Revisiting Maharashtra's nightlife a gamble for dance bar girls
Ashish gazed happily as Neelam danced around him. Her multi-coloured skirt swivelling to a Bollywood track. Her soft, small hands lightly brushing against his hair. As she leaned down to whisper the lyrics in his ears, her breasts lightly brushed against Ashish's back, her luscious hair falling gently against his face. Her red lips smiled at him and he knew he was hooked.
Neelam danced for him the few times he went to see her. She gave him undivided attention. Awoke erotic images in his brain that had been dead for long. Made him feel alive again. When he knew he could actually sit and talk to her, she became his girlfriend.
She would call him up and ask for a few extra rupees to buy a few dresses and shoes. Then she asked to go away somewhere for the weekend, just so she could have a break. Her mesmerising dancing and tinkling laughter made sure Ashish kept going back to the dance bar. Nothing seemed wrong. A couple in love.Except that Ashish was married. For 10 years. With two children.
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| While there may be a grand interest in protecting women, there should be rules for men as well. |
As dance bars in Maharashtra began to flourish, the addiction became deeper. By 2005, 1,500 bars across the state had employed more than 75,000 women dancers. These women came from UP, Bihar and several other states as well as Maharashtra to earn a living for themselves and send money home to their poor families.
On June 13, 2005, the Research Unit of SNDT University did a study that helped to bring into question many of the popular myths regarding bar dancers. In 60 per cent of the cases, women were the sole breadwinners of their families. Most sent some money back to their homes in villages. All the mothers chased a dream - to send their children to English-medium schools.
The relationship between bar dancers and their patrons was murky at best. Many men gambled away their savings on the bar girls. There were massive protests that called for banning them to protect the men. The makers of the law, on the other hand, wanted to protect the girls.
"The dancers stated that they had a greater security in the bars due to the support network among the dancers as well as the protection provided by the owners. Usually each bar had 30-60 dancers. The drivers of taxis and auto rickshaws that were used to take them to work and back were regulars and hence they did not feel insecure while travelling home late at night. The only thing they feared was the police raid and the sexual exploitation by the guardians of the law!" says Flavia Agnes, a women's rights activist and lawyer.
But ultimately, on July 21, 2005, the bill to ban dance bars in Maharashtra was passed unanimously at the end of a "marathon debate" to "prevent immoral activities, trafficking of women and to ensure the safety of women in general".
This was passed by a majority of men who were doing so for the "empowerment" of women without understanding the repercussions of what the bill would do to the 75,000 bar girls. Surprisingly, it was the women's rights movement that actually wanted to keep the dance bars open for empowering the women! As Flavia Agnes said, "The morality issue had won. The livelihood issue had lost."
But for the lawmakers it was never about the women. It was about men like Ashish who gambled away their savings, threw away their marriages and abandoned their children for the love of a bar dancer.
It was about saving these men, not the bar girls who understood how to play the game, make their money and succeed at their profession.
The dance bar girls were forced to go into other industries taking jobs that paid far less and eventually they couldn't afford looking after themselves and their homes.
Many of them became prostitutes, which defeated the purpose of the bill entirely since it was passed so that the women would not be exploited.
The men who haunted these dance bars found jobs and a stable life again.
But in March 2016, the Supreme Court gave an order to the Maharashtra government to reopen dance bars and recently rapped them for not following orders.
The ruling government had opposed the opening of dance bars in the state despite the Supreme Court giving orders. However, in a recent development, the Maharashtra Cabinet approved a bill on dance bars, permitting their reopening, albeit with certain restrictions on their functioning.
What does this mean for the dance bar girls and their patrons as well as the 1,50,000 people who signed a petition for its ban?
Now the original 75,000 bar women have aged, got married, left for their home states, or are working in other industries. Only a handful may join the industry again.
The dance bars have been given the permission to reopen, but severe restrictions have been placed by the state to guard against obscenity and prostitution, with even a dress code that must be adhered to. Along with this, there are restrictions of no alcohol, no smoking, no touching, et al.
While there may be a grand interest in protecting women, there should be rules for men as well. The men who become obsessed. The men who have the power and control who becomes a bar girl, who watch one, who will be punished for flouting the rules.
A former dance bar girl, Vaishali Haldankar, says, "I am asking everyone to think differently and revive dance bars as a platform of cultural exchange. Train the girls in different Indian musical forms and identify them as kalakaar (performing artists) and rid them off the stigma of working in a dance bar."
But will men actually go to a dance bar to watch a Bharatanatyam performance? And in an age of the internet and easily accessible images and video on mobile phones, is there a massive demand for dance bars? Or is there a new generation that seeks the live thrill of watching a girl dance rather than watching one easily in the confines of its bedroom?
If there are restrictions and complications, will dance bars be as popular as they were a decade ago? Only time will tell. For now, it gives women hope that they have a choice to do something else and earn more for their families.