Sex Work in a Traditional City
Chennai, the self-proclaimed most traditional Indian metropolis, has a reputation to uphold. As the seat of ancient Tamil culture fiercely defends its language and the virtue of its women. Last year two political parties went so far as arrest Kushboo, a Tamil film actress, for defamation when she gave an interview on AIDS awareness where she stressed the need for protected sex and that it was ok for women to have sex before marriage. The two parties, the Dalit Partners of India and the Pattali Makkal Katchi, stirred up such a controversy that there were riots outside her court hearing and they pelted the actress with rotten eggs and fruit.
While defending Tamil womanhood may garner some media attention and votes, there is very little that separates sexuality in this city from any other. According to Dr. K Jaishankar, a lecturer at Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Chennai has two active red light districts. In a paper he wrote several years back titled "Spatial Perspective of Prostitution in Chennai City" he mapped out hotspots on GPS and showed that prostitutes, are quite literally everywhere.
One minute on Google will bring up a whole list of escort services, including one man named "Ajay" who apparently manages a team of call girls that go for rs 10,000 ($200) and up. In other areas of the city streetwalkers charge as little as rs 50 ($1). There are also a host of ads in the Deccan Chronicle under the health club section that look suspiciously like they offer a lot more than simple massages. And while prostitution is often viewed as a women's vice, one has to remember that every prostitute has numerous male customers. Statistically it seems that a lot of those men are in "virtuous Tamil marriages."
The sad result is that AIDS is rampant in the city. According to an NGO worker I know, Chennai has one of the highest HIV transmission rates in the country. The question burning in my mind is, in a city with sex obviously on the brain, how do people continue to fool themselves that Tamil culture is chaste by nature?
It is something like the conflict between the religious Right in the United States and the so-called Leftists. The Right says that talking about sex and informing people that anything other than abstinence will only encourage immorality, while the Left argues that whether someone likes it or not, sex happens and people should understand it.
Here in Chennai the argument isn't so well established. It is still taboo to bring up sex in a public setting. Sure, men will talk amongst themselves over glasses of whiskey while they point out all the prostitutes they know, but they will deny any such knowledge to the outside world. Having been stuck in several conversations like that, I can vouch for the fact that "safe sex" are not the first words on any man's lips--in fact the limited knowledge people have here about it is rather shocking.
I for one am in Kushboo's corner. Chennai needs a lot more frank talk about sex. After all, not talking about it won't stop it from happening.
posted by Scott Carney @ 11:22 AM
38 comments
38 Comments:
I definitely agree with you, I've visited Chennai plenty (being tamil nadu-ian myself) and I've heard whispers from my cousins about the red light districts. The double standards bother me as well.
If double-standards were to be a religion, then Indians would be the Gods of it. Everyone lusts to see skin in nonsensical Bollywood films, but it is unacceptable to not wear "traditional" clothes. Bloody hypocrisy.
But you should be knowing this - having lived there for such a long time. I've been to Chennai only once, and almost died of dehydration. It felt as if the city was sitting on top of an active volcano.
fyi;
most of what you say is true. but you have a logical error.
the NGO program to help HIV patients is well established in chennai. the accounting system for finding and tracking HIV patients is far more advanced. more advanced and more serious than any other metro. this means the official count for HIV infected folks is much higher than other places.
people belonging to other metros who drive lorries thro chennai are tested and accounted for in Chennai region. that kicks the count up much higher.
so its just like any other city in terms of propotion of prostitute patrons Vs population. but the statistics is more accurate here.
trust me. i know what i am talking about.
True, chennai has a great medical infastructure. The numbers are also driven up because the state has a socialized medical system and offers free medical care to anyone who can't afford it. People from Andhra and Kerala flock here to seek treatment.
But just because Chennai has a better reporting system doesn't mean that HIV isn't a major problem.
Spot on!
scott,
i never said HIV isnt a problem. u got me wrong. you presented an contradiction of "called conservative but in reality horny" and you used statistics on HIV to back it up.
my point was the HIV statistics need not necessarily indicate that chennai is more horny or more HIV prone than any other city.
HIV is bad and chennai needs a sex talk. i agree. but the statistics are skewed. chennai is as sexed up as any other city and 'conservative' tag is media BS.
my point was you cannot infer a contradiction (conservative Vs too many HIV) based on HIV statistics alone. If all other places had accurate statistics the picture might reflect that chennai has HIV cases proportionate to its so called conservative status.
I hope my point is clear now.
to use an fictitious analogy. chennai has a hospital and so it attracts sick people. the fact that other places dont have a hospital does not mean there are no sick people there.
Hi Scott,
You have an interesting blog here. Will return later.
Was reading some of your posts. Even I had 'lost' my passport. But I received good advice from a friend before I went to the police. It seems I had to report it as 'stolen' since the police don't file reports for 'lost' things.
That and a Rs. 500 note ensured an easier experience for me than I guess you did.
so what does this analysis fetch you?
while a lot of sex education is indeed needed, dont forget that the kushboo incident involves a lot of political opportunism - not really any genuine outrage.
This is just another Bull Shit. HIV/AIDS statistics in chennai has many more angles to it than just the "chennai is conservative" crap.
1. Chennai has the best of hospitals and free healthcare sysytems in the whole of India. The statistics here are far more accurate.
2. Patients counted in Chennai come from all the four southern States. People may get infected in Vijayavada or Trivandram and come to chennai for treatment. You'll blame Chennai's conservativeness for that,huh?
3. Being conservative has nothing to do with more number of HIV/AIDS occurrence.
No one knows how HIV/AIDS spreads!
That means you cant say that all those who have tested HIV positive, got it through sexual contact.
It was reported that in many villages, people get infected through unhygenic face-shaving(especially using the same blade) in the Barber's shops.
"No one knows how HIV/AIDS spreads!"
You've gotta be kidding me.
AIDS spreads through fluif to fluid contact. People can get it through IV drug use, tainted blood infusions, sexual intercourse.
While I would agree that its possible that AIDS could spread through sharing razor blades, I hardly think that is the primary way it spreads through the world. After a few seconds exposure to the open air the virus effectively dies.
There does seem to be some confusion among readers. I am not saying that AIDS spreads because of conservativism. It would appear that all you read was the blurb that appeared on Desi Pundit. My argument is that Chennai, hell, India in general, needs to begin having frank discussions about sex because a lot of people have misconceptions about it. There are messed up gender stereotypes, little understanding of AIDS and a tendency for young men to be permanently befuddled in a virgin/whore complex that makes honest communication little more than a joke.
I have clearly explained what I meant by that sentence, right?
That means you cant say that all those who have tested HIV positive, got it through sexual contact.
It was reported that in many villages, people get infected through unhygenic face-shaving(especially using the same blade) in the Barber's shops.
Also, your notion is wrong. Lets say HIV virus gets introduced in Providence, RI and the govt. is poor, people are still poorer - which obviously means unhygenic and unsophisticated life - there will surely be more number AIDS or any other contagious disease for that matter.
why draw gender equations here? That's a different matter. what you say may be true, i dont deny. But that should be discussed on a different plane.
Great post Scott
Chennai just...well, defies description! I posted about the same issues here:
http://greensaysgo.blogspot.com/2005/12/what-next-chennai_15.html
Well said. I grew up in Chennai and I know what you mean.
Spot on, Scott.
I grew up in Madras and Ive seen the hypocrisy and the denial, oh god its the denial that gets me.
Double standard? Sex workers are part of Tamil Culture....huh..yep.
you got some "response" here, scott.
http://www.chennaiist.com/archives/2006/08/daily_digest_4.html
here is my colleague's response.
Sex workers are part of Tamil Culture.
Like Anand said, spot on.
but wat else can one expect from a city that does not understand "free speech".
I have seen just as many(if not more) public-display-of-affection in the pubs and discos of chennai as anywhere else i have been (and i have been to quite a few places).
i don't get the "conservative and traditional" tag that the city attaches to itself.
Like every other human city on the planet, people in Chennai have sex and hire prostitutes. That in itself does not mean it isn't less conservative than other cities. As someone who has lived there as well as other Indian cities, I can say with certainty that the average middle-class person FROM madras (not immigrated) is far more conservative than those from other Indian metropolises. I stress middle-class, because I believe they are generally the best indicators of an area's cultural identity.
You speak as if you know everything about a city you have lived in for one year. perhaps you shouldn't assume an insider's perspective after such a brief stay, especially as a Caucasian westerner who is inherently going to experience a different environment than a true local.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Gautham,
As an NRI who spends a great deal of time commenting on the United States I find it rather rich that you would suggest that because I was not born in India that I do not have anything valid to say about it.
I don't have a good definition for what "middle class" is (for that insider's view that you think I should adopt). One thing that I can be fairly sure of, however, is that in your blog you say you spent $140,000 on college, are 23, and probably didn't pay for that out of your own pocket.
How then, are you able to comment on what "middle-class" people feel and think?
In my own opinion, people have the right, and perhaps duty, to make sense of the world around them from their own perspective. No one can possibly claim to be an objective observer. No Guatham, not even you.
1. I never said you had nothing relevant to say about India. Or insinuated it because you are not Indian. I said that you should avoid a sweeping generality about a city of over 9 million people based on your brief, anecdotal experience. If you had lived there for even 5 years, I might have responded differently.
2. What do you know about my class status? The college I went to costs $140,000. Everyone who went there had to pay it. Believe it or not, they weren't all rich. They took loans, some got help from parents, some people (like me) had scholarships. Why do you assume you know anything about me and whether or not I'm middle-class from that fact?
Your point about being an NRI is stupid anyway, because I was BORN in America, making me just as American as anyone else. So yes, I think I would have more knowledge about America, having lived here MOST of my life, than you would about India, having admitted on your site that you have only studied it for three years. Three years does not an expert make.
That being said, I do not denigrate your right or "duty" as you call it to interpret the world as you see fit. But I just didn't see how you were in a position to compair the level of "conservativeness" in Chennai to other Indian cities, since your experience is so limited. If I am mistaken and you have secretly spent the last ten years living in Indian and interacting with its people, I apologize.
Sorry for thinking you were an NRI. Your post said you used to live in Chennai, so I figured you might have actually been from somewhere in India. Your profile on blogger is rather incomplete and you leave a lot of details out. Is there another acronym that you prefer? Do you like PIO? How about ABCD?
I didn't make an assumption on your class status, I was just drawing from a post on your blog that said:
"I spent over four years and $140,000 on college studying American literature and history just so I could spend my days sitting here and thinking up new taglines for the latest brand of chocolate"
To me, that line reads that you actually paid tuition. It didn't read "I had to work really hard to get through school while I watched a whole bunch of rich kids cavort effortlessly though life on the trust funds. Thank god that I had work study, loans and a scholarship to make my way to where I am today."
No, I'd have to argue that if you went to a college that cost $140,000--even if you came from the middle class, you aren't there now.
Then again, you might be just another one of those rich Americans who try to fool themselves into thinking that they are indeed middle class because they don't actually interact with poorer people on a regular basis.
Also, where did you come up with the idea that three years in India isn't enough to write about INDIA with any authority, but five years was. It's just sort of arbitrary, don't you think?
If you insist that 5 years is the magic cut off point let me reasure you.
I've spent three years in India and eight years researching South Asian subjects in a Masters and Ph.D. program in anthropology at a fairly well known graduate school. I've also written for various outlets in the Indian media. The editors at India Today, Hindustan Times, Fodors, Wired, Wired News, The Wisconsin State Journal and Shout never questioned whether or not I should be writing.
Dear Guatham,
I was thinking about the post I just wrote, and I would like to apologise because I think it comes off as rather rude.
I wanted to point out how easy it was to make snap judgements about people. In truth all I know about you is what you have written. It's exactly the same with you.
It just struck me that you would attack my ability to see fairly obvious issues (like that India has a severe problem facing sexuality) by resorting to rather essentialist claims.
We are always vulerable to those kinds of attacks--but in truth they never get anywhere. Indeed, one of the big problems in India is the feeling that mutual inexplicability between different "types" of people. There is a common notion here that Hindus could never fundamentally understand Muslims--in the same way that there are huge misunderstandings between races.
The truth is that no matter where you are in the world people are people. For the most part we think the same. There are some differences, but the commonalities far outweigh them.
-s
Gautham - Apart from Scott's views as you can see from the above comments a number of us Chennaivaasis, both residents and non residents do feel that we are amongst the most hypocritical societies around.
This topic of HIV/AIDs and Kushboo's views on safe sex has been beaten to death in the desi blogosphere in the past by people with views at both ends of the spectrum. My question to you is, if I am allowed to have an opinion on the happenings in the UK and Europe and for that matter the rest of the world, why shouldn't a non Indian person who is living there in that society not talk about it? What gives you or me, who don't even live in that city the right to decide who can and who can't rant about what they see happening around them?
Scott-
The last thing I wanted to start was a flame war. My critique of your assertations was based on the fact I have both lived part of my life in Madras, as well as having spent my whole life around people from Madras. My whole family lives in Madras. I have always noticed that the people I know from Madras are generally far more conservative that the people I know from Bombay, Delhi, Bangalore, Cochin, and Calcutta. The reason this is such a widespread belief is that it often bears true, based on experience.
That does not mean that people in Madras are asexual or free of vice. They are as human as people anywhere else. It just means that the Tamil culture is at least slightly more "conservative" than other portions of India.
I did not ever intend to question your credentials as a writer. You seem slightly paranoid by citing those publications, none of which are really known for inciteful analysis of Indian society. I say this with full confidence, since I have friends and relatives on the editorial boards of Indian Today, Hindustan Times and Times of India.
My contention was simply that perhaps since according to your site, you had moved to Chennai this year, that perhaps you weren't in the best position to make such a value judgment. I agree that time frames like 3 years and five years are arbitrary. I'm sure that your academic credentials more than qualify you to make scholarly dissertations to the West about the state of India. But I am somewhat of an essentialist, in that I believe it is somewhat impossible for outsiders in a culture to completely capture its unique identity. Just as I could never write an authentic novel about what it is to be African-American. It is not intended as an insult. You are of course free to disagree, that's what this space is for I thought.
Your comments about my education and class are somewhat puzzling, since you seem to be trying to push yourself as an open-minded person. For your information, yes I was raised upper class. However, I am decidedly not so anymore, since I am now independent and forced to support myself on a starting copywriter's salary. Also, I have spent much of the past few years teaching in public schools and traveling the world, and I've been volunteering at an orphanage in Coonoor every year since I was 16. So yes, I do "interact with poor people".
I understand that you are probably tired of such critiques of your suitability to write on these topics, but as many of the other commenters have outlined, there may have been mitigating factors about the data sample upon which you based your assumptions. If you would prefer, I will not bother you or visit your site. I enjoy a spirited debate with seemingly intelligent people like yourself that may hold an opposing view. I hardly think there is a need to degenerate into personal attacks. I didn't realize pointing out that you were a Westerner would be viewed by you as an attack, it would be like me taking offense here at the company because they don't let me write on campaigns aimed at suburban soccer moms.
And to answer your question, I consider myself an Indian, or Indian-American if you prefer. The first is my preference, because when I travel through the world that is how I am viewed (as you can see from the picture on my website), and that is what I take pride in. I have lived in a few places, but never felt as at home as I do in Chennai. My family is there. In this globalized world, racial identity is no longer constrained by geographic boundaries. I still have more in common with my cousins in Chennai than I do with my co-workers in Columbus
And...
If "One of the main problems in India" is people refusing to consider their shared humanity, what does that say about the West? I suppose the current political climate in America is the kind of great tolerance and "Shared humanity" that you are referring to. I'm sure most western people are very eager to emphasize the common humanity between themselves and Palestinians, Lebanese, Iraqis, Afghans and other Muslim states.
Dear Gautham,
I see we have aired our differences. Lets consider this flame war complete, shall we? Sorry if I have insulted you.
Best,
Scott
Scott,
I agree. I apologize if I have offended you as well. I do enjoy reading your work.
Well done Scott and Gautham. Wish the world could take a little lesson from you on how to work out our differences. Peace.
Wish the world could take a little lesson from you on how to work out our differences.
Wish all the differences in the world were as easily solved just agreeing to disagree...
it may be better to recognize prostitution as a legal activity. then we can take measures for safeguarding public health through regular check ups and reducing the spread of aids. this can also be an additional source of revenue for the government. and steps can be taken to safeguard the safety of those who are involved in this profession, without the fear of pimps or goondas (not sure if this is realistic though)
Scott,
great work here. I wish I had discovered your site when I lived in Chennai. Like the other commenters, I commend you for exposing the hypocrisy that exists beneath the veneer of Madras.
Gautam,
I am in Chennai since 1991 and come from Kolkatta.On and off settled here....but trust me scott is right in saying ( even though he is an outsider)Chennaits needs to come out of there conservative mode.Being a Hotelier by profession my Job has taken me around almost all parts of India an even once abroad.I had experienced how every city reacts to sex,HIV etc.but Chennai has a major problem in even talking about it due to a strict conservative nature...try talking to a women on the road for a simple thing like a direction and see the reaction..!
The problem is much deeper than you can imagine.....open conversations with a women is really next to impossible in Tamil Nadu.One can quite well imagine how people would react when we touch topics like Sex/HIV?????
Chennai has changed a lot since 1991.The major changes have actually come since last 5 years probably because people have started working outside there own state and discovered a different world to compare with there own.Language has always been a major barrier for 90% of the locals since they cannot speak Hindi! This is one language ( you would also agree) that the entire India speaks except TN.Today they are looking at bigger horizons and have started learning Hindi.And I am proud to say Chennai is the only city in India which has a very rich culture which is actually practised,decent roads,decent infrastructure,less crime rate,quite safe city and above all masala dosa's are the best!
Joydeep Saha
Chennai is unlike any other city in terms of peace, humanness etc in Chennai .. That is why most North Indians and other regions' ppl settle down here believen me have been there for over 30 years.. It is in Short the "USA" of India that everyone wants to migrate.... All other places are nothing but namesake cities with nothing but horror!!!!
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