Dance bars outlawed in Mumbai

BY WESTERN standards the dance bars of Mumbai, where fully-clothed women gyrate to songs from Bollywood movies, would be considered tame.

But tens of thousands of women are facing the sack after the Maharashtran state government decided the bars threaten the moral fabric of Indian society and ordered them closed.

The Congress Party-led state government had already ordered the closure of such bars across Maharashtra, saying they were corrupting youth.

Now the order has been extended to the state capital Mumbai, formerly Bombay, a city known for its prominent nightlife where tens of thousands of women work in hundreds of dance bars.

Authorities say the bars have become hubs for prostitution and crime. "The bars are only licensed to operate as eating houses and restaurants with a liquor permit, but they have been misused for such illegal activities," said RR Patil, Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister.

He warned that licences of bars that continued to employ dancing girls would be revoked and offenders would face three-year jail terms. "The bars are corrupting the moral fibre of our youth," he said.

There are about 700 dance bars in Bombay, and 650 in the rest of the state, employing 75,000 dancing-girls. Most of them will lose their jobs, members of their union said.

"Thousands of dancers will be reduced to poverty. They have not found jobs elsewhere, and that’s why they are forced to dance here," said Varsha Kale, head of the Dance Bar Girls Union. "What kind of jobs will they get now?"

"These women have a poor education and come from very backward sections of society. They are vulnerable and are often the sole breadwinner in a family. They will be forced into the flesh trade," she said.

The women, who earn up to 10,000 rupees (120) a month, are attracted by Mumbai’s bright lights from all over India and even as far away as Nepal and Bangladesh, Ms Kale said. Some come originally to work in the city’s red-light district but the dance bars offer a much safer way to make a living.

Geeta Shetty headed for the city’s nightclubs to feed her children after her husband walked out on her. "No girl likes to dance in these bars. But what alternative do we have? We want to know what the government has thought for us," she said.

Officials yesterday said the bars were a corrupting influence, a threat to local culture, and all too often acted as a front for prostitution. Mr Patil also said that their presence was corrupting police officers, a claim that will bring a wry smile to most of the city’s 18 million people who daily run the gauntlet of a force on the take.

"I find policemen demanding transfers [to] areas where these dance bars are located," Mr Patil said. Bar owners complain that officers only raid the establishments that refuse to pay bribes.

Manjit Singh Sethi, head of the Dance Bars Owners’ Association, said: "The government should know they cannot crush an industry like this. This battle will be taken to the courts and the streets. The government is playing with people’s lives."