Red alert

Kamathipura is regarded as one of Asia’s oldest red-light districts

It's now obvious to state that the pandemic crippled multiple industries, but the crisis posed a unique predicament for the sex workers at Kamathipura. The reason is simple. How are professionals for whom physical intimacy amounts to their bread and butter expected to work in a situation where social-distancing is mandatory? They were anyway an ostracised lot. But the past two years have seen them getting beaten up by law enforcers for merely stepping out of their homes, being made even more invisible by civil society (the word ‘civil' here serving an ironic purpose), and struggling to put even two square meals on their plate, having been completely deprived of their income.

Santoshee Mishra

These travails are now the focus of a documentary called Mumbai 400008 that Santoshee Mishra has directed, and which will be screened at NCPA tomorrow. Thespian Dolly Thakore provided the voice-over for the narrative, while Shahid Sheikh was responsible for the cinematography and Sanket Joshi for the music. The film starts off with giving the viewer a sense of how the place became a red-light district, of how pimps trapped Indian women in the flesh trade to whet the sexual appetite of sea-faring men over 200 years ago. But its essence lies in highlighting how society is collectively responsible for bringing the sex workers to their knees over the past two years. "There are government schemes for devdasis and women whose husbands have left them. But there are no such allowances for prostitutes," Mishra laments.

She adds that there were some NGOs that provided grocery packages for sex workers. But they were in such dire straits that they didn't even have enough money to buy gas cylinders with which the ingredients could be cooked, and they thus opted to sell the packages in order to buy readymade food. Imagine that. Mishra tells us that the main intent of this film is to make people understand that these are not just sex workers we are talking about. They are women. It's just that society has dehumanised them, and for that, we all need to take a long, hard look in the mirror.

On December 5, 5 pm
At Piramal Gallery, NCPA, Nariman Point.
Call 9653260492 to RSVP
Free