Red Light Area is spreading COVID. SHUT IT DOWN!
The Issue
Living in Kamathipura – Stuck in A Superspreading Hotspot!
Kamathipura is a very well-known area in the heart of Mumbai. Our own little island of nightmares in the city of dreams. An area well-known for how crowded it is - most Kholis (rooms) have 8-10 people stuck in about 80-120 sq ft. But, the reason why Kamathipura might sound like a familiar name, the real reason we are “famous”, is SEX. Not the good kind, but the kind you shudder to think of. The kind that exploits and brutalizes women, girls. As young as 10 sometimes.
It is this heinous business that has made Kamathipura infamous.
It is no badge of honour, we know. More than anyone else!
It is our HOME, after all. My family has lived in this area for generations and we have seen endless struggles for ourselves, our families, communities, and the sex workers that are brought in here to become slaves, at such a young age too! As if this was not enough suffering, we are now faced with one of the most dangerous threats we’ve ever faced.
Kamathipura becoming a COVID-19 Superspreader Hotspot.
Kamathipura, by its very nature, is an 'at risk' area for COVID-19, and when you add the thriving sex trade (which is both high contact and high risk) carrying on, this threat increases exponentially. It is an existential threat that faces us today, but will surely come to your doorstep tomorrow. If nothing is done.
All we want is to protect our home, our families, and children. We believe that a few people's lust doesn't justify putting an entire locality, and even the city, in grave danger. We beg you to help us protect our home and Mumbai city. This disaster is avoidable!
Why is it important to COMPLETELY restrict sex customers?
Today, the status is such that without clear guidelines on restriction or relief from the government, sex work has resumed in Kamathipura. Customers come to Kamathipura from all over Mumbai and other nearby areas, making it riskier for all communities residing or doing business here. The customers who come, could be potential carriers of the virus, infecting the sex workers, and other nearby shops they visit. The sex workers and residents, who live in unbelievably cramped accommodations to begin with, will in-turn infect others in the area, including future customers. These customers will carry then it back home with them. Back home to you, even.
Thus, an explosion of COVID-19 cases is imminent if Kamathipura sex work is allowed to continue.
Smarajit Jana, a doctor and chief advisor of Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, Bengal’s largest NGO working with sex workers, said “It would be a grave danger if the sex workers are allowed to operate. Due to their nature of work and the congested way in which they live, one single case can infect a hundred”. DMSC, has a membership that includes about 65,000 sex workers spread across 50 red light areas in the state.
This is a COVID-19 bomb, waiting to explode.
Many studies have also shown that even in a normal residential circumstance, an infected person can end up infecting at least 400-500 people within 30 days, if they are not strictly quarantined. Now you can imagine the devastation that this will wreak in a place like Kamathipura, where social distancing and quarantine is practically impossible.
Further, while schools, theaters, etc. are closed because they are high contact and high risk, what sense does it make to keep red light areas open and allow customers to roam around the area buying sex and putting ALL OUR lives in danger?!
All this may seem like just paranoia, but for each number, there is a member of our community and family who is at risk of dying. There is a member of YOUR community and family at risk of dying.
Well, what if the sex workers use protection? Will that not help?
The answer, simply put, is NO!
When doctors, nurses, and other frontline warriors wearing PPEs are getting infected every day, how are masks and gloves going to help protect sex workers from COVID-19? Sex work cannot be performed without intimate close contact with other humans. The risk of getting infected is a near certainty.
While addressing a similar question, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) assistant health chief Dr Sanjeev Wavare said, “If one of the persons involved in sexual activity is a potential carrier of coronavirus, there is always a danger of the other person contracting it. Medical professionals treating COVID-19 patients are using PPE kits and still, some of them have got infected. This makes it clear that merely using a mask cannot prevent the danger of transmission. Till the time this pandemic persists, I advise people to avoid visiting red light areas at all costs.”
Lastly, for sake of argument, if we hope that infected Sex Workers can be quarantined timely or that customers showing symptoms will not be allowed to enter the area, a recent AIIMS study states that only 17% of actual patients are symptomatic and show temperature spikes, leaving the rest to never come under the radar and continue roaming freely, transmitting the virus.
You do not want to wait till the disaster is at your doorstep, affecting you and your family.
We, THE RESIDENTS OF KAMATHIPURA, have come together to demand the authorities to keep the RED LIGHT AREA CLOSED. For AT LEAST 6 months or until vaccines are available for COVID-19. Until a realistic solution is created by the Government, we demand that the police ensure there is a STRICT vigilance to keep customers of sex trade OUT of the Red Light Area in Kamathipura.
Lastly, you must be wondering, why are sex workers continuing despite the risk? And if their business is shut, what will they do?
This is the real challenge. Sex workers are not the culprits here, but the VICTIMS. Sex workers in the area are also very aware of the real threat that looms, more for them than anyone else. But, because they aren’t able to get any sustainable relief from government or otherwise, they are left with NO CHOICE but to resume their work to break the vicious cycle of hunger, poverty, and violence that they have been forced into.
Most organizations or businesses are reluctant to giving them work, and training requires money, or at least living without money for some time, which in their impoverished situation is virtually impossible. There are various NGOs working in the area that have been providing some relief but none of that has proven sustainable or a long-term solution.
In this regard, we request the government to please provide sex workers with IMMEDIATE RELIEF in the form of sustenance until the lockdown. This is to ensure that they manage survival in these tough times and are not forced to get back into a profession that may put their lives, and all of ours, at risk!
Support sex workers and the Community of Kamathipura to keep themselves, our community, and Mumbai Safe!
With your help we can! Please sign our petition and donate or spread the word so that it reaches the right ears. Every little action helps!
JAI HIND! JAI MAHARASHTRA!
KEEP AAMCHI MUMBAI SAFE!
The Issue
Living in Kamathipura – Stuck in A Superspreading Hotspot!
Kamathipura is a very well-known area in the heart of Mumbai. Our own little island of nightmares in the city of dreams. An area well-known for how crowded it is - most Kholis (rooms) have 8-10 people stuck in about 80-120 sq ft. But, the reason why Kamathipura might sound like a familiar name, the real reason we are “famous”, is SEX. Not the good kind, but the kind you shudder to think of. The kind that exploits and brutalizes women, girls. As young as 10 sometimes.
It is this heinous business that has made Kamathipura infamous.
It is no badge of honour, we know. More than anyone else!
It is our HOME, after all. My family has lived in this area for generations and we have seen endless struggles for ourselves, our families, communities, and the sex workers that are brought in here to become slaves, at such a young age too! As if this was not enough suffering, we are now faced with one of the most dangerous threats we’ve ever faced.
Kamathipura becoming a COVID-19 Superspreader Hotspot.
Kamathipura, by its very nature, is an 'at risk' area for COVID-19, and when you add the thriving sex trade (which is both high contact and high risk) carrying on, this threat increases exponentially. It is an existential threat that faces us today, but will surely come to your doorstep tomorrow. If nothing is done.
All we want is to protect our home, our families, and children. We believe that a few people's lust doesn't justify putting an entire locality, and even the city, in grave danger. We beg you to help us protect our home and Mumbai city. This disaster is avoidable!
Why is it important to COMPLETELY restrict sex customers?
Today, the status is such that without clear guidelines on restriction or relief from the government, sex work has resumed in Kamathipura. Customers come to Kamathipura from all over Mumbai and other nearby areas, making it riskier for all communities residing or doing business here. The customers who come, could be potential carriers of the virus, infecting the sex workers, and other nearby shops they visit. The sex workers and residents, who live in unbelievably cramped accommodations to begin with, will in-turn infect others in the area, including future customers. These customers will carry then it back home with them. Back home to you, even.
Thus, an explosion of COVID-19 cases is imminent if Kamathipura sex work is allowed to continue.
Smarajit Jana, a doctor and chief advisor of Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, Bengal’s largest NGO working with sex workers, said “It would be a grave danger if the sex workers are allowed to operate. Due to their nature of work and the congested way in which they live, one single case can infect a hundred”. DMSC, has a membership that includes about 65,000 sex workers spread across 50 red light areas in the state.
This is a COVID-19 bomb, waiting to explode.
Many studies have also shown that even in a normal residential circumstance, an infected person can end up infecting at least 400-500 people within 30 days, if they are not strictly quarantined. Now you can imagine the devastation that this will wreak in a place like Kamathipura, where social distancing and quarantine is practically impossible.
Further, while schools, theaters, etc. are closed because they are high contact and high risk, what sense does it make to keep red light areas open and allow customers to roam around the area buying sex and putting ALL OUR lives in danger?!
All this may seem like just paranoia, but for each number, there is a member of our community and family who is at risk of dying. There is a member of YOUR community and family at risk of dying.
Well, what if the sex workers use protection? Will that not help?
The answer, simply put, is NO!
When doctors, nurses, and other frontline warriors wearing PPEs are getting infected every day, how are masks and gloves going to help protect sex workers from COVID-19? Sex work cannot be performed without intimate close contact with other humans. The risk of getting infected is a near certainty.
While addressing a similar question, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) assistant health chief Dr Sanjeev Wavare said, “If one of the persons involved in sexual activity is a potential carrier of coronavirus, there is always a danger of the other person contracting it. Medical professionals treating COVID-19 patients are using PPE kits and still, some of them have got infected. This makes it clear that merely using a mask cannot prevent the danger of transmission. Till the time this pandemic persists, I advise people to avoid visiting red light areas at all costs.”
Lastly, for sake of argument, if we hope that infected Sex Workers can be quarantined timely or that customers showing symptoms will not be allowed to enter the area, a recent AIIMS study states that only 17% of actual patients are symptomatic and show temperature spikes, leaving the rest to never come under the radar and continue roaming freely, transmitting the virus.
You do not want to wait till the disaster is at your doorstep, affecting you and your family.
We, THE RESIDENTS OF KAMATHIPURA, have come together to demand the authorities to keep the RED LIGHT AREA CLOSED. For AT LEAST 6 months or until vaccines are available for COVID-19. Until a realistic solution is created by the Government, we demand that the police ensure there is a STRICT vigilance to keep customers of sex trade OUT of the Red Light Area in Kamathipura.
Lastly, you must be wondering, why are sex workers continuing despite the risk? And if their business is shut, what will they do?
This is the real challenge. Sex workers are not the culprits here, but the VICTIMS. Sex workers in the area are also very aware of the real threat that looms, more for them than anyone else. But, because they aren’t able to get any sustainable relief from government or otherwise, they are left with NO CHOICE but to resume their work to break the vicious cycle of hunger, poverty, and violence that they have been forced into.
Most organizations or businesses are reluctant to giving them work, and training requires money, or at least living without money for some time, which in their impoverished situation is virtually impossible. There are various NGOs working in the area that have been providing some relief but none of that has proven sustainable or a long-term solution.
In this regard, we request the government to please provide sex workers with IMMEDIATE RELIEF in the form of sustenance until the lockdown. This is to ensure that they manage survival in these tough times and are not forced to get back into a profession that may put their lives, and all of ours, at risk!
Support sex workers and the Community of Kamathipura to keep themselves, our community, and Mumbai Safe!
With your help we can! Please sign our petition and donate or spread the word so that it reaches the right ears. Every little action helps!
JAI HIND! JAI MAHARASHTRA!
KEEP AAMCHI MUMBAI SAFE!
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Petition created on 2 August 2020