THE POLITICS OF PROSTITUTION
Amongst the many other words you cannot use appropriately in
our country, sex takes precedence. Ever watched a TV serial, where anything to
do with the word sex, had been masked with sounds, which are sometimes even
more ridiculous than the actual word itself. And then there are the visuals of indecent
exposures, which are blurred to give the special effect of attention: please do
not fantasize.
This makes me wonder whether we have “sex” in India. But not
for long. We get busted! Every few weeks the headlines of rape and recused
young women is a reminder that it’s not only about sex but sexual deviations
that we need to urgently address and talk about. The raids on massage parlors and spas opens our
own precious Pandora’s Box that we so much like to hide and sweep under the
carpet. Even then, sadly, we find a way
out. We blame indecent dress code and the prostitutes!
Who are we fooling,
but ourselves?
The politics of sex itself is patriarchal. But today, I
rather focus on the politics of prostitution in our country, because their
story needs to be told.
The act of human trafficking is a nexus of operations and
involves the violation of human rights at every stage. From the time the young girl
has been abducted from her home, to the time she services her first client, to
the time when she knows no way out, the narrative is ugly. Ugly whichever way you may try to perceive it.
The poverty and unimaginable life circumstances is where the story often first
begins. Sometimes, parents are deceived into selling their daughters for meagre
amounts and while they are being smuggled through unnatural travel routes, the
girls have to come face to face with their first heart wrenching experience of
not being wanted. And the narrative gets worse. It’s the first sale where the
money exchange is the highest. The demand chain begins with the VIP who pays plenty
of money to enjoy sex with pubescent virgins, mainly for the fear of HIV and of
course, the thrill of power that accompanies the act. If the girl tries to run
away, or finds a way to escape, her story gets worse. She is tortured till she
has been completely broken into, becoming a helpless victim.
Not many people can understand this, but learned helplessness
is a form of conditioning which happens when people try and try hard to
initially escape an undesired situation, but repeated failures conditions them
from seeing any form of hope or solution otherwise. The torture is unimaginable,
and includes rape, hunger and physical abuse. Even then, some women brave this
and find a way to escape, but when they do get back home, the taboo associated
with prostitution is what they face. Their
secret is everywhere, because their clients are everywhere.
Their own family,
most often, do not want anything to do with them and this is what spirals them to
further believe that prostitution is their only source of income. In India,
prostitution is not out of choice. Where they live, who they meet, how often,
is under strict surveillance. Initially,
they are never allowed to live in one area for too long because of the fear
that they might meet a Good Samaritan who would try to rescue them. They are constantly sold and resold. The kingpin, the owners of the prostitution
hubs, spas and massage parlors and the pimps, make the money.
The challenge that NGO’s working in the field of rescue face
is teaching these women to break the cycle of conditioning and learn skills to build
a new self.
It’s the demand that provokes the supply. In a society,
where sexuality is repressed, you can but imagine the heinous sexual crimes
these women have to deal with. It’s the client that should bear the taboo. We
dehumanize women who are in the trade of prostitution to the extent that we deny
them an identity. What about the men who are the clients. Why don’t we brand
them instead? Why don’t we stop creating a market for sexual immoralities and
deviations? It’s the market that is disturbing.
Every Goan should be disturbed. The demand for
sex along the coastal belt by domestic tourist also points to the picture that Goa
has painted for rest of repressed India- Cheap women, plenty of immoral sex,
alcohol and drugs. And we don’t do much
do stop this image, instead we fuel it with alluring advertisements, provoking internet
sites, provocative entertainment and of course not paying close attention to
whom we may be renting our rooms . The more enterprising ones open massage
parlours and spas and become part of an evil nexus. We have created this market
and we have the audacity to judge a prostitute!
Comments
Post a Comment