The manner in which the demolition of the red-light district of Baina was carried out on June 14, 2004, in Goa's port city of Vasca da Gama, is an atrocity against all decent norms and democratic values. If women and children in Baina can be victimised like this for no fault of theirs what will stop the government’s dictatorial forces from targeting slums in which a large section of the State’s labour force lives, questions TARA NARAYAN.

THE BASIC ISSUE IS NOT POLITICS BUT OUR LACK OF HUMANITY…’

Madgao businessman, social worker and humanist Datta Naik

WHY IS IT that when we see such things happening in Hindi films we weep but when we see it happening in real life we cheer? Asked Madgao businessman, social worker and humanist Datta Naik at a press conference held by the barely eight-month-old Forum for Justice (an alliance of organizations working to ameliorate the lot of sex workers at Goa’s red-light district Baina in the port city of Vasco da Gama) in Panaji on June 15. The well-known and respected businessman, who together with 15 members of various NGOs had been arrested and detained in police custody for 23 hours before being released on bail, asked this and other searching questions with considerable anguish. They had been arrested for protesting against the illegal and inhuman demolitions carried out by the State government machinery at Baina on Monday evening i.e. June 14.

STRANDED: Household items of one of the victims lying outside, soaking in the rain.

Ordeal over but refusing to be intimidated by the unwarranted arrest and experience of spending the night being shuttled around from one police station and the locker at Baina Police Station, Mr. Naik clarified and accused various State functionaries of having an inhuman attitude and newspaper and television reporters of being careless in their reporting by not cross-checking their facts independently. The soft-spoken businessman said that he had responded to appeals from Bailancho Saad members to visit the scene of chaos at Baina on Monday evening. Describing the scene, he said that when he reached Baina, the government machinery of bulldozers and policemen were already in the thick of demolishing both sex workers’ cubicles and other buildings. The scene at Baina was heartrending with women and children appealing in vain to save their belongings, crying helplessly, watching their only homes come apart …the tragedy which unfolded could have been a scene straight out from one of Bollywood’s potboilers with a Shabana Azmi or a Smita Patil protesting against the such cruel treatment by those who were their exploiters and “mai-baap” in turns as it suited them.

 Under the circumstance there was little he could do, said Mr. Datta Naik, but make enquiries about arrangements being made to offer night shelters and food packets to the victims of the demolition drive. Recounting the experience, he said, “We must have walked about 500 metres or so…I had spoken to Digambar Kamat about the inhuman manner in which the demolition were taking place, I also spoke to the Collector of South Goa, Mr. J.B. Singh, but the only answer he could give us was he was only concerned with the demolition and not rehabilitation of the affected sex workers.” In fact, there was little argument and no violence, none of them were responsible for the throwing of soda water bottles and other mayhem which they were accused of in the next day’s morning newspaper reports.

The small exhibition of violence was in fact an expression of anger and frustration on the part of some of Baina’s residents who had just seen their homes being bulldozed and their modest livelihoods turned topsy turvey by the demolishing team of workers and police force who in turn unleashed a lathi charge and started arrested everyone in sight guilty or not guilty. He together with Sridhar Kamat, Albertina Almeida, Tanya D’Souza and others were also manhandled and forced into a police van although after initial attempts to explain the situation failed they did not try to evade the arrest in any way.

ARRESTED: Margao businessman and social worker Datta Naik who was arrested for protesting against the demolition.

This kind of barbaric demolitions never even took place during the late dictator Salazar’s times, Mr. Naik pointed out at the press conference. But what has touched him at a deeper level is the manner in which the better-offs in the area crowded around and gleefully watched the ruthless demolition and traumatic break down of an economically weak and vulnerable section of society comprising of women and children. The human being in him was truly embarrassed by the attitude of the lookers-on, he confessed, because they looked on like spectators at a sporting event, cheering and showering choice abuses on the homeless sex workers and the social workers trying to salvage the barbarity with whatever reassurances they could offer in their personal capacity. It was this – this 5,000 odd people watching as if it was all entertainment for them – which has shocked him. Because it exposes a new malaise in our seemingly civilized society, “our creamy layer of society” which chooses to be “blind, deaf and dumb” to atrocities as long as they do not befall them. And the manner in which the demolition of Baina was carried out is an atrocity against all decent norms and democratic values. If women and children in Baina can be victimised like this for no fault of theirs what will stop the government’s dictatorial forces from targeting slums in which a large section of the State’s labor force lives?

These are not political issues but social issues, pointed out Mr. Datta Naik, and they will have to be addressed and redressed with genuine concern, aid and rehabilitation. Not through force directed against the weak and helpless such as he was horrified to witness at Baina on Monday evening. Social rehabilitation must precede any demolition but in this case it was nothing but a farce, the gutsy businessman concluded. Also the president of the organisation Lok Shakti, he commented that some of his business friends did question his involvement as a respectable businessman with the Baina issue, but he exclaimed, how could he not as a conscientious citizen? He could only urge the other privileged and wealthier sections of society in Goa to be more sensitive and understanding of the weaker, vulnerable sections of our people who in their own way not only offer vital services to us but do it for a pittance.

 All of which, of course, leads one to ask one ominous question. Is the ruthless elimination of Baina just the beginning of some more demolitions to terrorize and drive away migrant labour and those perceived rightly or wrongly as “outsiders”/non-Goans in Goa? With the face of fascism acquiring more and more “respectability” (e.g. witness the growing number of self-rightous lookers-on who cheered the legal (and illegal) demolitions at Baina with scant regard for fundamental human values) are we as a society heading for a future akin to the medieval past with all its feudal male chauvinism, religious bigotry and persecution, hypocritical sexual morals — and political, economic, cultural and social justice meted out only to the like-minded?

Are sex workers not part and parcel of our society and if they exist is it not because of seemingly innocent citizens’ own need to satisfy sexual lust? Sex workers in their humble or glorified versions and red-light districts have existed and flourished since time immemorial and in more enlightened democracies they are supervised in the best sense of the word and allowed to function in the best interests of both the service-provider and serviced. Needless to say these are serious and pertinent questions being asked by members of the Forum for Justice in Baina, the umbrella organisation which includes the Baina Rahivasi Sangh, Baina Mahila Mandal, Bailancho Saad, Bailancho Ekvott, Children’s Rights in Goa, Childline, Positive People, Arz, Jan Ugahi, Population Services International, Forum for Communal Harmony, Sandarsh and Vikalp. The Forum has filed a petition in the Panjim Bench of the Bombay High Court challenging the manner in which the Baina demolition has been handed by the State government in collusion with vested interests. According to Albertina Almeida of Bailancho Saad the entire exercise of demolition at Baina is not so much a sex workers and rehabilitation issue but an exercise in land acquisition by hook and by crook.

Back