8 Beyond Prostitutional Platitudes Urea Baxi 41981, we all came to know about buying and sling of Kamla the interpd coeretpondents of the Indian Express bought he for upess 2,300 for (asthe Bombay High Court was to later remind us cally) "half te pice one pays fora blo ia Punjab.” (ALR 1985 Bombay 229 at 280) Before the Supreme” Court could eflesively hear thé petition fled by Arua Shoure, and argued by Sot Sorabjee, Kamla ‘ieappeared frm the protctive home in Delhi. Neither th editor not ‘the readers ofthe Jndlan Expresr have parued the matter even with a fhadow of zal with which Bofors has beea later pursued! No dovbt mn was made; Vijay Tendalker adopted the story in form of a play, ako published aba book. The book was widely read tnd the play was staged in about 32 cits in 7 languages 150 times (Tbe Indian Expres utd for violation of copyright in the Bombay High Court and los. Despite all thes attempts tors elite public consciousness, the ‘Sesh rade thrives vigorously. It seems to be nobody's. problem now. In retrospect, one may say that all Kamla accomplished forthe Indian {intelligent was to help them perfect ther “progressive credentials 1h March-April 1988, the roots of Surat waged a forj-S1y stroppe foe their evi rights, and particularly agains ther oppression by the police, ‘They won modest pins. But this strugle found no | meation even inthe back pages of national dailies. ec ay flan, sv of Du say Dit eaa India, ofcourse, is «vast country. But the distance between Surat 1nd Bombay i mall and the distance between Surat and Delhi. does often at abridged. Recently, activists, feminists and progresive minds protested vigorously a the tunching of eriminal posection against Gujarati learned journal Arikort for allegedly hurting the fsings of {he followers ofthe Swaminarayan sect. The protest was masie; the perfil justi. Ar the same time, te rght to freedom of expression Ihre emerges as a. central national sue as compared with te Baie rights to dignity of four hundred roomed Surat. Those two situations invite soubseeching among. progresive ileus and activists. For what is at stake isthe integrity of| ‘tiie concerning the right of women subjected to barbaric expoita- ion, Thore is 0 miltany of ation here ss wis evoked e st, by the murder at Dooralas what we te heres sonspirasy”of ative silence. I is this situation, neither the vitim group nor the State tke ‘us seviusly, the problem sot with the els and patriarbel charac ter of the State power merely. The problem is with the athe sul of Tadian middleclass stiviem Critiques of state power as class hegemonic and patriarchal are crucially important in renovating socal consciousness and. orgaica tin for action. A decade ago these words rately appeared in activist discourse; now they fais the stock-in-trade idiom, Bat f the idiom is new, the reality is hstoriea, To deal with tht intranigent real wwe do need to move away from the prositutonal platitudes, ‘We do ced to move beyond the. Kickback words! “exploitation”, “Pawiareh)”, “inmoral tafe” and “rebabiltation.” These are Kick tock words Because the women about whom we wax seloguent semain precisely where they are while activist careers are bu upon ‘hei ving corpo, 0 Toga literacy, informal education and social activism, al pt together, are to achieve anything for the bereand-now victims of tracking in women and prostitution, we need more than well-ntn- ‘one, importat and impressive, critiques of state end law.” We need more precae hitrial understanding of the situation and based upon it we need to decide the location of our srugaes for change. ‘The Eighth Pani in the offing. Thanks to the overall militancy of ‘women and ivi rights econ groups, the Seventh Plan did include a “6 ‘special chapter on sociooonomisorogrammes for women, in addition to the usual compendious chapser on social welfire, Bat wbea you took eatefily at Chapters 13 and I4 of the Second Volume of this Pia,_you sce thatthe expression “tralicking in women” ocears once ‘of tice among a host of other similar problems. Tt doesnot sem to have cccurred to many peopl, including those responsible for plan- ning, ten years after Kama, that a market jn which women can be sold” and. bought. as chattels, not once but several times over, for a Price much lower than a pice of bulfalo makes complete nonsense of AIL talk concerning. women's sats, dignity and. progress through planned effort ‘Within the system as it exits and operate, and inthe time now availabe, all concerned. people must seek to. redress the cre! in- Aierence of the planning process to this dispraefal market in women ‘One lee! at which srugle shouldbe waged ie to provide adequate resources for law enforcement to liquidate such markets ina time= bound programme; anotber i a hgh plan outlay for recovery and, “rehabilitation” ofthe victims of such trade. Suey, Departments of ‘Adult, Continuing and Extension Edvcation and of Women's Stadies, ‘in collaboration with aetvst women and cul rights groups, should ‘campaign for adequate plan provision i this regard. Such a campaign il have tobe based on a sure ssientie grasp of, among other thing, ‘the socil geography ofthe markets, the soco-plitcal organization ‘of “trade the nature and types of political trades at. mieroevels between ditt administrators, police, dominant classes and. polite! partis. The eampsign should lso provide for reforms inte astra- ‘ents ofpoiey the state of the exiting lam. and processes of it enforcement, innovation in dstctadminisvation and police services ‘and efetve forms of public partcpation, fr example. m1 ‘The other important arena for struggle is that of protective homes ‘or Nari Niketans. The Agra Protective Home Litigation in the Suprome Court enters eighth year even as write, The wit Sled by Profesor Loti. Sarkar and myself with the dediatedauistance of lamented Dr. RS. Sondhi is now extensively reported in law reports {eg (1983) 2 Supreme ‘Court Cases 308), If our experience it a reliable guide the protective homes under the Prevention of Immoral “Trifle Act ee Tun in seandalous see seandazing violation oftheoo ee “ rales framed under the Act by the various States and incomplete dis- regard ofthe consti placed in the state's “protective” Tevealed, for example: medical treatment for people sufering from sexually transmit ‘seats and psychisdlsordrs was not provided as per the aw: phil cities were contscatory of ight to dignity and bealih (the Home had only one toilet for 100 inmates and i took tenacious argumentation before the Supreme Court far ito, ukimately, order provision of addtional faites); —the faites provided in the rules for vocational taining and ‘recreation simply didnot exist —the provision for ‘charge’ of an inmate was unknown, virally, 19 the Admiaistator of the Home (oon upon the fling ofthe wri, she “dscharged” about forty Inmates who were fimply asked to leave the Home whereas tbe ruls provide ‘otfieation to parents or guardians and sendiag of he inmate ‘under polio escort thee Women had to be recovered under the ‘orders of the Supreme Cour; despite various directions piven by the Supreme Court it was ‘constrained a late as July 1986 that sate had not constivted a Board of Visitors tothe Home as per Rule 40, and, overall, the conditions of maladmnitration of the Home were ‘> perisent that the Court was constrained to burden the District Judge with the duty of applying monthly report to it concerning the implementation of ie dieses; this still being ‘one, Not meray this, after five year of hard work, just when the conditions at the Home were improved, the state government. deeq- ‘istioned the hoate which t was neler nocesary nor justified for it to do, The landlord had not succeeded in_geting the premises back ss the Allaabad High Court ad sejeted his ples, Despite this, and fa the midst of proceedings pending before the Supreme Court, the state not merely returned the building in Central. Agra to the landlord ‘but hired from him a warehouse atthe outskirts ofthe city to howe the imate! The Supreme Court recorded its “angi deve lopment (Upendra Baxi v, Utar Pradesh AIR 1987 $C 191 at 195) but refised to order CBI enquiry into the transaction which we 6 sli repet cs nr ea cea tn wn iegrteenses iia pees ane Rul Government. But itis more thas a mater of changing rus, emt eae et ak Tmt i Eon cn bre a ‘hacen ade hn sy ma a a ts Sitges at Sergeants ates IRSA en, Hern, cps iavlving the wah wo ta ee ea ae ae ar aa or a ‘Stace eee oe get term nn esto Meet rat aie se ee oc Ste hors are oe“ ce Set a ace ty eed ces tee, seco ate yet cs en ee os ° ‘state fate = Sarl ene ga sacri ee a Ca ae a, sears ater independence, that we ae tse se ae jolation of human rights is in a to aren uma And we os ah of vom emu ep coed Patlahl shire al spore Once opi, wise eda soci chrom pe Tul wh on tent oF esi EEE