WHO WANTS TO BE A PROSTITUTE?

Prostitution is a well-trending and debatable word. I never thought much about it, but something forced me to think. A few days back, I watched a movie made on Gangubai, by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. I was waiting for this movie and there were two reasons, one was Alia Bhat, the Heroine and protagonist and the other was, the Director, Sanjay Leela Bhansali. I had a very out of the ordinary experience with this movie. Firstly, this was the first time that I went alone for a movie, and truly speaking, I loved the experience and I am going to do the same in the future.  Secondly, this movie left me with hundreds of emotions. Frankly, I might give a spoiler, so you can ignore this post.

Ok now let us start. In this movie, on one side they were showing the painful experiences of a prostitute and on the other side, they were showing how she accepted her life and made most of it.

First of all, I don’t think anybody wants to be a prostitute. As much as I remember, I have always heard dark stories about this so-called first profession. Nowadays, this vocation is not confined only to females, now males have also gone into this profession.  I don’t have any problem with that if a person is doing it out of his/her personal choice. Actually, in the movie what they were trying to show was that prostitution is a business and it should be legal and normal.  I agree it is a business, but about legality, I don’t know. For a second let’s forget about legality, let us talk about the other nuances. In the movie, it is portrayed that the protagonist deserves respect and the government and society should normalize this. As far as the respect part goes, I tend to agree. Every human being deserves respect. But in Indian society, it is really hard to make it normal. It is really easy to say I respect everyone and everyone deserves equal acceptance and so on, but how many of us actually do the same? Do we look at them the same way we treat others? Actually, we do look at them with compassion, sometimes with sympathy, and most of the time with not so good feelings. Nowadays, the entry of girls into this profession is taking place with the worst methods and people think that entry into the profession will be decreased or stop once it gets legalized and becomes normal. Frankly, I beg to differ and would love to ask how would this metamorphous take place? I am really scared to think that actually, the numbers might increase. There is a school of thought that if there will be no prostitution rapes will increase. Nowadays, almost 98% of the girls/ women experience molestation, physical abuse and many of the stories are of their homes and their family members are the culprits. So, how would it decrease?  If the details do not generally come out it does not mean that it is not happening. There is one dialogue in the movie,

“ Yahan jab shareef ata hai toh hmari izzat badh jaati hai per uski izzat kam ho jati hai”!  I know it is all our thinking and, in this era people should be broadminded. As much as I researched, in some countries, viz. Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Turkey, the Netherlands, Hungary, and Latvia, prostitution is legal and regulated. Fine, it might be normal in those countries but in India, it is not possible, as yet. Awareness is good but sometimes a lot of awareness ruins things. These days a lot of people are judging others. It is very normal to pass comments on others but it is annoying and can be hurtful.

Every human being deserves respect in this world but some things cannot be called normal or acceptable. These topics are no more taboos in modern society, but, our country is a large spectrum. On one side, we are saying we should treat them equally and on the other side, we are making jokes about them and judging them. We don’t know everyone’s story so it is hard to comment. The movie was good, but I have a personal view that everything cannot be good about this topic.

Such things should be acceptable, but this requires correct knowledge and correct guidance, and most importantly, time. With time things will be ok. So, for that, we should educate this generation properly. We should educate prostitutes as well and get their kids admitted to normal schools.  

Everyone is equal, however, God has designed some things differently. What are your views about this? I would love to read your comments. Please correct me or educate me if you disagree with me or find me in the wrong. We all need to make things acceptable by correcting others and correcting ourselves. It is so important to start with ourselves.

Thank you for your valuable time. I apologize if I hurt anyone.

Keep smiling,

Thank you,

Riya Om

Editing Credit: Mr. RIS Sidhu uncle ji

Image Credit: Corrigan Wellbourn stokke, APLC