A Tale Of Songs, Struggle And Sex Trade, How Mumbai's Bar Girls Survived The Dance Bar Ban

In the smoky permit room of Borivli's Ellora hotel, five veiled women burst into giggles as they try to solve a unique problem; How to eat the pedas that they have just been handed when their faces are covered? But the news channel cameraman persists, so they quickly look the other way and wolf the sweet down. Nearby, a rotund customer behind a steel table boasting a drink and peanuts, remarks: "Aapke ache din aa gaye."

Reuters

The Supreme Court's decision to stay a state law banning dance bars in Maharashtra has injected new hope in these salwar-clad former bar girls, who now wait tables at the same place where they once danced in zari-laden lehengas.

"I am grateful for the judgement," says Payal, in fluent English. Ten years ago, the ban had forced this single mother to take up odd jobs such as tailoring and domestic work. "I had to sell my Mira Road home and now live in a rented house," says Payal, confessing she is diabetic. "I have a lot of hope from the government," she says, adding that a dance bar is not a vulgar lounge. "Look," she says, pointing to the various CCTVs in the bar. "There are cameras everywhere."

Reuters

In 2005, the call to prohibit dance bars saw around 2,500 bars in the state, including 350 licensed ones such as Ellora, Topaz and Deepa in Mumbai, banned. Bars were either clo-sed or turned into orchestra joints and family restaurants.

The number of bar girls dropped from 75,000 to around 20,000. Several dancers who did not find new work were likely trafficked to the Gulf or South East Asian countries for sex work. Others slipped into domesticity, odd jobs or turned into private call girls.

Reuters

"They have suffered enough," says Varsha Kale, president of the Bharatiya Bar Girls' Union, who recently lost her friend, bar girl Geeta Shetty, who would assist Kale in her various fights. "It was because of small incidents that they banned the entire industry," says Pravin Agrawal, president of Mumbai Hotels Association and owner of Ellora.

The ban not only hit bar girls but also the ancillary industry that depended on them for survival.

Aziz Mansoori's Vashi-based garment-cum-tailoring shop, Arshi Corner, used to depend on the neighbourhood bar girls for business. Before 2005, he would get four to five requests a day. Each set would cost between Rs 1,000 and Rs 4,000 and every bar girl would order a new one each week. After the ban, Mansoori's shop ran losses of Rs 7-8 lakh.

Out of 12 sewing machines, the shop now uses only two. "I feel like a blind man who just got a pair of eyes," says Mansoori, reacting to the SC order.

Reuters

Unlike him, though, there is a sense of caution in the reactions of the bar girls sitting inside the musty, mirrorlined green room of Ellora. They are getting ready for the evening shift. They can neither afford a makeup man nor tailors anymore. "How can we spend when we don't earn?" asks Rakhi, a mother, combing her long, straight brown hair. "Besides, now, to wait tables, we only wear simple salwars," says the lean Saroj, lining her eyes with mascara.

As they knot up their veils to face another TV camera, only their eyes are visible, the organs that have dreamed of life pre-2005 often. "We earned money through dancing, an art form. We weren't doing anything immoral," says Rakhi, adding the ban ruined their lives. Saroj recalls how helplessness drove many of her friends to prostitution. "My siblings had to drop out of school," says Saroj who fears being too hopeful.

(Originally published in The Times Of India | All images for representational purposes only)