Condoms are safety, safety is condoms
Thursday the 25th was our last day of work, since the 26th of January is Republic Day and not a day of work.* The 25th was also rather busy, with our team splitting up into three groups to cover three different organizations.
Neema and Sharan went to visit Ummar Khadi, a juvenile remand home. Although we'd been focusing on adult prisons, the opportunity arose for access to visit the home and see how "children in conflict with the law" (as labeled by the Child Welfare Board) are treated in Bombay. The most disturbing aspect of Ummar Khadi, though, is not how the children in conflict with the law are kept - it's that they're kept side-by-side with "children in need of care and protection," the state term for orphans and street children. That is, both habitual and violent criminals are mixed with one-time petty thieves and children with no criminal record at all, in violation of a whole host of international norms (and some Indian requirements as well). Definitely a facility worth seeing.
Mike and Currun were sent in the other direction, to visit another drug drop-in centre. Although we'd done interviews with a variety of drug-users at Sankalp, the Prison Ministries drop-in centre seemed a good place to interview a different selection of people - at any rate, since it's at the other end of Bombay, we were thinking it might have users who have experienced different prisons.
And Aziza and myself, the third group, made a return visit to Sanmitra Trust, an organization that focuses on sex workers and HIV/AIDS rehabilitative work. We'd been once before, on our second week, to talk to board members of Sanmitra, and they'd kindly arranged for us to talk to a number of sex workers who'd been taken to Byculla (the female prison). Since all of our Sankalp interviews were with men who'd been kept at Arthur Road, this was a great chance to get some information on Byculla, which is also supposed to be a pretty bad facility.
As it turns out, we did get some great information. We talked to four sex workers, two of whom had been taken to jail, and got an entirely new perspective on Byculla. (Previously, most of our Byculla information had been supplied by organizations that teach meditation classes within the prison, and said information seemed to have been gathered through exceedingly rose-colored glasses.) In addition to looking at uniquely female problems within prison - reproductive health issues, like the supply of sanitary napkins, pregnant women, children (who are kept with their mothers until the age of 6-7, if there's no family to take responsibility) - we were able to draw parallels to the male experience in some areas.
For example, in Arthur Road, there's a notorious gang structure, which is part of the reason Arthur Road is so notoriously dangerous. However, everyone had claimed that there was no parallel structure in Byculla, a claim strongly contradicted by the stories of these women. Additionally, while the atmosphere in Arthur Road - due in large part to the gangs - is one of danger, the female Dawood member at Byculla was looked upon fondly by the other inmates for her efforts to improve the prison and protect the women from unwanted attention of the guards.
Anyhow, we had found a gold-mine of information - unfortunately, the meeting had to end long before our questions were exhausted because the women were attending a Sanmitra gathering of sex workers. However, Aziza and I were invited to attend as well. Not wanting to be rude, we decided to stay for a few minutes before bowing out.
Instead, we wound up staying for HOURS, and ending our work for the trip on a very positive note. The meeting was a gathering of sex workers who'd attended a Sanmitra training session, so it opened with each woman introducing herself and sharing one thing she'd learned at the training session. In a country with an out-of-control HIV/AIDS problem, it was more than a little gratifying to listen to women talking about how they'd learned to never have sex without condoms, no matter what the client may say.
After these introductions (which included Aziza and myself, although we didn't talk about condoms), we were anointed with red and yellow powder on our foreheads, which I'm convinced is a blessing of some sort, although I'm still a bit unclear. (Somehow, even though I went to India with FOUR South Asians, I managed to not have ONE Hindu on the team to explain such customs.)
Then we played a game. It was very simple - we all sat in a circle, assigned one of four names (of fruits). Then, when the moderator yelled "mango!" all the women who'd been assigned that fruit had to get up and switch chairs with the other mangos. Meanwhile, one of the chairs would be pulled out, and the woman who didn't get a seat would be eliminated. (Basically, musical chairs without the music.) However, the women were OUT OF CONTROL, giggling and barreling into each other, knocking the chairs over in their haste. (Okay, so I was too ...) In the end, it was down to me and one of the sex workers. She won, but I got a second-place prize (a pen) - I felt bad taking it, but they wouldn't let me say no.
Once everyone calmed down, there was a second game. Basically a contest to see who talks the fastest, the women took turns repeating "Condoms are safety, safety is condoms" (in Hindi) for one minute, with the winner being the person with the most repetitions. Aziza and I both got sucked into this one, although we were allowed to repeat it in English (thank goodness). I won, with 37 repetitions, and got for my trouble a second pen.** (I'm totally convinced that I won only because I talk too much, so that I have more experience than everyone else.)
After this, the women danced. I kept getting pulled into the melee (I think they liked having a foreigner around - I was certainly novel), but even when I was just watching, it was an incredible experience to be among such a group of women, who were all so positive and happy and enjoying themselves. I don't claim to understand the life of a sex worker, but it was good to know that they too have the chance and the ability to enjoy life.
All in all, a great end to a sometimes frustrating, sometimes depressing, always interesting trip, and a great window into the lives of a group of women I knew absolutely nothing about.
* Analogous to our Fourth of July, with parades and fireworks and other such festivities, Republic Day is different in one odd and disappointing regard - it's 100% dry, impossible to buy alcohol anywhere (even at the airport). What kind of celebration is that??
** I promise, I didn't take them in the end. I had planned on giving them away, one to one of the women who'd talked to us before the meeting, and one to this cute boy who was there with his mom, but actually forgot and just left them on the table. Either way, though, I think they made it to someone a bit more in need of them.
Neema and Sharan went to visit Ummar Khadi, a juvenile remand home. Although we'd been focusing on adult prisons, the opportunity arose for access to visit the home and see how "children in conflict with the law" (as labeled by the Child Welfare Board) are treated in Bombay. The most disturbing aspect of Ummar Khadi, though, is not how the children in conflict with the law are kept - it's that they're kept side-by-side with "children in need of care and protection," the state term for orphans and street children. That is, both habitual and violent criminals are mixed with one-time petty thieves and children with no criminal record at all, in violation of a whole host of international norms (and some Indian requirements as well). Definitely a facility worth seeing.
Mike and Currun were sent in the other direction, to visit another drug drop-in centre. Although we'd done interviews with a variety of drug-users at Sankalp, the Prison Ministries drop-in centre seemed a good place to interview a different selection of people - at any rate, since it's at the other end of Bombay, we were thinking it might have users who have experienced different prisons.
And Aziza and myself, the third group, made a return visit to Sanmitra Trust, an organization that focuses on sex workers and HIV/AIDS rehabilitative work. We'd been once before, on our second week, to talk to board members of Sanmitra, and they'd kindly arranged for us to talk to a number of sex workers who'd been taken to Byculla (the female prison). Since all of our Sankalp interviews were with men who'd been kept at Arthur Road, this was a great chance to get some information on Byculla, which is also supposed to be a pretty bad facility.
As it turns out, we did get some great information. We talked to four sex workers, two of whom had been taken to jail, and got an entirely new perspective on Byculla. (Previously, most of our Byculla information had been supplied by organizations that teach meditation classes within the prison, and said information seemed to have been gathered through exceedingly rose-colored glasses.) In addition to looking at uniquely female problems within prison - reproductive health issues, like the supply of sanitary napkins, pregnant women, children (who are kept with their mothers until the age of 6-7, if there's no family to take responsibility) - we were able to draw parallels to the male experience in some areas.
For example, in Arthur Road, there's a notorious gang structure, which is part of the reason Arthur Road is so notoriously dangerous. However, everyone had claimed that there was no parallel structure in Byculla, a claim strongly contradicted by the stories of these women. Additionally, while the atmosphere in Arthur Road - due in large part to the gangs - is one of danger, the female Dawood member at Byculla was looked upon fondly by the other inmates for her efforts to improve the prison and protect the women from unwanted attention of the guards.
Anyhow, we had found a gold-mine of information - unfortunately, the meeting had to end long before our questions were exhausted because the women were attending a Sanmitra gathering of sex workers. However, Aziza and I were invited to attend as well. Not wanting to be rude, we decided to stay for a few minutes before bowing out.
Instead, we wound up staying for HOURS, and ending our work for the trip on a very positive note. The meeting was a gathering of sex workers who'd attended a Sanmitra training session, so it opened with each woman introducing herself and sharing one thing she'd learned at the training session. In a country with an out-of-control HIV/AIDS problem, it was more than a little gratifying to listen to women talking about how they'd learned to never have sex without condoms, no matter what the client may say.
After these introductions (which included Aziza and myself, although we didn't talk about condoms), we were anointed with red and yellow powder on our foreheads, which I'm convinced is a blessing of some sort, although I'm still a bit unclear. (Somehow, even though I went to India with FOUR South Asians, I managed to not have ONE Hindu on the team to explain such customs.)
Then we played a game. It was very simple - we all sat in a circle, assigned one of four names (of fruits). Then, when the moderator yelled "mango!" all the women who'd been assigned that fruit had to get up and switch chairs with the other mangos. Meanwhile, one of the chairs would be pulled out, and the woman who didn't get a seat would be eliminated. (Basically, musical chairs without the music.) However, the women were OUT OF CONTROL, giggling and barreling into each other, knocking the chairs over in their haste. (Okay, so I was too ...) In the end, it was down to me and one of the sex workers. She won, but I got a second-place prize (a pen) - I felt bad taking it, but they wouldn't let me say no.
Once everyone calmed down, there was a second game. Basically a contest to see who talks the fastest, the women took turns repeating "Condoms are safety, safety is condoms" (in Hindi) for one minute, with the winner being the person with the most repetitions. Aziza and I both got sucked into this one, although we were allowed to repeat it in English (thank goodness). I won, with 37 repetitions, and got for my trouble a second pen.** (I'm totally convinced that I won only because I talk too much, so that I have more experience than everyone else.)
After this, the women danced. I kept getting pulled into the melee (I think they liked having a foreigner around - I was certainly novel), but even when I was just watching, it was an incredible experience to be among such a group of women, who were all so positive and happy and enjoying themselves. I don't claim to understand the life of a sex worker, but it was good to know that they too have the chance and the ability to enjoy life.
All in all, a great end to a sometimes frustrating, sometimes depressing, always interesting trip, and a great window into the lives of a group of women I knew absolutely nothing about.
* Analogous to our Fourth of July, with parades and fireworks and other such festivities, Republic Day is different in one odd and disappointing regard - it's 100% dry, impossible to buy alcohol anywhere (even at the airport). What kind of celebration is that??
** I promise, I didn't take them in the end. I had planned on giving them away, one to one of the women who'd talked to us before the meeting, and one to this cute boy who was there with his mom, but actually forgot and just left them on the table. Either way, though, I think they made it to someone a bit more in need of them.
posted by Teale at 9:00 AM
1 Comments:
Interesting to know.
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