexuality and prostitution. As our involvement in the

program deepened, our beliefs, ideas and notions about prostitution and

women in prostitution underwent a sea change. Our perception of prostitution as

`exploitation, victimization, oppression, loose, immoral, illegal`, was shaken

to the core.

Prostitution and sexwork as experienced by Women.

Women in prostitution, have had to bear the specter of being wanton

[liberated sexual beings], worthless [making money from sex] and weak

[morally]. The whore stigma emphasized the `evil' [sic] influence of such

`base' women on the good moral behavior / character of society, deeming

them `deviant' women who transgressed the norms of acceptable social behavior.

The concept of the debauched, debased and deviant woman has always

governed public opinion. Women have therefore been policed, coerced and raided,

to be rescued, reformed and rehabilitated by a society that would " like to order

and control their life styles " 1, regulate or abolish prostitution.

It is apparent that while the " prostitution question " 2 will be continued

to be debated and arguments for and against, whether voluntary/forced,

`agency' / victim, trafficked / socialised, legal/ criminal, sexual slavery/

sexual autonomy, exploited / liberated, will continue to occupy theorists,

activists, and Governments, prostitution as experienced by the women

themselves is not given the kind of recognition it deserves in these

debates.

In recent years, the discourse around prostitution has changed and is now

in the frame work of human rights. Feminists, theorists and

prostitutes rights activists are involved in unravelling the complex and

complicated world of sexual autonomy, free choice, sexual exploitation and

the agency versus victim debates. This discourse has helped in that it has

shifted the focus from blaming the woman and her sexual preference to a

continuum ranging from the `beneficial exploitation of the institution of

prostitution ' to the `inherent victimisation of the woman in

prostitution'.

Though the prostitutes` rights movement started in the late 60's and early

70's, the rights approach has been challenged and will remain a dream as

long as it is plagued by advocates of the moral brigade or the proponents

of sexual autonomy and free choice, as mutually exclusive positions. While

the moral brigade argues that prostitution is inherently sexual exploitation

and violent, the free choice advocates argue that women `choose' sexwork as

an option and therefore they have a right to the kind of work they choose.

The discourse however, fails to recognise the dynamics of an institution

that encompasses a wide spectrum of elements from violence, exploitation

on the one hand and autonomy, agency to choose the best possible available

options, on the other. Prostitution is a way of life. All women are not

victims and to believe that all women are there out of free choice is also

utopian.

I appeal to everyone to come together and fight for the the rights of all

women irrespective of how they make a living.

In Solidarity,

meena saraswathi seshu.

E-mail: <meena@...>

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