Prostitution is illegal in India. However, it is well known that sprawling red light districts thrive in the middle of dense urban slums. They are thought to house as many as 2 million sex workers.
It is almost as if sex work has become a caste to itself. In well know red light districts such as Kamathipura in Mumbai and Sonagachi in Calcutta, generations of women work side by side, a mother works next to a daughter, a cousin, a nephew. That's two million women (and men) dreaming of other lives, distant realities that probably don't involve selling their bodies to survive. However, also knowing that the economic reality that brings poor women and girls to the sex trade in India, will not change anytime soon.
But what to do with the dreams? The warnings to other sex workers? The hidden talents? The thousand stories of being sold into sex slavery? The sights and sounds of a vibrant, bustling community filled with women and color and smells and flurries of action? These were questions that Indian sex workers asked themselves. And in the process found a brilliant way to showcase the dreams, the stories, the human faces behind the marginalized masses, "Red Light Despatch".
"Red Light Despatch" is a monthly publication written by and distributed for free to sex workers in the most populous red light districts of India. Health workers and a few journalists have also stepped in to help with the magazine. It is not a pity publication about broken dreams and sadness, but a vehicle of hope with stories and poetry and tools for advocacy. Six months into the project, the success of the publication has encouraged the women to think bigger and has led to talk of a widely distributed multi-lingual magazine.
This is not a revolutionary idea, we have the successful sex workers rag "$pread" here in North America. What is revolutionary about having this magazine in India is that these women show a defiance of convention that is nothing short of inspirational. Rather than accept a fate dealt to them by history and economics, they dare to stand up and say "sex workers are people too". By providing a public platform to share, laugh, cry and dream, they emerge from the shadows and refuse to accept that what they do is shameful. Instead it reminds us of what is truly shameful: a system that strips women of choice and economic empowerment.
If you want to support sex workers here and abroad one good way to do so is to push the American government to reform Pepfar, the US emergency plan for AIDS relief.
Let the government know that banning federal aid to organizations that refuse to condemn sex workers is killing women. Visit Pepfarwatch.org to find out how you can do more.
Also, Frontline World, did a special on sex workers in India and created a great resource page to go along with the program. Check it out here.
(this blog post was originally written by Anna Rose Steiner)
