INDIA-HEALTH: Forgotten Villagers Could be HIV Carriers

By Neena Bhandari Reprint | | Print |

Neena Bhandari

BANDAR SINDARI, India, Jun 16 1996 (IPS) - The insignificant little village of Bandar Sindari in western India lies just off the busy Delhi-Bombay Highway. It doesn’t rate much more than a mention on any tourist map, but the dusty settlement just might be one of the major centres for spreading the deadly AIDS virus.

Only 50 huts comprise the village, home to the ‘Raj Nat’ tribe. At night, Bandar Sindari comes alive when young girls dressed in shimmering skirts with painted faces come out to lure passers-by off the highway.

The graceful ‘Raj Nat’ women were once dancers in royal palaces. Their men were profligates used to accompanying the women to collect royal gifts. But with the abolition of royalty, the women lost their jobs. And the men, unused to working, sold off the lands they had received as gifts at throwaway prices.

Left with no source of income, the women became sex workers to support their families. There are at least 55 sex workers in Bandar Sindari, many of them are barely out of their teens.

They are aware of AIDS because of the efforts of some Non-Governmental Organisations, but condoms are not supplied free here as in some other red light areas. And not many of the girls are likely to spend out of their own pockets to provide condoms to careless clients.

“The HIV bomb is ticking away and it is only a matter of time before it explodes because each girl entertains between five and 10 clients daily,” says a social worker, requesting anonymity.

The clients range from truck drivers to policemen to ordinary middle class youth who happen to pass by. Any of them if infected, could infect the sex-workers who are more vulnerable because of their young age.

They in turn would be spreading the infection to all their other clients who would carry it back to their homes with them.

The deadly multiplier effect works in other ways too. Many of the girls travel to Bombay to either dance at the hotels and nightclubs or work in the city’s labyrinthine red light areas. They could either bring the infection from there or carry it there with them.

“When these girls come home dressed in all Bombay finery, it has such a bad impact on all the girls in our settlement. They also aspire to be like them…,” says one of the mothers in the village.

But it is only a small minority that is in the profession out of choice. For the others, this happens to be the only way out. Says Sarika, 18 and seven months pregnant, “My mother and sister died young. I have to support my old and infirm father.”

Kamla, 70, who used to dance in the royal courts says, “The coming of cinemas and television in rural areas has destroyed our profession. We are dancers and our job was to entertain nobility, not sell our bodies.”

Champa, a gutsy middle aged woman has plucked up courage to move out of the environs of the village. “I do not want even the shadow of it to fall on my children,” she says. She has set up a small money-lending business in another village and has put her three illegitimate children through school and college.

But for the others, the village remains a nightmarish trap. There is no running water, only four of the houses have electricity stolen from the mains and schools and hospitals are miles away.

There is one primary school that is a kilometre away and some of the children say they are enrolled there. But they avoid going because the other children tease them about the profession of their mothers.

Most men die young because of tuberculosis. Diseases of the skin, malaria, diarrhoea and dysentery are common. But there is no dispensary and the nearest hospital is 20 kms away.

The only thing that is cheaply and readily available is liquor. Government licensed liquor vends are close at hand and both the clients and many among the Raj Nat males can freely indulge themselves. “The licenses have to be stopped if this evil has to be eradicated from our society,” says Kamla.

To top it all, there is constant police harassment. In nearby Dantri village, the entire Raj Nat population was brutally beaten, assaulted and chased away from the village, says the

social worker. The new police officer incharge is asking each of the girls to contribute Rs 1000 (30 dollars) if they want to continue to stay there.

“Now she will be forced to entertain more men to earn that extra Rs. 1000,” the social worker adds. Raj Nat settlements are spread all over the Western desert state of Rajasthan and most of them are in a condition similar to Bandar Sindari.

But things are just beginning to change with the advent of some NGOs and social workers who have initiated community based health and development schemes. They are reluctant to reveal their names and the work they are doing as yet, but the people are grateful.

Cleanliness, preventive health measures and water supply are some of the projects initiated by them. They also suggest distribution of condoms, removing the liquor vends and providing an alternative source of livelihood as ameliorative measures.

Trade in leather footwear and goods is a major source of income in this part of Rajasthan and they suggest training the Raj Nat youth in this trade.

Most of the youth are more than willing. Says young Shivraj, “Since the age of four, I have seen journalists come and write about our personal lives, the police beating and assaulting our women and the girls who grew up with me join the flesh trade. Now I am determined to change fate.”