Sex and Man

Book 

Title: Up Against Darkness

Author: Medha Deshmukh Bhaskaran

Publisher: Sakal Media, Pune, 2023

Pages: 295

According to an estimate by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), there are over eight lakh women sex workers in India. A good many of them are treated as worse than animals. This book, Up Against Darkness, is a detailed study on the red-light areas of Ahmednagar in Maharashtra.

The book highlights the phenomenal service rendered by Dr Girish Kulkarni and his wife Prajakta for the sex workers of Ahmednagar. As a boy in school, Girish was restless and full of energy. “He became unruly in class, troubling the teachers and other school children.” The neighbours too had to bear the brunt of his mischiefs. When Girish saw a sex worker smacking her little son in order to get him out of her client’s way, his heart melted. He was a young college student then. He volunteered to take care of the little boy and eventually he became an apostle of the sex workers in Ahmednagar. All his infinite passion found a cause now.

He dedicated his entire life to the service of these women and their children without discontinuing his studies. He had the support of his entire family too, particularly his father and brother. With the help of many magnanimous others, Girish set up an institution named Snehalaya to take care of the children of sex workers as well as those workers who could not continue their profession due to sexually transmitted diseases. Soon the establishment grew and it had many wings like Snehankur and Snehadhar. The system set in place by Girish is doing a heroic service up to this day in Ahmednagar.

We meet many sex workers in the book. Some of them were betrayed by their own friends or relatives. Poverty pushed many of them into this profession. Domestic violence may be the cause in many cases. The author brings a variety of examples to us many of which are heart-rending.

What comes as a rude shock is the collusion of people who apparently belong to the elite class. “A disturbing discovery I made while researching for this book is that most of the dharamsthalas (holy places) in India are surrounded by brothels,” the author says. “The bhaktas or devotees come to these temples and then visit nearby red-light areas. The hypocrisy is shocking: the devotee’s circle thinks of him as a spiritual person, but they do not know what his real intention of visiting ‘God’ is.”

The book informs us of the “strong nexus between brothel owners, criminals, politicians and police.” Towards the end of the book we meet some sex workers telling us about certain respected elite members of the society such as hotel owners, government officials, engineers, doctors and politicians who are involved in the flesh trade.

People like Girish who try to help the women in the trade and their children may come into conflict with some of these powerful men or their agents occasionally. Light seems to win over darkness in the end of each conflict. Girish is optimistic and relentless. Now there are a lot more people who support him and work with him too. This book is their story as well as the story of a Rekha and a Shobha and a Sangeeta, a few of the 800,000 women who are forced to sell themselves in some filthy cubicle that stinks of urine and semen.

This book leaves us with a longing for a better India. It also fills our hearts with a sense of gratitude to people like Girish. 

Medha Deshmukh Bhaskaran