BAINA, A COMPLEX HUMAN PROBLEM, AND HEAVY-BOOTED STATECRAFT >From Pamela D'Mello, The Asian Age
Panaji, Jan 19: Chameli may be the latest box office hit, but in Goa, still preening on its "best state" status, the administration seems to have resorted to some heavy booted archaic statecraft to deal with a complex human problem. Baina, Goa's red light area, is a shantytown of 9000 sq metres, cramped with 353 structures of roughly 10-16 sq metres each, "illegally encroached" on land belonging to the state government and the local city council. A narrow lane divides the 250 cubicles and family rooms where the area's prostituted women and poor migrant families live and work. But Baina, in the port town of Vasco da Gama is also mapped out for an expansion project of the Mormugoa Port Trust and sits right in the middle of plans for an upcoming four lane highway. For decades since the 1960s it was left to stew into a cesspool of slumlords, petty criminals, gharwallis, procurors, human flesh traders and prostituted girl and women victims from the poorest drought prone districts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Their numbers are anywhere from 700-2500, exploited by some 66 brothel keepers and 27 bar/restarant owners. Now authorities are seeking a hassel and cost free clearance. Early this month, NGOs working in the area complained that authorities began a covert eviction and "terror" drive to force women to "take the next train home". Armed police cordons were suddenly posted in the area over the New Year domestic tourist fuelled customer surge into the area, small time hawkers were picked up and beaten, women are being harassed and police officials ran video camers in the area in a bid to create a scare. Last week a "Forum for Justice in Baina" was constituted by some of the state's NGOs, after police denied they were preparing for an eviction. "Evictions without alternative rehabilitation have never worked, but lead to a dispersion of the phenomena into other new areas", fears Arun Pandey, coordinator at ARZ, a social work organisation in Baina. The organisation has a hard time convincing local residents of the city that most of the women in Baina are tragic victims of unspeakable atrocities and poverty. Residents of Vasco City have repeatedly sought the removal of the area from "their backyard" and on the city's only beach, now completely inaccessible to middle class families because of red light area. "To starve, terrorize them and evict them without a place to go to, when their children are in local schools seems terribly heartless" says ARZ's Zarine Chinwalla. This time round state authorities have the upper hand. A similar drive in 1997 made headlines when Baina's occupants succeeded in getting the then Ms Mohini Giri headed National Women's Commission and National Human Rights Commission to intervene and force government to stop forced evictions on humanitarian grounds. Since then, the state government has landed a victory, when a High Court Bench in July 2003 ordered closure of the 250 cubicles, eviction and demolition of illegal structures on government land "by following due process of law". It also said that Goa was "not bound to rehabilitate" the commercial sex workers that came from outside the state and that those rescued "be deported to the state from where they come".(ends) -- _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ _/ _/ Pamela D'Mello * The Asian Age (Goa) _/ Email asianage (at) sancharnet.in _/ _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
