Prostitutes in Kolkata’s Sonagachi | Only rights can stop wrongs, says the DMSC community

“Only rights can stop evil,” reads a poster inside a community center at the office of the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC) in Sonagachi, Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal. The poster is from 2001; still carries the weight of an unfinished battle in the red light district. Durbar Mahila Samanway Committee (DMSC), an organization working for the rights of prostitutes, celebrated 30 years of existence on July 15.

DMSC began distributing condoms in 1992 to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Its creation was based on the consensus survey of HIV-AIDS Dr. Samarjit Jany commissioned by the World Health Organization. At that time, high-risk populations were identified and forced into testing; Dr. Jana asked the women for permission. Over time, the DMSC, which includes transgender people, has evolved as a sex worker rights organization that refuses to let people outside of their profession speak their truth.

The verdict of the Supreme Court regarding consent to rehabilitation was widely praised by sex workers

Sonagachi, which translates to golden tree – after the amount of money men have spent in these north Kolkata lanes – has no signboard. The area and its residents still carry the burden of stigma. Historically, sculptors used to take soil from Sonagachi to create Durga idols, but sex workers are not allowed in pandals regularly.

In 2013, they tried to start their own Durga Puja celebration but met with violent resistance from the people. They moved the Calcutta High Court and won their rights. Although it was held indoors, the joy of celebrating their own Durga Puja in their own locality was a victory.

About 12,000 women in the area live out Sonagachi’s dense, layered history. An additional 28,000 people are associated with DMSC across West Bengal.

In the folds of the night

On a cloudy morning on July 15, about 150 Sonagachi women gathered in a neighborhood park to celebrate their 30-year journey. “Gotor khatiye khai; sramiker adhikar chai” (I work hard for my bread; I demand workers’ rights), the song flows in the background as the women prepare to play musical chairs and share a simple communal lunch of rice, dal and vegetable curry.

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Women huddle together to catch up on the daily gossip. Fatima Begum (name changed), 55, sits at the back of the congregation that faces the stage. She is pleasantly surprised to meet a friend from another part of Kolkata after 23 years. “I did everything for my parents, my family, I spent my whole life for them. What’s left for me now? I’m still alone,” Fatima tells her friend.

She is now an outreach worker for DMSC and quit sex work after her son got married. “I had to change my lifestyle to make it socially acceptable,” she says, adding that it’s something she herself aspires to, even though she’s been a breadwinner since she was a teenager.

Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee rally demanding their rights as workers. | Photo credit: Special arrangement

With dusk, the women of Sonagachi begin their working day. Located in the heart of Kolkata on one of the main roads of the city, Chittaranjan Avenue, the area starts to get lively as the night progresses.

After she finishes her work day, a woman who goes to the office comes to her balcony in a high-rise building in the area. A group of prostitutes is standing across the road. They are barely 100 meters apart. They look at each other – that’s as close as women from these two worlds get. Babus (patrons) live across both worlds.

Layered violence

Sonagachi is lined with hundreds of multi-story brothels that have rooms stacked on top of each other like matchboxes, three or four stories high, in the middle of narrow winding alleys and alleys. Many of these houses are centuries old, some were built before the arrival of the British.

Sonagachi sex workers experienced various kinds of violence while building a life in this area, in this profession. Workers point out that violent and drunken customers are one of their biggest problems.

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“Babus got drunk or drugged, got angry and took it out on us. The other girls have to step in when the violence gets out of hand,” says a young woman from Sonagachi. Most women say they are used to some level of violence and verbal abuse – they fear extreme violence.

Over the years they have struggled to get basics like ration cards, Aadhaar cards, bank accounts. When they were discriminated against, they founded the USHA cooperative, one of the first financial cooperatives in Asia to help women control their own resources.

“It is a misconception that every sex worker is trafficked. Authorities and society use this story to discriminate against us,” says Bishakha Laskar, DMSC secretary. Bishakha says that in their early 40s, many women join the sex trade to earn a living and support their families. He insists the only way to stop human trafficking is to decriminalize sex work. “Trafficking occurs in every part of society, even daily wage laborers are trafficked,” adds Bishakha.

To address the problem of human trafficking, DMSC has established a group where both sex workers and external members advise each new woman who comes into the trade. They say they have rescued and rehabilitated over 2,000 girls who did not come voluntarily.

In her office, Bishakha recalls her own journey in Sonagachi as she spells out each letter and slowly signs her name on official documents. She learned to read and write under her teacher Sanjib Mukherjee, who taught many women in the field. “In class, we sat on plastic sheets. Whatever I learned, I learned from the master,” she adds.

Own the way

Rima Mondal (name changed) came to Sonagachi from Murshidabad with just ₹20 when she was 15. She spent 33 years as a sex worker, though many in her early days advised her that she was too young to enter the business. But she came from a poor family and had no other employment options to support the family. “Nun ante panta phuroto amader” (When I got the salt, the rice was ready).

Rima’s family could not afford to pay ₹7,000 for her dowry, but through sex work he married his elder brother, who refused to take dowry from his sister-in-law. “No one came to feed me when I was struggling on an empty stomach. They have no right to judge my life decisions now,” says Rima, who works in the field for DMSC during the day and returns to her regular job at night.

One of the reasons she does not want to be photographed is that her daughter married a man outside of Sonagachi, and she fears that her daughter’s in-laws might be ashamed of her profession. In the past three decades, she has only been able to open up about her profession to her mother, but the rest of her family still believes she has a job in the city.

It’s evening. The rain is lashing Calcutta, washing away the dust from the trees and turning the city into a petrichorish dish. In Sonagachi, the smell of old cigarettes, pungent alcohol, and fried food now mingles with the smell of fresh rainwater. Trying to escape the rain, Rima runs to her building. She climbs the dirty, damp, narrow, serpentine stairs of the building she has lived in for the past 28 years. he is at home

Rima sits in her 6ft x 5ft room on the fourth floor. She remembers that when she entered the trade, things were different. “We’ve seen it all, from forced sex to violence from customers and neighborhood crooks. During one of our condom awareness and distribution trips, brothel owners threw hot water on us because they thought we’d force the women to stop working and they’d lose business,” she says. “Over the years, violence has decreased because women have gained the power to say no to customers who refuse to use condoms or ask for things they don’t want.”

She sits on her bed and rests for a while before she prepares dinner and her customers arrive at night. Her kitchen spills onto the balcony. A single almirah and a fridge hold all her belongings; everything has its place. There are two mesh windows that barely let light or air into the room but keep the pests out.

On the green walls hang her awards and certificates, reminders of battles fought and milestones achieved. These alleyways are filled with hundreds of such rooms, each reflecting the lives of its inhabitants, the Didis as the locals call them.

Rights and wrongs

Priyanka Kar (name changed), in her 50s, calls herself Sonagachi’s daughter because her mother was paid to be the sex partner of a police officer in the area. Kar is married and says she has been having sex since she was a teenager. “I can’t be one of the girls standing on the road here) because my in-laws’ house is also here. So I had to hide and go do my work elsewhere,” says Priyanka, adding that her husband knew about her profession. She laughs and adds that she has always been “naughty” and has never been reluctant to take a lover because it was this job that helped her support her family.

Over time, her husband became abusive because of her profession. “I tried to kill myself when my family questioned my morals and work,” she says. She found social acceptance when her daughter’s in-laws fought for her dignity and respected her choice, saying she wasn’t cheating anyone to earn a wage and was doing things her way. She beams with pride as she says this, hoping her daughter’s life will be less uncertain than hers.

Sex workers of the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee in Kolkata brought their workers’ rights movement to Parliament in Delhi in 2006. | Photo credit: Special arrangement

At the DMSC conference in January this year, Kingshuk Sarkar, an assistant professor at the Goa Institute of Management who worked for the West Bengal government as a labor administrator, said the lack of recognition of sex work as work was causing problems in workers getting rights and benefits. He insisted that sex workers must be included in India’s existing labor laws to normalize their work and stop human rights violations. “We all use parts of our bodies for work, so why is sex work any different? And why are some body parts stigmatized?” Sarkar said.

Sonagachi women echo this, adding that they will also be protected by the law if there is violence or harassment in the workplace. They have access to public services without discrimination or stigma and can be included in the programs of other workers in the country.

On the streets of Sonagachi are at least a dozen different posters and banners of local MLA Shashi Panja, West Bengal’s minister for women and child development and social welfare. He regularly participates in DMSC events, taking away some of the stigma.

However, the women refuse to have their real names published or their photographs taken. They know the fallout can be serious.