Sonia Faleiro

The impetus for this story was the suicide of two dance bar girls in a single week in Mumbai. After the ban on dance bars approximately 75,000 girls and women have been rendered unemployed. This is the fall out.

Here are two of the stories, which reported the suicides. There is no mention of the pregnancy, the names have been misspelt, the ages are wrong. Sometimes I wonder if we have reached the point where even facts are subjective. This is my story.

"September 8. On a windy afternoon in Mumbai’s Bhagwati Hospital in Borivali West, a crowd of men has gathered to extract its pound of flesh. In the hospital morgue lies a 24-year-old mother of one. In her belly, unknown to the men outside, is her second child, three months old. But for the strangulation marks on her slim neck, her bronze body is flawless. She has high cheekbones and full lips; her black hair has been entwined in a sober bun by a kind hand. Shrouded in the cold meat smell of the morgue’s inner sanctum, Bilkish Sahu, the former bargirl whom her friends called Pinky, appears to have found the peace that eluded her in life.

Outside, hotel owners and members of the Fight For Rights Bar Owners Association haggle for possession of the body. They argue loudly with constable Babulal Pant, and insinuate themselves into the office where Dr Priya Bhonsle quietly works on the post mortem report. “The police is trying to call it murder,” explains Ronak Agarwal, who owns four dance bars. “They are liars. We won’t leave until we get a copy of the report to show the press.” Constable Pant is undeterred by the badgering. He jovially offers: “Her husband beat her to death.”

Pinky’s death wouldn’t have aroused a murmur two months ago. Since August 14 however, when the ban on dance bars in the state came into effect, a once thriving ecosystem of hotel owners, dancers, waiters, clothing suppliers, and auto-rickshaw drivers among others, is fading into extinction. Agarwal seizes the connection. “Of course, these girls will kill themselves. They drink, take loans and now they have no work. We want to ask RR Patil, how many more girls have to die before you reverse this decision? Tell us, we’ll deposit the corpses at your doorstep.”

Deputy cm RR Patil is the mastermind behind the ban, which has forced an estimated 75,000 women into unemployment, prostitution, or to flee Maharashtra seeking work anywhere they can find it: Bihar, Bangalore, Agra, Dubai. Opposing Patil, with equal ardour for the bright lights of TV cameras, are Manjit Sethi, President of the Fight for Rights Bar Owners Association, and Varsha Kale, President of the Bharatiya Bar Girls Union. This triumvirate is the passionate public face of a cynical political move. Adding to the gathering gale of excitement is the fact that Pinky’s alleged suicide is the second by a bar girl that week. The previous day, Meena Ramu T had hung herself in her one room home in Goregaon West.

Two deaths in one week, in a month during which the ban received little attention in the media, is timely fodder for the union leaders and associates, whose revenues have plummeted. On September 9, both the girls’ bodies were still in the morgue. Meena’s at Cooper Hospital; Pinky’s at Bhagwati. Posturing flambouyantly before TV cameras, Sethi warned: “Tomorrow, 10 a.m, we’ll carry the bodies from Cooper Hospital to RR Patil’s house.”

Predictably, the following morning he was arrested outside Cooper. As he entered the police van Sethi raised his arms with a dramatic thrust, eager messiah to his cherished cause. Hotel owners screamed with delight: “Manjit Sethi zindabad. RR Patil murdabad.” Behind them, the bar girls crouched in a tight group. Several covered their faces. Mang ka tikka gleamed in the parting of their blonde highlights. Questioned about the dead girls they feigned ignorance, moving quickly away. Then, goaded by the rough looking men accompanying them, they start a separate cheering squad, screaming zestfully, “Varsha Kale zindabad. RR Patil murdabad!”

Until their cheering, the girls seemed curiously distant from the issue of their own livelihood. The most vulnerable and manipulated constituent of the dance bar, the girls have grown accustomed to doing as told — whether by bar owners, bar patrons, family members, or now publicly, by Patil and the unions who claim to act in their interest.

Then suddenly the vans returned and a collective cheer fattened the air. Assuming that Sethi was being released, protestors jostled the police. Lathis were raised, limbs viciously attacked. Cheers turned to terror. It began to rain, suddenly, furiously. Everyone ran. Hoteliers this way, bar girls the other, the police to the station with their cache of over 100 protestors. The road cleared. Meena Ramu T remained undisturbed in her chilly resting place. As much a pawn in death as she had been in life.

Meena was 22. She migrated from Hyderabad to Mumbai seven years ago and worked as a waitress at two suburban bars, Rajnigandha in the day, and Shiv Mahal, at night. She drank whiskey with the customers, and later, when she returned to her 10 ft by 10ft room in a dank chawl, she drank alone. Although the police locked her room immediately after they removed her body, Meena’s presence is palpable — a string of lemons and chillies to ward away the evil eye, hang above her door next to a picture of a benevolent BR Ambedkar.

A former employer recalls: “After the ban she lived on loans and constantly worried about repaying them.” Agarwal, also one of her former employers, adds: “One night, having left work, she returned drunk at 1.30 am. She said her father, who lived in Hyderabad needed money. I asked her if she was drunk, and she said, “Yes, because I’m tense.” Meena’s neighbours saw a different side. Says Sitabai Sonawani, “She was quiet and polite. She always asked if I had eaten, and how my children were.” Adds Agnes S, “We didn’t know she worked in a beer bar. In fact, if a man entered when she was sitting in the room she would crouch in a corner.”

The police can offer no explanation except to support what the unions say: that evening, Meena was drunk and depressed. She killed herself. The 15-year-old, who had come to Mumbai seeking a better future, died only seven years later in a hovel, leaving unpaid debts and a life that had morphed into a nightmare.

Throughout the week, as the protests continued outside the Goregaon, Dahisar and Juhu police stations, Patil did not see fit to make a statement. Having succeeded in winning over the wardens of middle class morality, he knew any attention on the effects of his ban would tarnish his accomplishment. An initial promise of rehabilitating the girls was modified to only rehabilitating those from Maharashtra. After the ban, that too was flippantly dismissed. Demands Kale, “Not only should the girls be provided employment; until that happens, they should be paid Rs 100 a day. Otherwise prostitution will remain their only option.”

Far more contentious than Meena’s death, is the alleged suicide of Pinky. At 7 pm on September 7, Dahisar police station received a call from the Ekta Nagar Cooperative Housing Society. The society is a sprawl of single-rooms, flooded with stagnant water and faeces from the open sewer nearby, which swells and thrashes during the monsoon. Where Pinky once lived with her husband, Kishore Raj Sahu and her one-and-a half-year-old son Suraj, she was found, sprawled, one leg tucked under the other, death scarf by her side.

Dahisar is a highway town of flat slums and mountains of garbage, with dozens of dance bars catering to truckers and gangsters on the run. On the day of the protests, the news warned of a repeat of the floods of July 26. But it will take heavier rains than even this monsoon can offer to clean this agglomeration of ugliness.

Serpentine twists lead to Pinky’s small one room home. The walls are black with soot. Milk, perhaps intended for Suraj, has coagulated on the gas for two days — food for a swarm of flies. A reed mat is bedding and plastic drums are seats. On one shelf are a few clothes, faded and torn; a packet of beedis; a plastic hen-shaped toy. Next to a small cassette player are soundtracks of films with unsatisfactory endings. Dil to Pagal Hai and Sadak. Hanging on a nail is a black handbag emblazoned with bright purple and gold threads.

Pinky’s best friend Lata Raghavan Nair brought Pinky to the society last month from Dongri, immediately after she escaped an attempted rape. “She hated work,” recalls Lata. “But she had to do it because her husband had TB. She didn’t have the guile to get the customers to spend money on her — put chicken or beers for her on their tab. So the boss didn’t respect her.”

Lata and Pinky worked from 12 am to 12 pm serving drinks at the Apsara Bar in Dahisar. The evening of her death Pinky and Suraj ate a lunch of chutney and rotis with Lata. Then mother and son returned to their room next door. According to Sahu, when he returned home he found Pinky hanging from the fan. Terrified, he untied her and laid her on the mat. Ignoring the cries of his son, he then locked the door behind him and fled to Apsara, to Lata. “I told him we had to go to the police. Now they’re insisting he killed her!” says Lata, sounding aggrieved.

But the lives — and now apparently even the deaths — of bar girls are never quite as they seem.

A fter two hours of conversation, Lata abruptly says: “The union leaders told me not to tell anyone, but I’m telling you. Sahu killed Pinky. He would force himself on her; insist she eat from the same plate even though he had TB. He thrashed her when he was drunk, which was every day. That afternoon, he beat her till she fell unconscious. Then he throttled her with the scarf. He came running to me, saying that he had found her hanging and untied her. But he was lying. We all know that.”

A neighbour adds: “Pinky had taken a loan of Rs 10,000 of which Rs 6,000 remained with her. Sahu wanted to abscond with the money to his village in Kerala. But Pinky insisted it be paid back.”

Those who loved her believe Pinky was murdered. The representatives of the unions, who are aware of Lata’s version of events, insist otherwise. Although Lata says, “the police are not interested in us,” they appear to know Sahu as well as she. They have arrested but not yet charged him with murder. But Dr Bhonsle avers, “There were no bruises on Pinky’s body. She had no enemies. The marks around her neck indicate suicide.”

Pinky’s life and death epitomises the tragic irony of the bargirl’s life. While the girls’ beauty, song and dance is what brings in the patrons, the girls remain mere pawns, manipulated and disrespected by the bar owner, physically and emotionally abused by husbands or lovers. Since the ban, two factors reinforce the vulnerability of these impoverished women whose glitzy surroundings belie their bleak lives. They will go to the highest bidder, because money must be made. And they will stand by whoever represents their needs, however little their own say may be.

Along with her unborn baby, Pinky has taken with her the truth of what happened that evening. A week later, her body remains in the morgue. Her son is in a state remand home. Her brother, who has now left the city, eventually claimed Meena’s body. In the days to come these names — Bilkish (Pinky) and Meena will be repeated again and again, by politicians, union leaders, by hotel owners and the police. Their memory will be invoked or besmirched not to celebrate their life or to mourn their death, but to extract the maximum mileage for political, personal and union profit."

Tehelka, September 24, 2005. Photo credits for Pinky's home, Sanjiv Valsan.

Truly disturbing.Felt guilty about cribing over petty things while there are some who see so much in their short life that some of us can't even imagine forget relate.

The bar girls issue is really one of the more sensitive issues that we face now. Can't think of any solution though.Its like a catch 22 situation.

Excellent piece, Sonia. You didn't provide captions for those pics, though. What are those pics of?

Thanks, Amit.
Captions in postscript. Images of Pinky's (Bilkish Sahu)house, taken by photographer Sanjiv Valsan, less than 48 hours after she died.
The door of this home, 10 ft by 10 ft approximately, was unlocked. Filthy, moist, milk still on the stove. And yet, it was incredibly moving and powerful to be there.

an extremely disturbing story. And there doesn't seem to be any solution in sight. Does any one even care about the plight of those bar-girls? Always pawns in some great game......who knows what that game really is..

I think it is perhaps unfair to label this a "middle class morality" play by Patil.

The primary thrust of the legislation was against liquor dens which have "evolved" over the years from serving liquor to places where women are exploited, where crime is spawned and where criminals act as bouncers, where Bangladeshi, nepali, east european and other foreign girls are employed illegally.

Although patil also says that that 'anti-national' activities take place in dance bars, he has not provided enough details of this charge.

The bar girls themselves range from those that are exploited by relatives & other men; those that are the sole breadwinners of their families & there are also girls who voluntarily work in dance bars for money.

The bargirls have personally received immense publicity, drawing support from the likes of govinda, the late sunil dutt, pritish nandy, flavia agnes, sonia gandhi etc in favour of the bar girls.

Sanjay: "A liquor den"? There is absolutely nothing illegal about selling liquor in a licensed bar.

Secondly, the links between the police and the dance bars are well documented. The police have been accepting bribes for years, and in fact, many prominent policemen own these bars. Crime will be spawned wherever it is given the opportunity to do so. It's the responsiblity of the lawmakers to uphold the law, whether it involves shutting the bars on the deadline, arresting illegal aliens, or preventing prostitution.

Thirdly, I think the word exploitation needs to be defined here. To me, it is far more exploitative to throw a woman out of the only job she has ever known, rather than to allow her what she does in a safe environment. Not all dance bars exploit women.

In fact, throwing thousands of women on the street with no options for employment, is far more exploitative. Remember, many of these women are illiterate, have many dependants, are alcohlic, and in no position to return to their villages. They have been rendered absolutely helpless, thanks to one's man's desperate attempt to garner votes.vfthna

hear hear Sonia!

Sonia
Thanks for writing this. I was moved, immensely.
But even before the dance bars were shut down, wasnt the lives of the bargirls just hurtling down the abyss of drugs and booze ? Its only now, aftee the ban, that there is an attempty to look into their plights. Though I dont have any firm statistics, I thought that most of them wre into prostitution, on the side anyway. It just depended on who they slept with, the richer clientele instead of the average joe.
Though it is indeed saddening that these girls have lost their livelihood, but this career path, IMO, was down a street of no return. Drugs, booze, depression was only the next step in the progression of their lives.
Sourin

Sonia: I do not disagree with any of your observations. Further, I think your comments help paint an overall picture of a complex & multi-faceted phenomenon for which there are no easy answers. I'm not defending Patil here for I admit to a sense of rage against his policy that led to these tragic deaths.

I understand & agree with your point about exploitation. It is perhaps no accident that the two deaths came from (a) that very section of bar girls who were the sole breadwinners for their respective families. Others,
(b) who were doing it voluntarily or (c) those controlled by "flesh peddlers" will simply move underground or on to other things.

I'm on the same page as you w.r.t exploitation when it comes to (a). I'm not so sure about (b) or (c).

Chappan, good point. Yes, it's now finally, that the public has got the opportunity to see bar girls as human beings with complex, sometimes desperate, largely impoverished lives. Rather than as man eating, diamond-studded dancers determined to break up families and kill state morality--which portly Patil will still have us believe.

Also Sanjay, I think the only difference is the change in the type and level of exploitation. Lets say one of the dancers was a prostitute. If so, the owner of the bar would know that, he would probably take a cut of her cash. In return, she had the protection of the bar, she also earned a certain amount of money. She was still a dancer, earing large tips daily, rather than a hooker who lived on a street corner and was available for Rs 10. So while certain aspects of her life may remain the same, the level of exploitation has increased hugely.

I empathize with the entire lot of bar girls and fully understand that they have been suddenly and sadly deprived by their only source of known livelihood, bringing them despair and hopelessness. But somehow IMHO I think this entire issue is a little glorified.

Unfortunately in our society women are always doubly marginalized. Firstly by the race, nationalistic, religious, financial or several other groups that they may belong too and then because they are women.

The 'bar-girl' industry has given several of these women, coming from the hinterlands of India, an opportunity to make more money then they could have ever imagined, only on the basis of certain physical attributes, neglecting any educational background and skills that they may posses or lack thereof.

But this number of bar-girls is just a percentage of the women who come to cities like Mumbai seeking a better future. Where do all these women, whose skin tones are probably a shade or two darker, or who are a little shy, or possibly physically a little unattractive, go? They too survive and die in this city. They too deserve protection and attention.

What happens if the BPO industry collapses overnight? Can all those just out of college girls and boys be retrenched in other industries at the levels they are used to? Extremely doubtful!

Where were all these organizations working for the betterment of the bar-girls when they were flourishing? Didn’t they think it important to imbibe some skills into these girls, arming them for a future where their ageing physical attributes will fail to provide employment?

Ashok: "Where do all these women, whose skin tones are probably a shade or two darker, or who are a little shy, or possibly physically a little unattractive, go? They too survive and die in this city. They too deserve protection and attention."

It's a complete fallacy that bar girls are beautiful. Yes, a few of there are lovely. The majority are not there for their good looks, but for their willingness to dance, to serve drinks, and to entertain the customers. It's a bit like assuming that men go to prostitutes because they are more beautiful than their wives. Most prostitutes are quite unattractive, but they are willing to do some things, which other women aren't. Hence the business.

In fact, if you were to see the wretched conditions these women live in--the poverty and ugliness--you would be astounded.

But yes, it's only become a matter of concern now--with the public. I don't know how many media persons or NGOs or social service organisations were concerned with their well being before, but I'm assuming it wasn't too many.

Super piece of writing, sonia.

The issue itself is being discussed by so many people, at so many levels, with so much hidden agenda in play, that one does lose track of the personal stories in all the politics. So thanks for the refocus.

ps: love the new template!

But pray will someone tell me, why o why, did RR patil do what he did?

dear sonia,

a very moving piece i must say. it is such a shame that politicians (whose official duty is to make 'selling' politics out of any and every issue they can lay hands on)are able to get away with murder with such legislations and millions of citizens actually buy their version...shaweta anand.

Came across your blog very recently, the post was so touching.

The tailpiece about the little boy who was sent to the state remand home was so saddening.

Hi sonia,

this name also belongs to a girl who works at a bar in mira road bcos of her family financial conditions. She is just 21 and is forced to work at a bar by her own mother.Dont u think that's tooo much on earth for a mother to do. To get money from the exposure of her daughter's flesh. The bars and bar girls still exist in mumbai. I know a few who are indulged in this. But who can help these girls come out of it, even these girls enjoy as they are the most highly earning members of the society.

Its a very good post from you.