RainbowMan: What’s Offensive About Being a Sex Worker, Ms Irani?
Sex workers are devis and devils and everything in between. Get that Smriti Irani?
advertisement
Last week there was much uproar because Minister of HRD Smriti Irani claimed that some religious texts of so-called demon worshipers referred to a popular female Hindu deity as a sex worker. While we have debated the place of these ‘demon-worshippers’ in our history and society, I’m a little disappointed that nobody has raised the bigger question yet. What’s wrong with being a sex worker? What is so un-Indian about being a sex worker? We had a Devadasi system way before Germany decriminalised sex work. So why did Smriti Irani find it so offensive? And why is Anand Sharma finding the mere utterance of the term ’sex worker’ offensive?
I don’t think sex workers are angels or demons. I hate measuring women in such extremes. Sex workers are devis and devils and everything in between. Sex workers are a part of our society. They deserve an equal right to freedom and equality. Their daughters and sons need quality education, so that they stand shoulder to shoulder with other people. They don’t deserve to learn just peeko and silaai because that’s your version of charity. They deserve the right to dream their dreams and give wings to it. It doesn’t matter if their dream is to be a singer, actor or a commercial sex worker.
I am on the board of an NGO called Kranti that works with daughters of sex workers. I have received some funny calls from people who are interested in helping the girls. When I asked them how they would like to help, they said that they would like to give them a job and a life - by employing them in their homes to wash dishes. While I see nothing wrong in washing dishes, why should someone from a challenging background be told to limit her dreams? Why should someone who is a daughter of a sex worker not dream of something bigger than what other children do? In a quest to accumulate karmic points people often take the route if charity.
The real attitude of equality is when you allow people from marginalised and tabooed communities to rise and compete with your daughters and sons in their schools, colleges and offices. Also when you make soliciting sex work illegal and immoral, you hamper HIV advocacy and encourage crackdowns and raids. How do you think one could advocate safe sex practices in a place where you make it almost like it is illegal to be themselves? Thanks to people who still believe that they are a part of our society, the larger society, there is hope for the daughters of sex workers. A hope that they will be able to dream a distant dream...and achieve it too.
Since education falls under the HRD minister’s purview, she may be happy to know that Robin Chaurasiya, the founder of Kranti has been nominated for the Global Teacher’s Prize from India. There are only 10 people from all across the world who have been nominated for this Prize, which is touted as the Nobel Prize for teaching. While I obviously have a heart that swells with pride for Robin and Kranti, I would like to add in the same breath that it is the responsibility of the state to ensure that marginalised communities get equal opportunity to education. People like Robin are doing what the government should be. In fact the government is doing the contrary, taking offence to a goddess being called a sex worker.
Smriti Irani, takes offence to the words ‘sex worker’ being used for a deity, and Anand Sharma, takes offence to the mere utterance of the word publicly by Smriti, in context to the goddess. And here I take offence to both of you taking offence. Sex workers are a part of our society, my society. And our nation is not inclusive till they or their profession is considered a bane. And dear Smriti Irani, I urge you to get your facts right (again!). Maa Durga and her worshippers are totally cool with sex workers. So much so, that no Durga idol is considered complete until earth from a brothel is used in its construction. Here, let Madhuri Dixit show you how.
(Harish Iyer is an equal rights activist working for the rights of the LGBT community, women, children and animals. ‘Rainbow Man’ is Harish’s regular blog for The Quint)