The Insider Voice about Prostitution

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arti Sahu ◽  
Reshma Mondol ◽  
Fatima Khatoon ◽  
Neelam Chettry ◽  
Nageena Khatoon
Keyword(s):  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
West Bengal ◽  
Structural Violence ◽  
Red Light ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Light Area ◽  
Trafficking Organization ◽  
Share Information

This piece* has been put together by drawing from Red Light Despatch (RLD), a monthly newsletter brought out by Indian anti-sex trafficking organization Apne Aap Women Worldwide. RLD is for the women of the red-light area by the women of the red-light area. Women, girls and men trapped in prostitution from the red-light areas of Bihar, Delhi, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and West Bengal write the Despatch. They write for each other and share information, dreams, struggles and hopes in solidarity from different corners of India. They try to address the gaps in mainstream media that often do not cover information that is relevant to the poor and the marginalized. RLD also serves as a mouthpiece for prostituted women and survivors to end sex trafficking. The narratives in RLD reveal that prostitution is a form of violence against women and the only way to end it is by internalizing the Gandhian principles of ahimsa (non-violence) and antyodaya (uplift of the last). The narratives speak of how the prostituted child and woman is always originally trafficked and that she is the victim of structural violence as a female, as a person from the countryside, as a person from a scheduled caste/scheduled tribe or other backward classes and of unequal and lopsided development; and how difficult it is to exit prostitution.

Beyond the Brothels: A Qualitative Study of the Destitute Female Sex Workers of Central Delhi Red Light Area

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-36
Author(s):  
Anushree Nagpal ◽  
Atiqua Tajdar ◽  
Masood Ahsan Siddiqui ◽  
Mohammad Hassan ◽  
Suman Gaur ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Workers ◽  
Female Sex Workers ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Red Light ◽  
Voluntary Organizations ◽  
Female Sex ◽  
Familial Support ◽  
Medical Facilities ◽  
Light Area

The term ‘sex workers’ refers to those involved in prostitution. This particular term is preferred as it does not have the derogatory, sexist connotation that the term ‘prostitute’ has. Belonging to a highly stigmatized profession with no financial and familial support forthcoming, the latter years of the lives of destitute female sex workers are spent in abject misery and poverty. Effort has been made to study the socio economic status and the ways adopted by these women, post active prostitution period, to support themselves and their families. This paper is based on the field study conducted in central Delhi red light area during August-September, 2016. Direct interviews with the respondents using questionnaires as well as participant observation techniques were used to collect the data. The study indicate that destitute female sex workers, once out of active prostitution, start working as domestic helpers, work with local voluntary organizations, or as helpers in brothels. The income earned is very meager with hardly any amount left to be saved. Most of the women live in one room rented accommodations. Their access to medical facilities was found to be extremely restricted.

Health status and lifestyle of the Oraon tea garden labourers of Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Subrata K. Roy ◽  
Tanaya Kundu Chowdhury
Keyword(s):  
Health Status ◽  
Work Environment ◽  
West Bengal ◽  
Health Condition ◽  
Physical Health Status ◽  
Health Lifestyles ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Medical Facilities ◽  
Tea Garden ◽  
Sufficient Food

This chapter looks at the health and lifestyle factors among tea garden labourers in West Bengal. Tea garden labourers enjoy access to some free facilities like education for children, medical facilities, piped drinking water, housing, and subsidised food. Yet they still suffer from several health problems. This might be due to insufficient or inadequately maintained facilities, poor lifestyles, or a mixture thereof. The chapter then focuses on the work environment, lifestyles, and physical health status of Oraon tea garden labourers of Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal. The results reveal that around 60 per cent of the labourers are underweight, despite reporting that they were getting sufficient food to eat. Poor hygienic practices may explain these results. Anaemia was also high for both sexes. Ultimately, the overall health condition of the labourers may be explained by the poor health lifestyles that they have adopted in response to their work environment.

Telling stories of rape, revenge and redemption in the age of the TED talk

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Crawley ◽  
Olivera Simic
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Entertainment Media ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Informal Justice ◽  
The Third ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Spectator ◽  
Men’S Involvement

The last few years have witnessed increasing discussion of sexual violence in the mainstream media and public debate in North America and elsewhere, especially with the most recent wave of sexual assault and harassment allegations in entertainment, media and public institutions, called the #MeToo campaign. Despite the view that men must be engaged in this conversation in order to be effective at preventing violence and changing deep-seated patriarchal attitudes, the place of male voices in this ongoing conversation is hotly in question. This article analyzes an unusual and controversial project by Thordis Elva and Tom Stranger, who, 20 years after Stranger raped Elva, produced a TED talk (2016) watched by over 3 million people, and a jointly written book, South of Forgiveness (Elva and Stranger, 2017), detailing their story of forgiveness and redemption. The first part of this article situates this unprecedented victim-rapist enterprise within the history of feminist anti-rape politics and men’s involvement in that politics, arguing that this project both instantiates, and critiques, an appeal to the ‘good man’. The second part analyzes the book South of Forgiveness as a survivor story that is more complex than the highly reductive format of a TED talk allows, and shows how its uneasy fit within the putative frameworks of ‘restorative’ or informal justice (as Elva and others claim it to be) is a function of the unacknowledged dimension to the performance in the form of revenge. The third part of the article turns to Elva’s and Stranger’s public performances that began with the TED talk and book tour, which we attended, to show how this function of revenge played out theatrically and implicates the spectator as bystander and witness. We conclude by reflecting upon the implications of listening to male perpetrators speak against sexual violence against women and our responsibility towards these questions as feminist legal academics.

Communicating Democracy through Participatory Radio in Nigeria

2020 ◽  
pp. 642-657
Author(s):  
Murtada Busair Ahmad ◽  
Kamaldin Abdulsalam Babatunde
Keyword(s):  
Information Content ◽  
Community Radio ◽  
Community Media ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
Share Information ◽  
Developing Society

Community media remains the only key tool that can facilitate grassroot citizens' participation in nurturing and sustaining true democracy through creating and using information content that is driven by the needs of the communities for themselves and by themselves. By so doing, the citizens partake in determining their future through developing the community and educating their people in a manner and language that they can understand. Moreover, community media enables people from different socio-cultural backgrounds within a community, to share information and exchange ideas in a positive and productive manner. This dialogue among communities can be enriched by understanding how development issues affect them; discovering what others think in other communities; and seeing what other communities have achieved. In this light, participatory radio serves as a means of developing the grassroots emancipation that will enable them to articulate their needs in alignment with the cultural and social impulses of the communities they represent through means of technology, that is, community radio. The role of community radio is heightened by the realization that traditional or orthodox practice of the commercial/mainstream media has failed in achieving some of its basic and expected functions to the society such as serving as a true watchdog of the society, especially in a fledgling democratic system. Thus, this paper undertakes a case for sustainability of community radio in a developing society with a focus on both sides of the equation (production and distribution).

Exploring Needs of Sex Workers From the Kamathipura Red-Light Area of Mumbai, India

2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 552-561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsay Gezinski ◽  
Sharvari Karandikar
Keyword(s):  
Sex Workers ◽  
Red Light ◽  
Light Area

Safety net programs in West Bengal: how much effective?

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (12) ◽  
pp. 2019-2032
Author(s):  
Arghya Kusum Mukherjee
Keyword(s):  
Distribution System ◽  
West Bengal ◽  
Household Survey ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Transfer Program ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Employment Guarantee

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to find the determinants of participation and targeting efficiency of the following safety net programs in West Bengal: Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), self-targeted program; National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), subsidy based livelihood program; Indira Awaas Yojona (IAY), targeted cash transfer program and Public Distribution System (PDS), targeted in kind transfer program. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on a household survey comprising 900 households across three Districts: Murshidabad, Nadia and Burdwan. Findings Benefits from MNREGA and PDS are not substantial, whereas financial benefits are substantial from NRLM and IAY. This paper shows that poor people have higher likelihood of participation in MNREGA and PDS. But, non poor get disproportionate benefits from IAY and NRLM both have been designed for the poor. Therefore, targeting cannot remove elite capture altogether. Socially down trodden section have higher participation in MNREGA and PDS, whereas people who are at upper tier of social hierarchy enjoy the benefits of IAY and NRLM. However, it cannot be said that these programs miss their target completely. Practical implications The study suffers from the usual limitations of sampling. Social implications Programs targeted for the poor are being appropriated by the non poor. If there is better targeting money will be channelized to the desired beneficiaries and welfare will be enhanced. Originality/value The study has unearthed the underlying reasons behind why some safety net programs have better targeting and some safety net programs have poor targeting.

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