The dance bars will open again, so declared the Hon’ble High Court of Bombay. The point that the Hon’ble judges made was that the government i.e. the State cannot prohibit an individual from taking recourse to any profession. By implication, a citizen of the Indian State can choose any profession and profess it, without there being any restriction on him/her in any manner whatsoever. Laudable statements, indeed.
Considering that this is a matter concerning the judiciary, I will tread delicately. The fact’s that the verdict has raised certain questions in my mind. Does the right to choose one’s profession make one impervious to social concerns? Say, someone feels seditious, does the right to profession permit him/her the privilege of becoming a traitor or even a terrorist? Or if someone wants to earn money the bad way, does this freedom guarantee that the police will not catch him/her if he/she choose to indulge in smuggling/extortion/theft/fraud? And if not, then why these double standards?
The Hon’ble High Court clearly has quashed the amendment brought in by the Government of Maharashtra on technical grounds, but surely they also agree that the issue is not as simple as it is being made out to be. I am no moralizer, frankly, if someone wants to dance in a bar, and if such a person is comfortable with people trying to grope and fondle her, well, she’s welcome to her career decision. But the fact’s that here there are people who object, and maybe this objecting crowd is far more than the numbers constituting the dance-bar employees. Maybe the critics far outweigh the patrons. And for once, the political system had chosen to listen to this group rather than the other. Just as when a particular book is banned merely because it is deemed hurtful to the sentiments of society, because it is deemed offensive, so also the political class chose to ban the very profession of dancing in bars, merely because a very large majority of people found it offensive to their sensibilities. If the former is acceptable to those advocating the freedoms of humanity, then accept the latter as well. If you don’t, well, then stop making such a show of your adherence to human rights.
People have screamed out loud that these women are being denied employment. I ask you, has this nation come to this state when our women are incapable of finding employment in any other area? And will we allow our nation’s wealth to continue to encourage such depravity as is being perpetrated on these women in these dance bars, and which they bear in silence, merely because they have hungry stomachs to feed?
I must have seen more than five separate petitions against the reservations in the premier institutes, but to date, not one petition asking that we at least try to curb the tendency of young, beautiful, yet misled women ending up in these flesh-pots. I have the highest respect for the women who are employed in these joints, for they indulge the decadence of others, courting such degenerates that even Satan would be ashamed, and for what, but thirty pieces of silver. Liberate them; show them the light of a new day, when they can seek suitable employment elsewhere, for their sake, for our sake.
Considering that this is a matter concerning the judiciary, I will tread delicately. The fact’s that the verdict has raised certain questions in my mind. Does the right to choose one’s profession make one impervious to social concerns? Say, someone feels seditious, does the right to profession permit him/her the privilege of becoming a traitor or even a terrorist? Or if someone wants to earn money the bad way, does this freedom guarantee that the police will not catch him/her if he/she choose to indulge in smuggling/extortion/theft/fraud? And if not, then why these double standards?
The Hon’ble High Court clearly has quashed the amendment brought in by the Government of Maharashtra on technical grounds, but surely they also agree that the issue is not as simple as it is being made out to be. I am no moralizer, frankly, if someone wants to dance in a bar, and if such a person is comfortable with people trying to grope and fondle her, well, she’s welcome to her career decision. But the fact’s that here there are people who object, and maybe this objecting crowd is far more than the numbers constituting the dance-bar employees. Maybe the critics far outweigh the patrons. And for once, the political system had chosen to listen to this group rather than the other. Just as when a particular book is banned merely because it is deemed hurtful to the sentiments of society, because it is deemed offensive, so also the political class chose to ban the very profession of dancing in bars, merely because a very large majority of people found it offensive to their sensibilities. If the former is acceptable to those advocating the freedoms of humanity, then accept the latter as well. If you don’t, well, then stop making such a show of your adherence to human rights.
People have screamed out loud that these women are being denied employment. I ask you, has this nation come to this state when our women are incapable of finding employment in any other area? And will we allow our nation’s wealth to continue to encourage such depravity as is being perpetrated on these women in these dance bars, and which they bear in silence, merely because they have hungry stomachs to feed?
I must have seen more than five separate petitions against the reservations in the premier institutes, but to date, not one petition asking that we at least try to curb the tendency of young, beautiful, yet misled women ending up in these flesh-pots. I have the highest respect for the women who are employed in these joints, for they indulge the decadence of others, courting such degenerates that even Satan would be ashamed, and for what, but thirty pieces of silver. Liberate them; show them the light of a new day, when they can seek suitable employment elsewhere, for their sake, for our sake.
4 comments:
Dude, dance bars are not as "satanic" as you think. They are, you can call it a "side-effect", of a growing and modern society. I agree that they are not the most socially/morally acceptable joints but in a country like india with a billion plus people and a strong economy, this is quite normal.
Banning is not the solution because the "back-doors" will be open anyways (and India is not some backward Islamic state!). Safety and regulation are the answer. Provide workers at dance bars a safe work environment and get tax revenue from dance bar owners. This is a win-win solution. You can also call it a compromise.
I agree with you that dance-bars by themselves are not satanic, but I am sure that the behaviour that one encounters from their patrons is certainly shameful, if not demonic. I agree with you that banning is not an option, because the more the restrictions, the more pleasurable it becomes. Your suggestions for a safe work environment for the dance bar employees is a practical one.
A brave and forceful arguement this.
In times like these where difference of opinion is taken to harshly esp. in sections of the media (refer to HT's treatment to RR Patil/Amar Singh), its a courageous stand.
As much as I may want to go with your arguement, you neglect one fact.
Lets talk about the world we live in, not as it should be.
It's no use crying hoarse about how we are adopting double standards on human rights by allowing these women to work undere such adverse cirumstances.
The fact of the matter is when you have huge backlogs of graduates, post graduates listed at employment exchanges, taking the moral high ground somehow becomes irrelevant.
I'm not a huge fan of the human rights arguement coz I feel its just brilliant sounding crap to justify a stand thats already been taken for other reasons.
My own stand is something like this. Allow them because this is a lesser evil. "Don't we have better jobs to offer them?" I'm afraid, NO.
So can we not do anything to help the plight of those working for these dance bars?
Of course we can. With a little help from NGOs and possibly, a sensitised police force.
Instead of harrasing these bar girls, let us have strict guidelines on working conditions/working hours. Let the employees form a union (NO, I am not a leftist)
Ensure they are treated as employees and not mere "dancers."
I think, even if we want the concept of dance bars to end, you simply cannot tell them one fine day - "Pack up!"
The need is for clear and transparent policy to be followed by successive governments.
Let there be good taxation on dance bars. Let the economic conditions promote people to move away from dance bar business to other businesses. Get involved with the girls dancing here and show them an option to earn a living. A lot of work can be done in this field by thru NGOs.
I think more than anything else, the resistance in this case is resistance to change. Once we are able to convince people that it is in their best interests to change, such activities can be reduced to a great extent. Targeted micro financing can be explored for promotion of small scale businesses by these employees. They could work on building these businesses in parallel for now.
Its a fine balance we need to maintain while tightening the nooze around owners of bars and dealing with employees with compassion. As for owners, once business becomes lesser and lesser viable, they will themselves shut shop. No one runs dance bars to promote dancing. Its done to earn money. Recently, they was a piece in Mumbai Mirror about an owner who's now opened a showroom for clothes which is doing rather well and he has no plans to go back to his original business coz this one gets him respect as well.
Its this aspect we ought to sell. Dear sir, we are all here to sell a dream or two. You cannot impose vision. It needs to built through active engagement.
Think about it.
P.S.: Dear Teddy, your new found vigour with which you are updating your blog has meant you write posts far too fast for us to respond. Phew! Set some speed limits!!!
Neeraj: I am in agreement with what you have to say. And so, I have pleaded that we liberate them. But when I advoted their liberation, I meant completely, such as to ensure that they are never again required to look at the said profession again. Make them economically independent. I am not in favour of your suggestion for a sort of code of ethics of how to treat these women, simply because it is not implementable or enforceble.
The rest I agree with.
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