Request help. Violence aganist women in Kokata. Police refusing to act

[Guest guest]

We are under attack

The time: 11 p.m., 29 August 2002. The place: Tollygunge, a red-light area in

Kolkata. The incident: Local mastans (anti-socials), who masquerade as the

neighbourhood big brothers, severely beat up Ms.Rekha Lodh, a sex worker. They

said she needed to be punished for having had a public altercation with her

current husband. In the middle of the night Rekha and her two young children are

thrown out of her room and locked out. The reason – she needed to be taught a

further lesson, the beating alone was not enough.

Ms.Swapna Gayen, also a local sex worker, and the President of Durbar Mahila

Samanwaya Committee, a sex workers’ collective, vehemently protests. With her

support Rekha dares to lodge a complaint with the police. DMSC too lodges a

first incident report. The police take no action against the perpetrators.

The bigwigs of the neighbourhood, who live off the earnings of sex workers

through extortion and running various other rackets in the locality retaliates

by launching a hate campaign against Swapna. How dared she bring in outsiders,

the police, to settle the neighbourhood dispute? She is persistently

intimidated, abused and harassed. When Swapna refuses to be cowered and

continues to protest, her husband, who works as a vendor in a shop run by one of

the leading mastans, is summarily sacked from his job to teach Swapna a lesson.

The STD clinic run by DMSC as part of their HIV prevention programme in area is

closed down.

So what is new? Sex workers are after all routinely subjected to violence and

human rights abuse all around India and rarely do the administration intervene

in their favour.

But this incident has a wider significance. For the last ten years, sex workers

of Kolkata have been organising themselves to protect their rights and end their

exploitation, and had also been in the forefront of an extremely effective HIV

prevention programme across West Bengal under the leadership of DMSC. This was

no isolated incident against individual sex workers. This was a premeditated act

to undermine this movement, and strike at the heart of its leadership. As

marginalised and exploited people come together and attempt to take control of

their lives, those whose interests are vested in their subordination have to hit

back.

On 06 October, two days after the DMSC clinic was reopened in response to local

demand, Swapna Gayen’s house was encircled by the same mastans who felt that she

and DMSC were a serious threat to their control over the locality. Anticipating

violence Swapna summoned police help. While four policemen from the local police

station were escorting her out of the area at her insistence, Swapna was dragged

away by the mastans and publicly beaten up. While she was held back by her hair

by some, the others took their turn to kick and punch her. She is now in

hospital. Some of her comrades in DMSC who rushed to the area on hearing about

the incident

Were also beaten up. While Swapna was being beaten the policemen simply looked

on. Rekha has been told by the mastans that she will be taken care of once

Swapna has been sorted out and put to rest. And the police have refused to

accept a first incident report this time. And of course the criminals are

running free. No, one person has been arrested and produced in court – though

not one of the criminals, but Swapna’s husband, Dilip, who had tried to protect

her.

Friends, the constitution of our state guarantees equal right and security to

all its citizens, irrespective of the class, gender or occupation. The state

takes special responsibility towards guaranteeing and promoting the rights of

those who have been historically exploited and marginalised. Our public

administration is charged to uphold the constitution and law of the land without

fear or favour. So why is the police so reluctant to intervene? Why do the

Tollygunj mastans, who are known criminals with police records so sure of their

immunity from law that they persist in persecuting Swapna? Is it because she is

a woman, an under-class, and a sex worker? Or has it more to do with the fact

that she the President of DMSC – the largest ever sex workers’ organisation,

which is challenging the very basis of persisting inequalities and violence on

the basis of class, gender and sexuality?

We appeal to you to act as individuals or on behalf of your organisation now and

write to the Chief Minister of West Bengal, the state Home Ministry, the Human

Rights Commission and the National as well as State Commission for Women and

demanding justice. If we do not protest and act now, once again we will be party

to the increasing assault on the democratic basis of our country.

Addresses of the above mentioned offices are mentioned below.

Yours in solidarity,

Ms. Angura Begum

Secretary, DMSC

Addressess :

1. Mr. Buddhadev Bhattacharya

Chief Minister of West Bengal

Writer’s Building

Kolkata – 700 001, West Bengal,India

Fax No. : +91 33 221 5480

2. Mr. Buddhadev Bhattacharya

Home Minister of West Bengal

Writer’s Building

Kolkata – 700 001, West Bengal,India

Fax No. : +91 33 221 5480

3. Ms. Purnima Advani / Ms. Sudha Malaiya

National Commission for Women

4, Deendayal Upadhyaya Marg

New Delhi – 110002

Fax No. : +91 11 323 6154

+91 11 323 6263

e-mail : mahila@...

4. The Chairperson

State Commission for Women

10,Rainey Park

Kolkata – 700 019,West Bengal,India

member_secretary@...

5. The Chairperson

National Human Rights Commission

Sadar Patel Bhavan

Sansad Marg

New Delhi – 110001,India

Fax No. +91 11 334 0016

+91 11 336 6537

6. Mr. Mukul Gopal Mukhopadhayay

Chairperson, State Human Rights Commission

Bhabani Bhavan

Alipore

Kolkata – 700 027,West Bengal , India

Fax No. +91 33 479 9633 Email : wbhrc@...

-------------------------------------------------