Like every woman, a sex worker should know how to sign

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Like every woman, a sex worker should know how to sign

Feb 6, 2011,

It is 6 pm in Sangli, the sugar bowl of southern Maharashtra and the city that

is second only to Mumbai in its numbers of HIV/AIDS patients. Brothels in

Sangli's Swaroop Talkies locality are teeming with customers and Awwa, the

Kannada word for mother, sits at the entry point to the red light area. She is

like a guard dog, fiercely preventing an eager customer from entering the chowk,

where a sex worker is humming nursery rhymes in an open class. Awwa holds the

man by his collar, variously showering Hindi, Kannada and Marathi abuse on him,

then watching with some satisfaction as he makes a hasty getaway. She then

orders customers already present on the scene to stand up straight for the

national anthem at India's first school for sex workers. It is a signal that

class is over for the day and time for the sex workers to start plying their

trade. Radheshyam Jadhav spoke to Amirbi Shikandar Sheikh alias Bandawwa, madam

of the brothel and educator extraordinaire. Excerpts.

How and when did you think of starting a school for sex workers? And when did

you actually start?

It was about five years ago that we decided to start our own school. Actually,

two sex workers went to a bank to deposit gold jewellery and were asked sign a

form. The manager laughed at them when they said they don't know how to sign.

They came home crying and said they wanted to learn how to sign. I felt bad.

Anyway, the world laughs at us and treats us like trash. I felt that we should

do something to make ourselves proud. When we started the school, the basic

intention was to learn how to sign (our names). This is how it all began. It was

not possible for us to go to school, so we decided to start our own school —to

learn. But there must have been many problems — who would pay the bills, who

would help set it up, set a curriculum, find teachers?

Some of the girls in the brothel are educated (so) I asked them to take

responsibility for teaching the others. In the beginning we tried to seek help

from NGOs and government officers to start the school. At the very least, we

hoped they might provide a single hall for us to sit (and learn). But no one

helped. Some people gifted us slates and a board. We decided to conduct class in

an open chowk. There was no specific curriculum when we started. But now we

teach women about safe sex, the use of condoms, healthy practices, poems, songs,

rhymes and reading and writing.

Ours is not traditional school. It is an open school with a unique curriculum

and we get a degree of dignity from this school. Now, our women can read and can

count, so no one can deceive them. The school has become popular in Sangli in

recent days and now it feels good that we have visitors, other than customers.

You say you sought help from NGOs and government officers and no one helped. So

how do you fund the school?

We do not have any funding. In fact there are NGOs and organizations run by

others who are not in the sex business but grab funds in the name of sex

workers. But we don't have any complaints.

How many sex workers signed up for lessons initially and how many do you have

now?

When I told them the idea of a school, the women here had hundreds of questions.

But I told them, 'let us start and see how it works'. Initially, a few attended,

today there are about 50 to 60 women who are regular at school. We face a

problem in the monsoon season as there is no classroom. Also, if I'm not here,

the time table is not followed. Lately, I've not been well and the school is

struggling. We need some help, some manpower to keep it going.

Are the sex workers' children allowed to attend your school?

Children from our basti go to regular schools. In fact, they come back and teach

us. On Sundays, they are our full time teachers. We have vouched that we are

last generation in this business. So all our children are encouraged to go to

school.

Was there no opposition to setting up —or maintaining —the school? Do the

customers ever say anything about it?

When we started the school people laughed at us. Especially the regular

customers who said it's a nautanki, which will end in few days. Some said that

we were doing it to get funds. When we started classes in the evening, the

customers said that nothing would happen even if we got graduate degrees as once

a sex worker always a sex worker. There is no way out from our profession. But

we don't bother what the world says. It's a fight for our dignity. My eyes were

full of tears when for the first time, I had a pen in my hand and signed in a

notebook.Would you say you're an educated person now?

I must be in my forties today. I have learned to sign in English and Marathi. I

am trying to read and write fluently. I landed in this trade after being

deceived in a love affair. I was 15. There was no question of education as both

my parents wereilliterate.

Does your school provide any vocational training at all?

We did try to start computer training. We also managed four computers to train

our women. The intention was to train them so at least some of them could get

some small jobs. But it didn't work as there were no teachers and people who

promised to co-operate in the training later denied they had. The old computers

we managed stopped working. But we are not discouraged. We will find our way.

So has this school helped any of the sex workers break away from the trade?

The majority of the women here have been in the business for more than 10-12

years and are not confident of surviving without this business. (And) I know

only reading and writing is not going to help them to get jobs. This is a

beginning. We have formed the Vyeshya Mahila AIDS Nirmulan Kendra, a registered

organization. See, it is difficult to change everything within a short span but

somewhere, we have to start and we have started on a positive note.

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