Kolkata police attack sex workers

[Guest guest]

DMSC, Kolkata,Date: 13.01.2004,

UNDER ATTACK ONCE AGAIN!

Friends!

As I write these lines, we, the sex workers of Sonagachi in Kolkata (India)

are under attack once again! Only this time, the attackers are not goons or

hoodlums or local thugs! This time the thugs are in uniform: the Kolkata

Police is striking at us!

As all of you (and most of the world know), we, the sex workers of Sonagachi

and of other red light areas in West Bengal have collectivised ourselves

under Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC) – an organisation of and for

sex workers. As DMSC, we run one of the most successful STD/HIV Intervention

Programmes in the world – the famed “Sonagachi Project”. Besides DMSC, we

have our own micro-credit society Usha, our cultural wing Komol Gandhar and

our trade union, Binodini Srameek Union. We also run Self-regulatory boards

in red light areas to prevent trafficking and entry of minors into the

trade. Every new entrant to the sex trade, adult or minor are interviewed

and counselled by the DMSC Self-regulatory Boards. We actively help all

unwilling adults and minor girls options out of sex work.

As a result of DMSC’s successful intervention activities among sex workers,

Sonagachi had forgotten police raids for a while. However, of late, a group

of policemen from the Kolkata Police Headquarters have, in the pretext of

searching for and rescuing minor girls trafficked into the trade, been

raiding brothels and harassing sex workers who are of age, and also picking

up, arresting and harassing, in the name of ‘rescue’, girl children of sex

workers. We at DMSC had lodged formal protests about the matter but the

government did not take any action to stop this.

This morning, a posse of police under the leadership of one Shib Shankar

Guha (Special Officer, Immoral Traffic Cell, Kolkata Police HQ, Lalbazar)

raided a brothel in Imam Bux Lane in Sonagachi red light district and

forcibly picked up Payel Mazumdar on charges that she is a ‘minor’ and ‘has

been trafficked recently’ into Sonagachi. Payel Mazumdar is a sex worker who

is ‘of age’, has two children and has been working as a sex worker for the

last 6 years in Sonagachi. When women in the house and neighbourhood

protested strongly to this harassment the posse of police resorted to an

unprovoked and brutal baton-charge! A large number of our sex worker

activists and staff of the intervention project suffered body blows and had

to receive medical care. Innocent bystanders, notably children of the

neighbourhood too did not escape the brutal police third degree – around

fifteen of them received baton injuries and had to be hospitalised!

We immediately protested these acts of barbarism by the police and gave a

deputation to lodge a formal complaint with the local police station

requesting it to take action, stop their brethren from continuing violence

against sex workers, and restoring normalcy within the area. However, even

as I write, police posses are sweeping down the lanes and by-lanes of

Sonagachi district searching out ‘faces’ that were featured in evening news

capsules on the TV! Friends! It seems that the Kolkata Police are become

like “Green Berets” in “search-and-destroy” operations – and desire nothing

more than to crush the sex workers’ resistance against police violence once

and for all!

Friends! We of Durbar strongly condemn this act of terrorism perpetrated on

us by Kolkata Police! We at Durbar strongly feel that this kind of violence

by the police on us reveal their utter callousness about our human rights,

and infringe on our right to livelihood. In addition, such acts of violence

by ‘upholders’ of ‘law and order’ on sex workers only manages to marginalise

us more, makes us suspicious of ‘mainstream’ interventions and sets back by

a quantum leap the gains DMSC had made in STD/HIV prevention efforts among

us! In short such police atrocities, take away not only our livelihood, but

also our health … and our lives!

We call upon you to protest against this human rights violation, and

violation of the right to livelihood by the Kolkata Police (HQ Division) in

the strongest possible way! Friends we need your support in this hour of our

need! Please send your protests by post or by e-mail to following list of

persons! Friends! Do not delay! Time is of the essence! Protest against this

brutal police action immediately! Protest to protect the rights of sex

workers, to protect our health and our livelihood! We are fighting with our

backs to the wall and we need your support! We ARE UNDER ATTACK!!

In urgency and in solidarity!

Swapna Gayen

Secretary DMSC

Please e-mail your protests to:

1. Mr. Budhhadev Bhattacharya, Chief Minister Govt. of West Bengal

Email: cm@...

2. Dr. Surya Kanta Mishra, Health Minister Govt. of West Bengal,

Email: michealth@...

3. Mr. Narendra Nath Dey, Minister-in-charge Kolkata Police, Govt. of West

Bengal Email: mic-ca@...

4. Mr. Pratyush Mukherjee, Minister of State, Health, Govt. of West Bengal

Email: moshealth@...

5. Mr. Sreekumar Mukherjee, Minister of State, Home, Govt. of West Bengal

Email: moshome@...

6. Mr. JVR Prasada Rao, Health Secretary, Ministry of Health & FW Govt. of

India Email: secyhlth@...

7. Mrs. Meenakshi Dutta Ghosh, Addl. Secretary and Project Director NACO

(India)Email: mdg@...

8. Mr. Asok Gupta IAS, Chief Secretary Govt. of West Bengal

Email: chiefsec@...

9. Mr. AK Barman IAS, Secretary Health & FW, Govt. of West Bengal

Email: sechealth@...

10. Mr. Suresh Kumar IAS, Project Director WBSAPCS

Email: s_suresh_k@...

11. Mr. SK Chakraborty, Commissioner of Police, Kolkata (Lalbazar)

Email: cp@...

12. Mr. Somen Mitra, DC-DD, Kolkata Police (Lalbazar)

Email: dcdd@... and dcddkol@...