No Durga puja for Sonagachi sex workers

KOLKATA: When the whole of the city is busy preparing for Bengal’s biggest festival just about three weeks away, sex workers in Sonagachi have been left in the lurch. Sex workers of this Asia’s biggest red light area are not organizing Durga puja this year. Unhappy with denial by various authorities to hold Durga puja in the open space, Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC) has decided to stay away from the festival.
DMSC that works for the sex workers faced objection when they tried to organize Durga puja for the first time in 2013 in Dalpatty located in the red light district.The puja went indoors inside a medical clinic run by DMSC when Dalpatty Byabshayee Samity moved the court. The next year court permitted DMSC to hold the puja in Dalpatty. But police denied permission citing that the puja will block the road.
DMSC had to move the court again in 2015 so that it could orgainse the puja. After the court’s permission the durga puja was organized in a plot owned by Kolkata Municipal Corporation. The organizers said that the place is very small where no proper safety system can be installed, making it risky in case of accidents like fire.
“We are wary of running from one authority to another. When local clubs are allowed to organize Kali puja, Ganesh puja and other celebrations by erecting big pandals at Dalpatty why we have to run from pillar to post to get that space? This is unfair. We do not want to run to the court again and hence decided to stay away from organizing Durga puja,” said DMSC general secretary Bharati Dey.
The sex workers have been organizing Durga puja for the past three years. But each time they had to approach the court after denial by police. The decision however not to have their own puja this year however has left sex workers saddened.
“There had been occasions where we were turned away when we went to offer anjali at pandals in the neighbouring locality. The last three years we could perform rituals without the fear of being ridiculed at or turned away. But this is also a fact that we are wary of approaching the court every Durga puja,” said a sex worker.