‘Sex work is work like any other’

Author Sonia Faleiro, who has spent years  researching the lives of sex workers, insists
they are not vectors of  immorality and disease,  reports Sheree Gomes-Gupta

Mumbai’s moral brigade may not take too kindly to her views on prostitution, but when you’ve spent years chronicling the lives of the city’s sex workers, learning about the police brutality they endure, you really cannot be faulted for throwing wind to caution. “Sex work is work like any other; it deserves to be respected and dignified,” says Sonia Faleiro.

The author, who has penned the essay Maarne Ka, Bhagane Ka for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation India charity book on AIDS, is appalled at the lack of apathy for sex workers in the city. “Police abuse of sex workers is condoned by society that chooses to incorrectly believe that sex workers are vectors of immorality and disease.

It’s important for us to recognise that all of us, disparate though we may be in terms of social and economic status, share the same hopes for ourselves and our family, and deserve to work towards this end in a safe and healthy environment,” says Faleiro, whose forthcoming book is on Mumbai’s bar dancers.

In this particular essay, Faleiro talks about Savita, a floating sex worker who introduced her to the community of sex workers, to their pimps and madams, their gangster husbands and beautiful children, to their addictions and absorptions, giving her an intimate view of their lives. “Over time, we became friends and her troubles and joys
became mine,” she says.

She says police violence, sexual assault and their constant demand for bribes is forcing sex workers in the city to go underground, fuelling the spread of HIV/AIDS among street communities, and also among the police. “They are a statistic, dehumanised by social stigma and apathy. I want to help change that equation by telling Savita’s powerful story,” she says.

While it took her just five months to write this essay, Faleiro says the experience has changed her opinion about the country and herself too. “The times I have spent with the marginalised communities, with sex workers in Kamathipura and hijras in Thane has shown me a side of India I could never before imagine. But it isn’t all tragic.

The greatest suffering I witnessed involved sex workers; but this is also true for the greatest joys. And it is this latter fact — a birthday in Kamatipura, a pilgrimage to Haji Malang, a night of stories and laughter at a brothel in Malvani — which encourages me to keep meeting women like Savita, and chronicling their stories,” she says.
g_sheree@dnaindia.net