“Pinhaa tha daam-e-sakht qareeb aashiyaan keUdhne na paaye the ki giraftaar hum hue “
The above sher (couplet) of the great Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib, was used by me in my order in Budhadev Karmaskar vs. State of West Bengal, Cr.Appeal 135/2010 (see ‘sex workers’ on my blog justicekatju.blogspot.in).
The word ‘pinha’ means ‘hidden’ or ‘concealed’, ‘daam’ means ‘net’, ‘sakht’ means ‘hard’ or ‘cruel’, ‘qareeb’ means ‘near’, ‘aashiyaan’ means ‘nest’, and ‘giraftaar’ means ‘caught’ or ‘arrested’.
The sher therefore means :
“Near the nest was the hidden cruel net (of a hunter)Even before the chick could take its first flight it was caught”.
In India perhaps there are 20 million or more sex workers (prostitutes). They have been driven into this profession not because they enjoy it but because of abject poverty. The massive poverty of about 75% of our population of over 1400 million people is the real cause of exploitation of women. To fill their stomachs these poor girls have to sell their bodies. These girls should have had a life of happiness, but instead they get caught in the flesh trade because of their poverty at a very early age and their lives are ruined.
I have compared these innocent young girls to the chick which is caught in the net of a cruel hunter in its very first flight.Urdu poetry has, among other qualities, a unique feature. An Urdu verse can be given a meaning by the reader which was never intended by the writer. Surely Mirza Ghalib, when he wrote the above couplet, never thought it could be applied to sex workers !
There are millions of Sex Workers (prostitutes) in our country. These girls come into the flesh trade not because they enjoy it but because of abject poverty. They become practically slaves of the brothel owners, and are pitilessly exploited, and often brutally treated. Once they enter the flesh trade they became social outcastes for the so called ‘decent’ society. Surely it cannot be said they enjoy a life of dignity envisaged by Article 21 of the Constitution, as interpreted by our Supreme Court.
Buddhadev Karmaskar vs. State of West Bengal, Criminal Appeal No. 135 of 2010 was a case which came up before a bench of the Supreme Court of which I was the senior member. The appellant had brutally killed a sex worker, and we upheld his conviction. However, having dismissed the appeal, we suo motu converted it into a P.I.L. ( Public Interest Litigation ) for rehabilitating sex workers.https://www.indiatoday.in/india/north/story/supreme-court-prostitution-137902-2011-07-19
We were of the view that if sex workers were given some technical training they could earn their bread through this technical skill, instead of by selling their bodies. Hence we directed the Central and State Governments to prepare schemes for rehabilitating the sex workers, and we also set up a Committee, headed by a senior lawyer of the Supreme Court, to monitor this exercise.
In my orders in the above case I referred copiously to world literature depicting the plight of sex workers :
In the novels and stories of the great Bengali Writer Sharat Chand Chattopadhyaya, many prostitutes have been shown to be women of very high character, e.g., Rajyalakshmi in ‘Shrikant’, Chandramukhi in ‘Devdas’ etc.
The plight of prostitutes has been depicted by the great Urdu poet Sahir Ludhianvi in his poem ‘Chakle’ which has been sung in the Hindi film Pyasa (Jinhen Naaz Hai Hind Par Wo Khan Hain, which is the simplified version of the verse ‘Sana khwaan- e-taqdees-e-mashriq kahaan hain’).
I also referred to the character Sonya Marmelodova in Dostoyevsky’s famous novel ‘Crime and Punishment’. Sonya is depicted as a girl who sacrifices her body to earn some bread for her impoverished family.
Reference may also be made to Amrapali, who was a contemporary of Lord Buddha.
Sex among human beings is different from sex among animals. Sex in humans has a cultural aspect to it also, and is not just a physical act. But a sex worker who has to surrender her body to a man for money obviously does not do so for love. Ordinarily, no woman will willingly surrender her body to a man unless she loves and respects him. But a sex worker surrenders her body to a man just for sheer survival. As Nancy says in Charles Dicken’s novel `Oliver Twist’, “you adapt or you die”.
Apart from that, sex workers are always in danger of getting sexually transmitted diseases (STD), and they are often exploited, abused and beaten by the proprietors of the brothel and others who give them a pittance out of her earnings. There are several million sex workers in India, many even from Nepal, Bangaldesh, and even from the former Soviet Union and other countries. This is due to massive poverty in the country, and abroad.
Our effort must be to educate the public and inform them that sex workers are not bad persons, but they are unfortunate girls who have been forced to go into this flesh trade due to terrible poverty. Hence society should not look down upon the sex workers but should have sympathy with them.
I have already referred to the novels of the great Bengali writer Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyaya about the plight of sex workers, and the same has been shown in the novels of many European writers.
Thus, the Russian writer Dostoyevsky’s novel `Crime & Punishment’ has shown Sonia Marmeladova as a woman of high character who became a sex worker to feed her starving family. Similarly, in Charles Dicken’s novel `Oliver Twist’, the sex worker Nancy is shown to be a girl of high character who sacrifices her life to save Oliver. In Victor Hugo’s famous novel `Les Miserables’, Fantine sacrifices her hair and teeth to provide for her daughter Cosette. Martha in `David Copperfield’ is also depicted as a woman of noble heart.
For more, read my judgments on the issue here:
1. http://justicekatju.blogspot.in/2012/02/sex-workers-are-also-human-beings.html
2. http://justicekatju.blogspot.in/2012/02/sex-workers-must-not-be-looked-down.html
How can sex workers be really rehabilitated in society ? What I suggested in my order was only a temporary measure. But what is the permanent solution ?
To answer that question I may refer to the book ‘The other side of the river’ ( also called ‘Red China Today’ ) by the American writer Edgar Snow. In chapter 37 ( called ‘Small-Devil Doctor) Snow mentions his discussion with Dr George Hatem, an American doctor who had settled in China, and headed the team which wiped out venereal diseases in the country.
Dr Hatem said that after the Chinese Revolution was successful in 1949 his team’s first goal was to deal with the chief carriers of venereal diseases, the prostitutes. For this, women party workers first went into the brothels, lived with the prostitutes to gain their confidence, and explained the program for rehabilitating them.
This was unprecedented. No one earlier had shown such empathy for prostitutes, and certainly no one would live with them. They were practically slaves sold into the brothels, where they lived in inhuman conditions, getting little to eat, and often brutally beaten. After getting some medication the seriously ill were sent to hospitals, where they were thoroughly examined and treated.
After recovering their health, Dr Hatem said ” Some went back to their village, some given technical training and then sent to work in factories, many to school, many became medical helpers ( nurses ), several became able laboratory and research scientists. Nobody referred to their past, and no stigma was attached. Many of them have married ”.
This will happen in India, too, but only after our historical people’s revolution, which is inevitable, but will take time
https://justicekatju.com/the-coming-great-revolution-in-india-675951a0ad4e
