{"href":"https://api.simplecast.com/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fthe-night-shift-728418e7.simplecast.com%2Fepisodes%2Fthe-bar-dancer-EOjf0Eg9","width":444,"version":"1.0","type":"rich","title":"The Bar Dancer","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/a705c0db-4e60-4f64-8656-f5bcb0162c43/4b7b211a-9868-4e1e-86f0-532e5b8d03de/the-bar-dancer.jpg","thumbnail_height":300,"provider_url":"https://simplecast.com","provider_name":"Simplecast","html":"","height":200,"description":"For women, leaving home after dusk implies an automatic invitation to danger and societal censure. Some people have even justified sexual assault and rape on the premise that women out late at night should expect aggression.\n\nAmidst this, four women — a cab driver, a bouncer at a popular club, a bar dancer, and a home guard constable guarding the women’s compartment in the local trains — have been defying societal constraints and patriarchal mindsets each night when they go to work. These four Mumbai women work through the night, breaking boundaries that society has traditionally set on women’s mobility, morality, and sexuality.\n\nHere are their stories.\n\nThis episode follows Rozy, a dancer who knows she’ll earn more in a dance bar than in an office.\n\nROZY, THE BAR DANCER\nVoice Over\n(Proceedings from the Maharashtra State Legislature in the background)\nRozy: Society should not decide that. Women should know how to carry themselves.\nAnd they know it. Just because a girl is wearing a short dress doesn’t mean she’s\ndoing something wrong. Society will not decide what women have to do.\nVoice Over\nRozy: I could not pay my fees. Moreover, I had family issues. My mother was the\nearning family member and would work as domestic help. But we couldn’t get the\namount of money we wanted. That’s why I had to come to this field. I wanted to do\nHotel Management, in fact.\nVoice Over\nRozy: I was crying, I did not want to work there. It was a very new experience for me.\nGuys were there, sitting and smoking. It was normal. They came for their enjoyment.\nBut it was quite weird for me. Initially, it was quite weird, but days passed, years\npassed, I got used to it.\nKunal: What part of this was weird to you?\nRozy: Just guys smoking and drinking. Only that. Nothing bad was going on over\nthere. Nothing bad. Later on, I got used to this too.\nVoice Over\nKunal: Did it feel like a very normal thing to do?\nRozy: It wasn’t so normal, but the bottom line was, we had to perform and earn\nmoney. It was like a stage show, kind of. Many actresses, performers, do stage\nshows and they get paid for it. I told myself that this wasn’t a bad thing. You are just\ngetting paid for your performance, that’s it.\nKunal: But how long did it take for you to digest this part?\nRozy: Say, almost 6-7 months to digest the fact that I had to do it.\nKunal: So, you kept feeling weird till then?\nRozy: Yes. Because, suddenly, like people do it, they perform… You know what our\njob is? We don’t get the chance to learn the trade. We just have to dance on\nwhatever songs they tell us. This was a bit weird, initially. But now, we can do it. As\nwe girls get used to it, it gets easier. But I must add that this isn’t a bad thing at all;\nthe bar line is not a bad line to be in. It is not at all bad.\nVoice Over\nKunal: Have you had such an experience, ever?\nRozy: I have had. There was a guy who was throwing money at me. I didn’t like this.\nI told the manager that I did not like it, you please ask him to go. Maybe, later on,\nhe would do something wrong. I have had many such experiences.\nKunal: But he was just throwing money at you?\nRozy: That was just part of it.\nKunal: So, there was more to it?\nRozy: Ya, I mean, things happen. Many things happen. But, safety is always available\nfor us.\nVoice Over\nRamesh, the customer: I was 35 and she was 18. Back then, I still felt good that I\ncould win a pretty girl’s affection, you know.\nVoice Over\nSolanki: I completely stopped going to work. Instead, I invested all my savings in a\nsmall flat, so that I could stay with her.\nVoice Over\nSolanki: She was doing what was best for her. I should have done what was best for\nme, you know.\nRozy: We are performing. If a guy is coming to the bar, we didn’t call him. They\ncame on their own. They came alone or with their friends. We didn’t tell them to\ngive us money. They can come here and just sit. It’s not a problem. We didn’t ask\nthem to spend money. It’s their wish and they will, if they want to. And they did. It’s\nnot that we ask them to do something. No. It all depends on them. If they want to\nspend money they will, if they don’t want to, they won’t.\nVoice Over\nRozy: I told them that I was working in this field. They were initially opposed to it;\nthey didn’t agree to it. They said it was not a good thing and even told me that I\nwould be working late at night. But later, I explained it and even showed them how\nthese bars work and showed them nothing ‘wrong’ was happening and it is\ncompletely safe. That’s when they agreed to it.\nKunal: How important was it for you to have their approval?\nRozy: It was important because this was the income that was sustaining my\nhousehold. So, it was very important for them to understand me and where I am. It\nwas very important for me.\nVoice Over\nRozy: We have fixed drivers, also. Depends. If we have fixed drivers, then it’s cool. If\nnot, they give us designated cars and autos, depending on where we live, and they\nsend us home. So, that’s how we travel.\nKunal: Did your family feel the apprehensions that I am feeling, about the safety of\nthe late-night commute?\nRozy: Sometimes when I don’t answer their calls, they get worried thinking it is too\nlate. So, it is my mistake that I am not answering their calls. Otherwise, no, they\ndon’t have such apprehensions. I have a fixed driver. So [my mother] can even\ncontact the driver and find out where I am.\nVoice Over\nKunal: There is a perception that the women who work in bars are exploited, that\nmen harass them. That the woman, you, are helpless.\nRozy: No, nobody can touch us. We have guards outside. If you have been to a bar,\nyou must have seen that whenever someone tries to touch us, everyone comes and\nprevents that. The customers might be drunk but the bar takes all precautions. We\nhave every safety measure available to us. They even ensure that we reach home\nsafe. Even inside the bar. They offer us all the safety precautions you can think of.\nWe draw the line and tell men to behave. If they are behaving in a wrong way or\ntrying to say or do something, we can actually tell them to leave from there. It’s not\nlike we are helpless in the bar. We are not.\nVoice Over\nBharat Thakur: Look, there has never been an incident in our industry where a\ndancer is going home and has been assaulted or molested or she has been\nkidnapped while she is going back home late at night. But, we can offer many\nexamples of such instances happening in other sectors, where women have been\nharassed or exploited.\nVoice Over\nRozy: I must say, it is not at all a bad field. It is a good field and you’ll make a good\namount of money. There are so many women who have had financial issues;\nthousands of such women have been able to solve their financial issues by coming\ninto this field. Many, many girls.\nVoice Over\nRozy: Respect…I don’t know about the respect. But, they give us respect. We don’t\ncare about the world at all, of course, we don’t.\nVoice Over\nKunal: Given us a choice, if let’s say you earn the same amount of money you earn\ntoday in a day job, would you much rather do that than this?\nRozy: Yes, I would prefer working in the day. If there is safety, that is, and if I get the\nsame money, then yes. But, if there is no safety, then I would prefer working here.\nHere, they take care of our safety, ensure we reach home safe.\nKunal: By safety, do you mean job security or physical safety?\nRozy: Job security, everything. Related to me, what time I leave from there, that I\nshould reach home safely. Here, they take care of our safety and ensure we get\nhome safe.\nVoice Over\nRozy: Since I was a child, I was always very stubborn, but I was also very weak. If\nsomeone came and told me something, I would not be able to respond. Not\nanymore, though. I will not hear a word anymore. I will give it back.\nKunal: Has the ‘new’ Rozy ever created any problems for you?\nRozy: Never ever. Instead, it has only made my life better. Now, I can confidently\ntalk to people, like I am talking to you now. Earlier, I couldn’t.\nVoice Over\nKunal: What do you have there, as a tattoo?\nRozy: It says, “Stay Strong!” (Laughs)\nKunal: When did you get that?\nRozy: Two years ago. It is all about staying strong! How strong you are and how you\ndeal with people.\nKunal: Is that a message that you have for yourself?\nRozy: Yes, that I must always stay strong. (Smiles)\nThis transcript has been lightly edited for clarity. The customer’s name has been\nchanged and his story has been dubbed by an artist to voice to conceal his identity."}