The right step

The Bombay HC order against the ordinance banning dance bars will hopefully close a chapter of moral posturing by politicians that led to loss of livelihood for around 75,000.

The Bombay High Court order setting aside the ordinance banning dance bars in Maharashtra will now hopefully close a chapter in a somewhat sorry story of moral posturing by politicians that led to the loss of livelihood for some 75,000 women in the state. The ‘righteous’ attitude adopted by Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil when he put into force the ban in August last year has since been shown up to be both hypocritical, as well as, discriminatory. As the high court judgment has pointed out, the state government had misread the Bombay Police (Amendment) Act, 2005, claiming that it banned performances or dance of any kind in an “eating-house, permit room or beer bar” while exempting similar performances in theatres or three- and five-star hotels. The court found no justification for the assumption that ‘obscene dances... derogatory to the dignity of women’ could only take place in the former.

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Mr Patil’s ‘logic’ in prohibiting dance bars was that they were promoting an atmosphere of licentiousness among the youth of Maharashtra as well as encouraging crime and anti-social activities. Mr Patil had also gone on record to say that he often found policemen demanding transfers to places where dance bars were located. Obviously, instead of focusing his attention on the real problem areas (for example, corruption within the state police), Mr Patil had whimsically chosen to make bar dancers and the owners of dance bars the scapegoats in his crusade against ‘immorality’. If he and his numerous backers in the echelons of Maharashtra politics are sincere about ending the exploitation of women and protecting the moral health of the state’s youth, they do not have to go too far from the Sachivalaya. Mumbai’s Kamathipura red light district is a hub for the trafficking of women and children. It finds mention in tourist books and guides, yet the self-proclaimed moral guardians of the state have nothing to say about it.

The government’s primary job is to provide secure living conditions and regulate, not dictate, the economic and social life of the people. It is most certainly not its job to establish moral guidelines. These are issues communities and individuals can handle on their own, insofar as they do not violate public order.