Mumbai dance bars to reopen amid fears of sex trafficking

March 16, 2016

Mumbai, Mar 16: After a 10-year hiatus, dance bars are set to reopen in Mumbai and Maharashtra state with activists warning women and girls could be trafficked and abused in these venues but bar owners arguing this is legitimate, needed work.

dancebarMaharashtra in 2005 suspended the licences of hundreds of bars and hotels that featured skimpily dressed women dancing to Bollywood tunes on a small stage for male customers.

But after several appeals over the years against the ban, the Supreme Court ordered the state to issue licences from 15 March on condition that certain rules are adhered to.

When the bars were shut in 2005, about 75,000 women were estimated to be working there and bar owners said the women were earning a legitimate living.

But activists and charities feared the women were victims of trafficking and the bars were fronts for brothels.

“It's not as if shutting them down stopped trafficking, but reopening them would legitimise it and give traffickers another reason to dupe and abuse women and girls,” said Suparna Gupta, founder of Aangan Trust which works with victims of trafficking.

“A majority of dance bars were doubling up as brothels, and we established a clear link between many rescued minor girls and these establishments.”

State chief minister Devendra Fadnavis last week said the government was not in favour of reopening dance bars and will draft legislation to find a way around the Supreme Court ruling.

About 150 bars and hotels in Mumbai and about 1,200 in the state are applying for licences, according to an industry lobby.

South Asia, with India at its centre, is the world's fastest-growing and second-biggest region for human trafficking after Southeast Asia, according to the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime.

Mumbai, India's financial hub, is one of the biggest destinations for trafficked women and children.

Most of them are brought from other states and neighbouring countries, including Nepal and Bangladesh, under the guise of securing a well-paid job in a home or shop but are sold into sex work or forced into manual labour.

The Maharashtra government, which opposes dance bars on the grounds of obscenity, had proposed more than two dozen conditions for new licences but the Supreme Court rejected some of them, including requiring a live stream to police stations.

Instead, closed-circuit televisions will be installed at the entrance, with a limit of four dancers per bar, a railing around the performance area, and a distance of at least 5 feet between the stage and customers.

Women won't be permitted to dance in an obscene manner and customers cannot fling money at the dancers, the rules state.

Hotel and bar owners have lobbied against some of these conditions, calling them unreasonable.

“What has the state done in the last 10 years for the rehabilitation of the thousands of women who lost their livelihood overnight?” said Adarsh Shetty, head of the Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association in Mumbai.

Many women who found themselves without a job then were forced into prostitution or trafficked to Gulf nations, said Bharat Thakur, president of the Dance Bars' Association in Mumbai, which has criticised the state's “moral policing”.

Comments

IBRAHIM.HUSSAIN
 - 
Thursday, 17 Mar 2016

This would be good news for Dance Bar Owners, mostly from costal Karantaka, specially DK, and Udipi Districts. It was alleged that Dance Bar Association paid 35 Lakhs cheque to the BJP party fund for shutting their mouth against opening of Dance Bars. Dance Bars are nothing but a red light homes.

Dance Bar is another name of Cabaret Dance or Strip Dances. The day is not far every city of the India will have Strip Dance Bars which will destroy the peace of society and heritage of India.

As far as livelihood of the Dance Bars females and other workers concerned government of Maharastra should have made alternate arrangement for them for their livelihood. But they did not.

Very sad news of opening Dance Bars.

Suleman
 - 
Wednesday, 16 Mar 2016

BJP promoting \Cultural events\". Situation changed after 10 years of ban."

WellWisher
 - 
Wednesday, 16 Mar 2016

Dear Bros from The Rightwing of all religions,

It is time to show the universal brotherhood.

Please step forward and stop our mothers, sisters and daughters from falling into the hands of the pimps who are involved in such a heinous business called Dance bar who eventually end up trading them to the brothels.

PLZ ALL POLITICALLY POWERFULL PEOPLE OF INDIA PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER TO SAVE UR MOTHER,SISTERS and DAUGHTERS.

JAI HIND

Fair talker
 - 
Wednesday, 16 Mar 2016

Ladies are not safe in modesty if working in such exploiting atmosphere. their respect dignity are damaged.

If these 75,000 lady workers are required to work in a very sensitive situation to support their family, then it is the responsibility of the society to arrange them a job or support.

For such a state these 75,000 number is a not a matter.
Give jobs to their male members as much as possible and the rest of the ladies can be given even good gov't jobs.

Whoever showing pity are not genuinely concerned. Bar and Hotel owners are not expressing real pity.

Kumaraswamy
 - 
Wednesday, 16 Mar 2016

next trip to mumbai :P

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News Network
February 26,2020

Mumbai, Feb 26: Targetting Shiv Sena's silence over the recent controversial remark by AIMIM leader Waris Pathan, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said the Uddhav Thackeray-led party might be "wearing bangles" but the BJP was not and knew how to retaliate in the same manner.

"Shiv Sena might be wearing bangles but we are not. If someone says something then he will be given an answer in the same way. BJP has this much power," said Fadnavis while launching a scathing attack on ruling-Shiv Sena in Maharashtra for not taking strict action against Pathan.

Fadnavis was addressing protestors at Azad Maidan where BJP launched a protest against Maharashtra government over issues related to farmers and women.

On February 20, while addressing an anti-CAA rally, at Kalaburagi in Karnataka, Pathan had said, "time has now come for us to unite and achieve freedom. Remember we are 15 crore but can dominate over 100 crores."

"They tell us that we have kept our women in the front - only the lionesses have come out and you are already sweating. You can understand what would happen if all of us come together," he had said.

Facing flak over his remarks Pathan later took back his words and had said he had not targeted any community but had spoken against members of some organisations.

"If any of my words have hurt someone, I take them back as I am a true Indian," Pathan said at a press conference here.

The AIMIM leader said that he was being portrayed as being anti-Indian and anti-Hindu for the past couple of days.

"I want to say that my earlier statement was basically against people who are members of organisations like RSS, BJP, Bajrang Dal, etc. These 100 are those people who want to divide this beautiful nation," he added.

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News Network
April 23,2020

Mangaluru, Apr 23: The scarcity of water in Kukkavu area of Belthangady town in Dakshina Kannada district has forced school-going children to dig a well with their hands.
The children studying in primary schools were seen lifting the heavy buckets of water from the well.

The residents were facing the water shortage from the past couple of days, amid the coronavirus lockdown.
A group of five adolescents managed to dug the well as deep as 12 feet within just a span of four days.

" We are facing water problem now. With the support of my five more friends, we dug this well. At the beginning we just found soil, then in the deeper layers, we also found stones. We got access to the water at 10 feet down," said Dhanush, a class 9th student, while speaking to news agency.

The shortage of water during the summer months is a perennial problem in across several states in India, and the growing population has only added to the woes.

In extreme conditions, poor have to draw water from small water holes.

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News Network
January 12,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 12: Chief Justice of India, Sharad Arvind Bobde on Saturday hinted at the possibility of Artificial Intelligence being developed for the court system while making it clear that it will never replace human discretion.

Speaking at an event here, Bobde said, "We have a possibility of developing Artificial Intelligence for the court system. Only for the purpose of ensuring that the undue delay in justice is prevented."

"I must make it clear at the outset as there are times when even judges have asked this. AI is not going to replace human judges or human discretion", he added.

Sharing more details of his vision, he stated, "It is only the repetitive, mathematical and mechanical parts of the judgments for which help can be taken from the system...we are exploring the possibility of implementing it."

Bobde stressed on the requirement of developing AI for judiciary while outlining the number of pending cases in different courts.

"Some people are in jail for 10-15 years and we are not in position to deal with their appeals. The high court's and Supreme Court take so long and ultimately the courts feel that it is just to release them on bail", he said.

Bobde also endorsed employing every talent and skill to ensure delivery of justice in a reasonable time.

"We must employ every talent, every skill we possess to ensure that justice is received within reasonable time. Delay in justice can't be a reason for anybody to take law into their hands. But it's very important for us as courts to ensure there's no undue delay in justice", he said.

CJI Bobde also highlighted the need for pre-litigation mediation and said, "Pre-litigation mediation is the need of the hour especially in the backdrop of a significant pendency that the courts are tackling with. There are innumerable areas where pre-litigation mediation could solve the problem."

He also stressed that the position of a judge is very unique under the constitution and they have to deal with a variety of problems.

"The foundation of civilisation rests on the law. Judicial officers have to deal with a variety of problems...Judges without adequate knowledge, skills and experience may cause distortion, delay and miscarriage of justice", he said.

Earlier in the day, Chief Justice of India Bobde inaugurated the phase-1 of the new building of the Karnataka Judicial Academy on Crescent Road in Bengaluru.

The new building has three floors, besides, the ground floor and two basement floors.

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