Karnataka - Bangalore   

Moral custodians?

Routine press conferences at the Press Club are usually sleepy affairs. But a press conference recently held by sex workers of Bangalore Rural district saw journalists suddenly waking up to a sense of moral righteousness.

Journalists, men and women, hurled a volley of questions at the sex workers, ranging from the inane to the downright insensitive.

If one demanded to know what a sex worker's contribution to society was, another asked why she can't "make a decent living" as a coolie or domestic help. Yet another even pointed an accusing finger at them for wrecking happy homes and spreading HIV in the community.

"A thief need not be a thief all his life, you know," was one journalist's sanctimonious offering. Buffetted by this barrage of moral outrage, an activist finally burst out: "I left sex work and lived with a man for 10 years. But once I ran out of whatever money I had saved, he started speaking about my past and calling me names. He pushed me out of the house. Now, tell me if this society allows me the freedom to quit my job." Needless to say, the journalists had no answer.

Bageshree S.

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