|
|
Shiv Sena leader forces former bar girls out of their homes in Mumbai
Shiv Sena leader forces former bar girls out of their homes in Mumbai
Saturday, June 9, 2007 | AY
Mumbai June 7 (ANI): Ram Repale, a member of the Thane Municipal Corporation, belonging to the Shiv Sena has forcefully evicted hundreds of bar girls from their homes in Mumbai's Kisan Nagar locality.Repale took this step as several residents of the locality were complaining to him and asking him to help in "clearing their neighbourhood of unwanted elements".The residents alleged that the bar girls had turned to flesh trade after Maharashtra Government banned bar dancing in August 2005.Repale had given a deadline of June 11 to these former bar girls to sell their homes and move out of the place."Now they are threatening to kill my brothers and they are forcing us to vacate our house. Where will we go? The bad elements that lived here have already left and gone. Then why are we being asked to go? What will happen to my children? I am 35 or 40 years old. What will I do?" said Anita, a former bar girl.Anita alleged that Repale has threatened to kill her brothers, if she did not move out of her house. Already, over 1,000 bar girls and their families have fled the locality to take refuge in safer places."The ones who are left with no other option are involved in flesh trade to feed themselves and their families. So if they are being named 'Call Girls', there is nothing they can do about it. Girls like us have no other option since we are not educated," said Julie, another former bar girl."I have a 13-year-old daughter. Today if they evict me from my home, where will I take my children and how will I educate them? I am not objecting to them spoiling my life, but why spoil the life of my children?" Julie added.On his part, Ram Repale said that it is the residents who are forcing him to take such a step. But the former bar girls claim that it is an act of moral policing with the real cops shying away from taking a stand on the issue and helping those in power."Population of bar girls in the locality had gone up in the last three-four months becoming a big nuisance for rest of the residents. They would walk around half-dressed at odd hours in the night and knock on the doors of other residents. Their customers and pimps would fight regularly and wake up other residents. This had angered other women in the neighbourhood," said Repale.The State Government had banned bar dancing on the plea it corrupted young men and bred crime and prostitution.But the dancers and their sympathizers say bars are the only way the women, many of them single mothers, can earn a living. (ANI)
|
|
