[India] Poverty drives bar dancers to suicide

from NDTV

Bar girls may celebrate after the Bombay High Court removed the ban on dance bars in Mumbai.

But at the best of times, the women of Bombay's dace bars live a squalid, brutal life.

But the past year has been so rough that for the first time that it even led to suicides of bar dancers.

On September 7, 2005, Bilkis, an out-of-work bar girl hung herself in her room in suburban Dahisar.

Like many others, Bilkis and her husband moved to Mumbai from Bangladesh in search of work. She took to dancing in bars to pay for her husband's TB treatment.

When she stopped dancing, the money ran out.

The police say her husband began harassing her for money. Unable to pay for his medication, she committed suicide.

"There was tension in the house as there was no income and the couple used to fight," said Cyrus Davierwala, senior police inspector.

Bilkis' story was repeated at least twice over with two other out of work bar dancers.

But what made Meena's death that more tragic, was that she died alone in her single room Goregaon home, unable to even buy herself her next meal.

"She managed for as long as she could by borrowing Rs 20 from here and there, but how long could she survive like that," said Sitabai, Meena's neighbour.

The suicides hit the headlines, triggering protests.

"We will take the bodies of Bilkis and Meena and take out a morcha to R R Patil's house," said Manjit Singh Sethi, former president, Bar Girls' Association.

But police action ensured that did not happen. Eight months on the High Court order now raises questions on whether deaths like Bilkis and Meena's were in vain.