Grand Opening Of Dance Bars, Are The Girls Excited?

Following a Supreme Court order, Mumbais dance bars are preparing for a grand opening. Are the girls equally excited?

- Haima Deshpande

Fatima, 45 years old, is seated on a mattress laid out on a floor with a garishly printed carpet. Three plastic chairs are strewn around. To the far left of the mattress is an earthen pot filled with water. There’s a steel glass floating near the top. The small rented room is located in Malvani, a northern suburb of Mumbai. There are three young girls seated near Fatima. They all seem to be around 15 years of age and their faces are caked with make-up.

“Arre tu bahut hi kauli hai. Thoda body bana le phir dekhenge (You are too young. Let your body fill in and then you come back),” says Fatima, dismissing the first girl. The other two meet her standards. They will work as dancers at a well-known dance bar in Borivali East in suburban Mumbai. Each of the girls will give Fatima, a recruiter for dance bars in the city, a one-time payment of Rs 2,000. Demand for her recruitment services has shot up with the Supreme Court order of 26 November, which dismissed an appeal by the Maharashtra government to ban dance bars in the city. In 2005, the then state government had closed down dance bars calling it an ‘evil influence’ that broke up families. About 2,500 bars, including 350 licensed ones, had to shut shop and 150,000 dancers were rendered jobless. The Supreme Court has now directed the state government to issue licences to dance bars within two weeks from the date of its order. The dance bars will be back because the state’s legal team failed to explain to the Court bench why dance performances in high-end bars or hotels were allowed while those in cheaper bars and hotels were slammed as derogatory, exploitative and corrupting of public morality.