NCJ Number
224408
Date Published
2008
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This chapter reviews the issues involved in court action that challenged the ban and police raids on “dance bars” in Mumbai, India, in which scantily clad women dance for patrons who are served alcoholic beverages.
Abstract
The chapter is written from the author’s perspective, who was involved in representing the Bharatiya Bar Girls Union through the legal center of Majlis. At issue was a writ petition filed by the bar owners against police harassment. During the legal team’s discussions with the bar dancers, it was determined that when police raided the bars, the owners were usually let off lightly while the girls were detained overnight in police custody, where they were molested and abused by the police with filthy language. In the writ petition filed by the bar owners, the concerns were confined to the public image of the bars, which was tarnished during the raids, as well as the financial losses of the bar owners; however, the legal center determined it was essential that the bar dancers themselves be heard and that they become part of the negotiations with the state regarding the code of conduct police should follow during the raids. Unfortunately, the publicity generated by the legal action included daily media stores of erotic dancing and scenes of money being thrown to the women. This aroused the middle-class Maharashtrian moral sense. For women’s rights activitists, the issue provided a new cause and a feminist awakening regarding the bar girls and their concerns. The case remains pending in the Supreme Court, probably for years to come. The chapter concludes with a discussion of a theoretical framework of female migration and concerns about trafficking in the sex trade. 8 notes and 1 reference