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By Neeta Lal Red Light Dispatch, India's first newsmagazine for sex-workers, is brought out exclusively by sex-workers from an office located within a brothel in Mumbai's Kamathipura district. This unique magazine discusses the problems and dreams of sex-workers
 Red Light Dispatch is India’s first newsmagazine for sex-workers, brought out exclusively by sex-workers from an office located within a brothel in Mumbai’s Kamathipura district. It was launched four months ago and is currently being distributed free amongst Indian sex-workers. Covering a swathe of issues, the monthly carries first-person accounts of torture and harassment meted out to commercial sex-workers (many of whom were sold to brothels as children), poems and essays, book/film reviews, and articles on advocacy. Topics like sex-workers’ health, human and legal rights, and personal stories are also part of the magazine’s editorial agenda. Through these subjects, the magazine -- 1,000 copies of which are currently being printed -- is brought out in Hindi (Lal Batti Dastavez) and English. It hopes to offer an unfiltered glimpse into the life of one of India’s biggest brothels, the dark underbelly of pimps and abusive customers and the dreams of the sex-workers. The magazine’s reporters, often themselves sex-workers or their relatives, file their contributions after combing brothels in Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi and other smaller cities. In an exclusive interview, the magazine’s editor Anurag Chaturvedi talks about the challenges of bringing out this unique magazine.
How did the idea of bringing out an unusual monthly like Red Light Dispatch originate?
A few of us journalists, along with many social workers, are trustees of a seven-year-old, Mumbai-based NGO Apne Aap that works for the rehabilitation, empowerment and welfare of sex-workers. We’ve been active in various Indian cities on issues like prostitutes’ health, their rights, their children, etc. So we collectively decided to launch a publication that would showcase what the NGO was doing and also offer a platform to sex-workers to voice their concerns, problems and generally connect with others like them, and the masses. Unfortunately, in our country, sex-workers are not even considered human beings. Though they do a service to society, they are thought of as the basest form of humanity. Nobody wants to know the reality of their lives, what they go through on a daily basis, etc. So we thought why not empower these women by offering them a voice through the magazine?  Your monthly is brought out by sex-workers who produce the magazine and also file copy. How did you train them for this assignment?
The idea is to offer readers an unfiltered glimpse into the life of sex-workers. And this authenticity can only be brought about by involving real people in the assignment. For one, our newsroom is located inside a brothel! Our news coordinator is the daughter of a former sex-worker. Of course, as journalists, we pitch in for production and editing, but, largely, we procure copy from sex-workers or their relatives who visit different brothels, talk to their counterparts and write stories from their perspective. When a sex-worker is totally illiterate, then we depute somebody to write the story on her behalf.
The magazine also forays into social activism as is apparent from the many articles that you’ve published so far.
The magazine’s broader aim is to ensure that no sex-worker is exploited or victimised by pimps/cheats, and that they ultimately get out of their murky world to do something more constructive in life. Dispatch is a medium for the collective nostalgia and dreams of the sex-worker community, and also a strong attempt to wean their children away from the profession. So in that sense, yes, we are doing this service. We have little money, but we pay our writers a token honorarium so that they realise they are capable of earning a respectable living; that there are other avenues as well for them to tap. This helps bring about a new perspective on their dreary existence. How is the magazine financed and sustained, more so because it is currently being distributed free amongst sex-workers?
Our NGO Apne Aap, which has 1,600 pan-India registered members, sustains the magazine. Plus, we get funds from the Ministry of Women and Child Development in addition to some American NGOs. Then there are a few good Samaritans who donate individually towards our cause. Apart from giving a voice to sex-workers, how else are you trying to broaden the canvas of the magazine?
We plan to take up different projects from time to time, in different media. Currently, we’re organising a festival of sex-workers’ films in Mumbai. Films like Chingaari, Chameli, Chandni Bar, Mausam, etc, which showcase the life of this community will be shown at this forum. We’re inviting reputed film critics and known people from other fields to this festival. Interestingly, the festival jury will comprise only of sex-workers who will evaluate and judge the films according to different parameters like realistic portrayal, authenticity, storyline, acting, impact on society, etc. It will truly be a film festival with a difference. Then we’re also trying to bring out some books on related subjects like the tradition of Devdasis and the Nat Purva community that follows the age-old custom of pushing their daughters into sex-work. Can you recount some interesting cases that have transpired whilst putting the magazine together?
Each day is full of interesting events. For instance, one of our forthcoming issues will carry a feature on how a ‘normal’ man -- a poor roadside snack vendor -- fought stereotypes and tied the knot with a sex-worker he’d begun to love. In another issue, we had Sita, a sex-worker from Kolkata, recount her horrific childhood marriage that forced her to flee her home and land up in a brothel. Another sex-worker has poured her heart out about betrayed love, bad marriage, the dream of living a life of dignity, of owning a “house with lots of sky,” and about the “frightening” world of sex-work. So, each individual’s story has contributed to the general interest quotient of our magazine. Once, we sent a 16-year-old sex-worker from Kolkata to cover a day in Delhi’s Parliament. She wrote an interesting report on how it was the most intellectual day of her life as she sat amidst parliamentarians deep in discussion about weighty national issues! What kind of reactions have you had from the public towards Dispatch?
We’re still evolving, but most people have reacted favourably to the concept. They like the idea of a forum for this underrepresented, voiceless community. But there have been regressive reactions from a certain section of society that feels we’re trying to glorify the profession and its workers. There is an undercurrent of negativity from that quarter. So there have been both bouquets and brickbats. (Neeta Lal is an independent journalist based in Delhi) InfoChange News & Features, September 2007
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