Dance bar story: Girls prefer dancing than prostitution
MIL/Agencies, Apr 14, 2006.
Mumbai - Slums, sleaze, sex. The images that Mumbai's dance bars conjure up not least because the city's film fraternity has done it's bit to portray them thus on celluloid. And yet behind that is the gritty tale of many women dancing to make ends meet. And, they say, dancing to avoid having to take to prostitution.
The two-judge division bench of the Bombay High Court, comprising Justice FI Rebello and Justice Roshan Dalvi, in a 260-page ruling this week, quashed the Maharashtra government's law banning dance bars on grounds of discrimination under Article 14 of the Constitution of India. The court ruled that that the ban violated the fundamental rights and constitutional right to equality of bar dancers and bar owners, as per Vasundhara Sanger/INN.
The ban was enforced on August 15 last year by amending the Bombay Police (Amendment) Act 2005. While prohibiting all dance performances in dance bars, it exempted 3-star and above graded hotels from this ban. Immediately afterwards, a set of public interest petitions by bar owners, bar girls, activists and NGOs were filed challenging the government legislation.
The government argued that the category of 3-star and above hotel customers were different from those visiting dance bars. Hence, it was not demeaning, degrading or violating the dignity of womanhood if the girls performed within the premises of those hotels. The court held that such a classification was discriminatory on the basis of Art 14 of the Constitution of India. "Government tried to prevent the exploitation of women but their method was not proper", says Vishal Thadani, who was assisting Veena Thadani, main counsel for the petitioners.
Full story: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1490127.cms
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