This year Mumbai faced one of the worst summers of the last
50 years or more. Temperatures soared to over 400 C and humidity
levels reached saturation. But such oppressive weather could not be an excuse
for not doing our outreach work. ‘Outreach’ was and continues to remain the
backbone of Prerana’s 3 decades old intervention in Mumbai’s red light areas
(RLA).
A Prerana outreach was underway at the end of May 2015. The
occasion was a message regarding a general health camp. By way of a reminder,
four members of Prerana’s outreach team physically visited every brothel in
Kamathipura, Falkland Road and Vashi-Turbhe RLAs. Not surprisingly, every woman
the team met assured them that they had already received the message and would
certainly be present for the health-camp.
What was a little surprising was that over 50% of them
mentioned to our team that personally visiting them was hardly necessary.
Especially considering the scorching summer heat under which people were
reportedly dying of sun stroke. They added that it would have sufficed if our
team had reminded them on their cell phones. A compassionate, enlightening and
most practical suggestion! We welcomed the idea but we also know that we have
several other good reasons for physical outreach.
Use of Cell Phones in Red Light Areas
Over the years, the path-breaking work at Prerana has
attracted many scholars, students, and journalists, domestic as well as
international, to visit and/or undertake internships at Prerana. This time it
was a Fulbright scholar from the US. She wanted to study the use of cell phones
among the prostituted women – Had it liberated the women? Had it made them
their own bosses and offered independence from pimps and madams?
We shared with her some of our observations and experiences
from the ground.
Our office is an open space where the women from the RLAs
walk in without any hesitation. One of the women from Falkland Road, Reshma
(name changed), age 42, walked in accompanied by her daughter Hena (name
changed), age 14, whom we had placed in a distant shelter facility for care,
protection and development. Hena had come to spend her summer vacation with her
mother. After greetings and some initial pleasantries we asked Reshma if she
had a cell phone. She promptly dug in between her breasts and pulled out a
basic model – a new piece which would not have cost more than 1000 rupees in
the market.
Next we asked her for her number. With some embarrassment
but without much hesitation she handed over the phone to us stating she did not
know her number but that we could find out for ourselves. Hena had an
apologetic smile on her face.
This is a common reality. Most of our women use a basic cell
phone model for making and receiving calls and for listening to songs.
Listening to popular songs while soliciting for customers is a commonplace
observation in the evening hours. A small minority of women also have Chinese
manufactured smartphones given to them by their relatively well-off regular
customers. But hardly anyone remembers her own 10 digit number.
All women share their number with us but most of these
numbers change every third month. Reasons range from efforts to keep away from
irate and violent customers, miscreants, police and in some cases, pimps to
using the devices as small time mortgage. (The latter draws a parallel with the
small possessions of the backward area tribal bonded labor whom we have worked
with in the past. We observed that the common possessions like wrist watches,
brass cookware, and radio transistors suddenly disappear from their possessions
only to find a place in the local money lender’s cupboard.)
About four years ago we had conducted a brief inquiry with
our women on how cell phones had changed their lives. Most women had mentioned
one distinct benefit…. they did not have to depend upon anyone to write a
letter to their families back home and that they did not visit public booths to
make calls. Cell phones were particularly important when the women were taken
into custody by the police and wanted their brothel keeper or pimp to bail them
out. Similarly, while outdoors, they could get in touch with their pimp if the
customer acted tough and did not keep to the terms of the contract.
The central questions of our current probe are – Has the
widespread possession of cell phones among prostituted women led to a new era
of sexual independence? Have the women been liberated from the dehumanizing
control of madams and pimps? Have they now become their own bosses? Has
possessing a cell phone led to self employment as against slavery?
Once again a parallel with the lower income category outdoor
workers like couriers and such other delivery boys, is inevitable. Initially
when their employers gave them a brand new cell phone the workers felt proud
and flaunted the possession. They soon got disillusioned on realizing that with
the device on their body they were under a far greater control and monitoring
by their supervisors.
When these questions were put to the prostituted women of
the RLAs we work in, most of them concurred that since the cell phones have
come in their lives:
- the control and surveillance exercised over them has become stricter and closer
- they are expected to be at the beck and call of their pimps and intimate partners/fancy-men who actually double up as pimps
- the control and surveillance exercised over them has become stricter and closer
- they are expected to be at the beck and call of their pimps and intimate partners/fancy-men who actually double up as pimps
- if the phone is found engaged for too long their loyalty
is suspected, resulting in severe punishment and deprivation.
Who has the Control?
Shanta (name changed), one of our women complained that her
fancyman cum pimp now keeps a closer watch on her incoming and outgoing calls
and seeks detailed explanation for each of the calls. He wants all those calls
to reflect in the cash collection, failing which she suffers humiliation and
severe physical violence. On some occasions when she was not well and
desperately wanted some sleep she switched off her phone. That enraged her
fancy-man/pimp. He rushed to the brothel and beat her black and blue. Shanta
observed that the cell phone had compounded her distress.
Renuka, age 36, shared that she had moved out of the brothel
with her intimate partner dreaming of a life free of exploitation and hoped to
lead a ‘respectful’ life away from prostitution, but it wasn’t so. Her intimate
partner never trusted her.
She observed, “He always thought that I would cheat upon him
once his back was turned. He came home from work every day and first checked my
phone. He wanted to know if anyone had visited me and who all had called me and
with whom was I chatting.”
“In a day he would call me 10 times. Initially I thought it
was because he missed me but soon realized that it was to keep a tab on me.
Whenever he tried reaching me on phone and found my phone busy his first
question was to who I was chatting with for so long. As it became unbearable I
left him. There was nowhere to go so I returned to the brothel from where he
had taken me away. To many I proved the proverb ‘once a randi, always a randi’.
No one wants to know the circumstances under which I returned to the trade.”
Online Soliciting
Our next inquiry was on whether and how possessing cell
phones has affected street based soliciting. An important aspect of this was
the demand of the customer to check the product before buying. Our general
experience with ‘online retailing’ of goods supports the view that online
customers want to ensure the quality of the goods they are buying (unless of
course the products are minutely standardized and known). Hence online
retailers are required to display 2D & 3D images of the goods as well as
show to the customers how they would look on wearing those products.
While installation of any apps that would enable the
customers to “inspect and thoroughly check” the goods is an indecent idea it is
also doubtful if the women who do not remember their own cell number will be
technically savvy to use such advanced apps. How many middle class and educated
computer users are familiar with even half of the functions and features of
something as basic as MS Window or MS Word even after having used computer for
years?
Also, there is also no way simple cell phones with just
incoming and outgoing call facility could meet such a demand.
Can Technology Put an End to Red Light
Areas?
So has the cell phone revolution led to reduction of RLAs?
The answer is negative! Although the conventional RLAs have reduced in number,
size, and numerical strength it has little to do with cell phones. Mumbai’s
RLAs are a product of the British rule that set them up at the port cities and
cantonment areas to meet the need of commercial sex generated by its sailors
and soldiers. As these RLAs grew in size they started coming in conflict with
the civil areas and that among other reasons gave rise to several other RLAs in
and around Mumbai. The old RLAs which were closer to the ports are now
extremely viable properties in the real estate market. There is continuous
pressure from the real estate market to have them vacated for redevelopment
purposes.
The number of prostituted women in Kamathipura and its
satellite RLAs was once believed to be over a 75000. The 1960 study by Punekar
and Rao indicated that the number had reduced to around 60,000. Women have
already started moving out to other distant places. Prerana remains in touch
with them as we continue to protect their children. Women have also moved out as
the customers have moved out due to the ever rising prices of real estate. As
the women move out, pimps and madams follow. Some women now live far away but
commute daily to the RLAs.
Sex Talk
The last question we asked some of the women was if they
used the cell phones for selling ‘sex talk’. Most of them felt hurt. They said
they were not required to sell sex talk but were not sure if the next
generation of women trafficked into prostitution would have that choice.
Speaking for themselves, they said they condemn sex talk. This observation
needs further probing.
Can Technology Liberate?
A couple of years ago, a group from Mysore (from the state
of Karnataka in India) visited Prerana to understand the ESGT (Elimination of
Second generation Trafficking) model. The group mentioned that they were a part
of an effort to develop a cell phone app to assist HIV positive women
undergoing treatment by sending timely reminders about their doses. Although we
did not get to know about the final outcome of those efforts we have yet to see
any of our women in the 3 prominent RLAs of Mumbai use such cell phone apps for
their treatment.
It is commonly believed that science and technology are
liberating forces. It is true to the extent that they have the potential to
reduce the distress and uncertainty in human life. But technology is
potentially a double edged sword. Disruptive technology is very much a part of
our life. Neither on a priori reasoning nor with field based
observation can we conclude that the possession of cell phones by prostituted
women has led to their freedom from their exploiters.
The women do not hold the same gadget with the same identity
number for too long as they are constantly running away from innumerable
sources of violence and control. Even if they have the capacity to handle
advanced technology built in their favor they would require considerable
training and encouragement. We are living in a state and a civil society that
is not yet known by any of these gestures.
The Reality, As of Now
In a world of natural
and man-made disasters, where human beings are increasingly becoming
vulnerable, markets are uprooting settled human life, families and primary
level protective mechanisms are crashing down, where human trafficking is on
the rise, where recreation is increasingly described by its commercial inhuman
and exploitative qualities there is little scope to believe that pimps and
brothel keepers are disappearing or reducing in number.
Technology has also proven itself to be a force that
accentuates inequalities. Almost all the street based prostitutes that we work
with and that live and operate in the RLAs are at the lowest rung of caste,
class and status. They have no collective strength. They are victims of various
layers of violence, discrimination, stigma and exclusion. Using apps and
harnessing the ‘power’ of technology remains a distant reality.
At Prerana, we may accept the suggestions of our women and
send the last minute SMS instead of physically visiting. But the reality of
exploitation and captivity is still the prime identity of the sex trade. With
or without cell phones!
-
Pravin
& Priti Patkar
