Revathi*, a 39-year-old sex worker from Bengaluru, shows the faint bruise on her hand recalling how she was chased by the police and beaten up when she was having a cup of tea with her friends in a hotel in the city’s Majestic area.
Like Revathi, other sex workers in the city too say they have been facing increased violence at the hands of the police, which intensified after November. They are chased, beaten, verbally abused and publicly humiliated, allege sex workers associated with Sadhana Mahila Sangha, an NGO that works for the welfare and rights of sex workers.
While violence against sex workers by the police is not new, the community isn’t sure what has brought on the increased spate of violence now. However, compounded with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, sex workers say that the increased hostility from police has affected their livelihood. It has become all the more difficult for them to go out on the streets to look for work for fear of being humiliated and sexually assaulted.
TNM had earlier reported that the community has been facing issues pertaining to access to healthcare, absence of safe spaces and lack of support from the government during the pandemic.
“The police hit us, humiliate us and tell us that we are equal to garbage because we are sex workers. They ask us to find other jobs, but who will give us jobs? The government is not providing us with alternatives. Why don’t they provide solutions before incriminating us,” asks Nafisa*, a sex worker based in Majestic.
“I’ve been doing sex work for 10 years now, we keep facing multiple issues. We’re told that we’re not worthy of respect and mercilessly beaten up. Are we not humans? We’re not committing any sin, we don’t do anything illegal,” says Revathi. She says financial constraints made her resort to sex work after she moved from Davangere to Bengaluru with her husband and children.
A member from Sadhana Mahila Sangha tells TNM, “Many of the street-based sex workers come from impoverished backgrounds and are not educated. They have no other means of livelihood and hence turn to sex work. If violence is constantly inflicted on them by those who are meant to safeguard them, what will they do?”
Anjali*, a 28-year-old sex worker, says that she ran away from home after she was married off at the age of 13. “The man was always interested in sex which did not feel right, so I fled from Rajasthan and went to Mumbai. I knew nothing then and resorted to sex work and that’s what I’ve been doing since then. I never faced any brutality until three years ago when I moved here,” she says. She adds that she continued doing sex work because she never got assistance from anyone and had to look after her seven sisters ever since her parents passed away when she was merely 17.
Apart from being subjected to brute force, the women allege that they have been sexually harassed; their sarees pulled, and bags snatched. Further, they say that when they are arrested, nine out of 10 the police team constitutes all male officers. “Fines from Rs 200-500 are also collected from the women to let them free,” adds the Sadhana Mahila Sangha member.
“I was once arrested at 6 pm and let go at midnight,” says Anjali, while Revathi recalls how she was detained at 4 pm and beaten up until 11.30 in the night before she was freed.
The women say that the humiliation and abuse from the police leaves them not only severely bruised, but impacts their health and well-being too.
“I ended up with bruises all over my body after I was beaten with lathis. I have depression and issues with body weight… unlike others, I can’t run or hide quickly. The incident shook me, I’m still recovering from it,” says Nafisa*. She was stopped by the police when she was heading to see her doctor in Majestic and detained on suspicions.
Other sex workers add that they are facing difficulties in getting customers due to the alleged abuse from the police. Many women have also ended up with fractured legs or hands, resulting in a complete halt of work in these difficult times.
“Although we get some business it is not enough to survive with the mounting expenses and increased price of essentials. During the lockdown, we had no work and even now, due to the persisting abuse meted out to us, we have very less business. It’s getting increasingly difficult to run our households,” says Rani*, another sex worker based in the city.
In a bid to get respite from the humiliation and violence, the sex workers approached a group of lawyers who assisted them in seeking justice. However, owing to the lack of video evidence, the sex workers instead had to face accusatory remarks from the institutions of justice.
“We wrote letter after letter to all the higher-level officers but in vain. The violence subsides for a few days but the situation then returns to what it was before. Will we be denied justice just because we don’t have video evidence?” asks Nafisa, who underwent a medical check-up and obtained a report after she was beaten up by the police.
Advocate Poorna, who has been working closely with the women, says that they flagged the issue with the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), which took cognisance of three cases and the verdicts were in the favour of sex workers.
“The Inspector-General of Police and Director General of Police were asked to submit a report to the SHRC, which they have. In spite of all these efforts, the violence has not stopped,” she adds.
Poorna says they have now submitted a memorandum to higher officials in the police department. The memorandum mentions all the legal rights conferred to sex workers and the provisions that safeguard them along with testimonies from 25 women who faced harassment.
Poorna adds, “The officials have assured us that they will take steps to increase harmony between the sex workers’ community and the police. We also have a meeting coming up with the officials to discuss all the issues and ways to resolve them.”
*Name changed