Re: Letter to the PM. Atrocities on Sex Workers in Sitamarhi, Muzaffurpur District, Bihar

[Guest guest]

Dear Meena Ji,

This is quite appreciative initiative. The atrocities against CSWs of

Sitamarhi district in Bihar were quite awful. The seriousness of the issue has

compelled me share my experience and thought.

Sitamarhi is once again in news today. The news is quite alarming. Report of

ICTC centre at district hospital for last four month says that sixty people are

found HIV +ve out of 725 tests done for HIV.

This reflects the alarming trend in HIV prevalence in Sitamarhi district. The

+vity rate has gone 12.8% as per the report of ICTC centre at Sitamarhi district

hospital. There is regular scarcity of Test kits in the district ICTC. The

situation is quite predicted as Sitamarhi is becoming hub for trafficking and

illegal immigrants from Nepal and Bangladesh.

Increase in the  number of Drug addicts and Flying sex workers are regularly

reported by local news paper. A large amount of investments from white collars

and mafias had been done in the Red light areas of

Sitamarhi. May CSWs are becoming the escape goat of rivalries between mafias.

Also a large number of labourers have been migrating to the big cities of India.

 

Other districts of North Bihar have also shown increasing trend in HIV

prevalence and high risk activities.

There is greater need of advocacy, sensitisation, networking and convergence to

respond to the explosive situation of HIV prevalence, Violence against CSWs and

Drug addiction to sustain the esteem life of CSWs in Sitamarhi and other

districts of north Bihar.

 

Regards,

Nitish Sinha

Muzaffarpur, Bihar

e-mail: <nitish_kr_sinha@...>

[Guest guest]

Dear All

Re: /message/8799

We all understand that there are States like UP, Chattisgarh, Bihar , Jharkhand,

MP, Orissa etc., where HIV interventions began much later owing to not being

termed as high prevalent States.

With little systems in place and lesser know-how on issues, the percentage of

HIV among high risk groups is bound to seem alarming.

Without trivializing the seriousness of increasing HIV incidence, we need to

look at what happened at Sitamari that goes much beyond HIV, to understand the

implications.

The land mafia obviously wishing to grab land uses a minor provocation as an

excuse to attack sex workers living in a 'red light' area for over hundreds of

years. The area which at one time was at the outskirts of a hamlet has become

more central owing to natural expansion of the town.

Razing the houses to ground was a ploy employed elsewhere too (Baina (Goa )

comes to my mind immediately though the houses there were bulldozed and not

burnt). Using morality as grounds for evacuation is very old and is almost

passe, though it seems to be returning with appalling vehemence into fashion.

What is important for all of us to note is; A few months back a pickpocket in

Patna was beaten by public with police being onlookers and it made national news

with the same video clipping shown over and over till you got sick.

A few hundred sex workers were beaten in sitamari, made homeless, some women

including children burnt to death and you think it would rate at least a one

liner in an obituary column?!! No, the media has been silent on the issue.

Except for a few stray reports in the local newspapers, the national media

conspired in silence against sex workers.

The District authorities made moralistic noises wanting the women to promise

they would refrain from sex work so that they could be rehabilitated!

Forget about taking action against the persons torching the houses or the

ineptitude of law enforcers that made them mere bystanders while the burning was

going on. Nay, they were busy arresting women and confining them in camps cattle

would not stray in.

Letters to the NHRC, NCW, The CM of Bihar and the PM has not evoked any action.

So what is so big about a few hundred sex workers being rendered shelter-less

and fending for themselves all over again?

Would they get back their places? Would their houses be rebuilt by the

government? Would their grievance, hurt and loss be recompensed? Would their

children stop having nightmares? Would their basic human rights and dignity be

restored?

What happened in Sitamari is not an issue of 'HIV transmission rates'. Let us

not forget for every incident of human rights violations against marginalized

populations there would be a manifold increase in the HIV incidence too.

That would be the price we pay for our lack of conscience; our ineptitude to

tackle power structures; our unwillingness to display and demonstrate the

respect and dignity we say we have for sex workers the world over.

In solidarity

Sreeram

Sreeram Varadadesikan

e-mail: <setlurs01@...>