Kolkata: Sonagachi
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‘Social security’ for the sex workers
As in 2019
The nondescript yellow board at the door doesn’t give anything away about this group of men, aged between 40-65, who engage in serious discussion on the well-being of sex workers at Sonagachhi — India’s largest red-light district — every evening.
‘Kailash Kabiraj Lane Sathi Sangathan’, written in black at the entrance, doesn’t tell you that this is an organisation of “babus” (term for permanent customers at Sonagachhi), which has been working for the last 17 years to provide social security to sex workers.
The organisation has 2,500 members, who take turns to attend the meeting, inside their registered office, not far from the red-light area where an estimated 11,000 women eke out a living from the world’s oldest profession.
A 42-year-old member of the Sathi Sangathan, living-in with his partner at Sonagachhi for the last 20 years, says, “When we set up this organisation in 2001, we started with a campaign to use condoms. Since we were closely associated with this place, the sex workers here and their customers took to the cause readily.”
The sex workers bond with them well and heed their word or advice, he says. “They (babus) take care of us. They look after us and make sure we are not exploited,” a 38-year-old sex worker told TOI.
The sangathan has members from across the state.
“Each group campaigns in their own areas to maintain health norms. We’ve succeeded, to an extent, in convincing people to take precautions, so that the sex workers do not to face health hazards,” another member says.
Violence, too, has come down against sex worker owing to the organisation’s work. “For the last few years, we have been protected by babus, who ensure we are not harassed, tortured, or blackmailed by clients,” a sex worker says.
A few years ago, members and their partners organised an outing in Chilkigarh. “That was very pleasant. It was as if we were on a family outing,” says a sex worker, who was dumped at Sonagachhi when she was pregnant.
Sonagachi during World Cup, 2018
From: Tamaghna Banerjee, As Songachi changes colours, visitors drawn by art, not lust, July 1, 2018: The Times of India
From: Tamaghna Banerjee, As Songachi changes colours, visitors drawn by art, not lust, July 1, 2018: The Times of India
Sonagachi seems to have undergone a transformation in the middle of the World Cup season, with its residents painting the red-light district in myriad hues of gold-and-green and blue-andwhite to celebrate football.
The transformation has been such that since the start of the World Cup, some of the visitors to the city’s biggest red-light area have been drawn by art and not lust, with even those who consider this area taboo dropping by to see for themselves the images that have taken social media by storm. The walls, streets and pavements have all been painted in colours of Brazil, with life-size posters and banners of Neymar, Coutinho and T Silva — as well as those of blue-and-white Argentine heroes, like Messi and Di Maria — adorning the bylanes.
“I saw photographs of the decorated alleys in a Facebook post by a friend and found others sharing similar content. I could not resist shrugging off my inhibitions as I went there for the first time in my life last Thursday,” said software designer and avid photographer Diptadeep Bhattacharya.
“Almost every street in north Kolkata used to boast of street art, be it political satire or football or cricket. Unfortunately, that had almost disappeared. It is so nice to see the boys here revive it,” said interior designer Subhamoy Roy.
A group called the Weekend Heritage Photo Walk has lined up a visit to Sonagachhi on Sunday, an unthinkable proposition till last week. “A lot of the members are still iffy about it but once I showed them a few photographs that had been posted on Facebook, the inhibitions vanished,” said graphic designer Soumyajit Banerjee. There, however, has been another unlikely side-effect of this football mania. “When the matches are being played, customer count dips,” a Sonagachhi sex worker said. But that has not dampened the enthusiasm.
Residents say Sonagachi has always had a close bond with football and the relationship has strengthened since the formation of the Durbar Football Academy, which campaigns for a better life for children of sex workers through the medium of football. “Football holds a special place for both sex workers as well as their children in this part of the city and we already have hundreds of children training in our academy. Several of them are playing professional football,” Durbar Mahila Samanway Committee chief advisor Smarajit Jana said.
