Caring mothers by day; sex workers by night

Longrangty Longchar
Dimapur | July 11 

X sits quietly eating a piece of bread, while awaiting medical help at the Miqlat Ministry office. She is a 29 year old, residing in the Nagaland gate area in Dimapur. A divorcee having a child to look after, she is also a drug addict. She has terminal illness. She is a Commercial Sex worker.

Y is in her forties, and looks like a concerned mother of three children. Her husband is a drunkard who does rarely stays at home. “Tai do kot te jai moi khan nejane, (We don’t know where he goes)” she said, when asked about where her husband was. Not too long ago, this lady would roam the lonely streets in the sparsely populated neighbourhood looking for customers, while her family slept. “She used to be in the trade but after we gave her counseling and prayers, she said that she was so touched and she has left it,” said Haiyale, the Coordinator of the Miqlat Ministry. 

In another sparsely furnished house, two children loll in bed; another younger child, half – naked, squats in the verandah - the father is down with fever; and the mother is not at home. She is a former CSW and now working for the Miqlat Ministry, Haiyale whispered, “She (the mother) is our peer-educator.” 

Looking at her it is difficult to even imagine her former life. She is a woman in her late thirties. 

Calm and timid, she looks like any other mother, but the story that she carries is of one of those who had been degraded into a life without any dignity - a mother by day and a sex worker by night. And people knew about it.  

Miqlat Ministry is a branch of the NBCC Women Wing that focuses primarily on women engaged in commercial sex work. This ministry works in silence reaching out to these women with a means of earning a livelihood other than commercial sex work. Haiyale, who has been in Miqlat Ministry for the past two and a half years, has identified the Naga women in the sex industry; giving  them counseling and training on various trades like tailoring in order to make the women have alternative means of livelihood so that they can leave their profession. Haiyale considers these women as the ‘hidden’ sex workers, 

“You cannot imagine it, but we have some cases where the parents force their child to join this profession out of poverty,” disclosed Haiyale, “We have one family where the daughter could not join college just because her father is a drunkard, mother a sickly woman and so the daughter joined the trade to make both ends meet for the family.”   

Slowly, with the help of counseling and prayers, the Miqlat Ministry has been able to convince some of the Naga sex workers to come out of the trade and lead a clean life with dignity, and they have been getting positive response from the sex workers in Dimapur with some of them learning the training and hearing the gospel to change their lifestyles. But the battle is far from over.

The problem of commercial sex worker
The Naga society has diverse opinions on the sex industry. One veteran police officer in Dimapur, having dealt with the problem of commercial sex workers in the city opined that more and more Naga women are coming into the trade for the reason of ‘curiosity’. Social workers say it is either out of force, poverty or desperation for survival, while the church looks upon it as a result of immorality. 

The only meeting place between the three is that the sex industry is increasing, and consequently posing a big problem especially with regard to the spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases. However, they all have different opinions on how to tackle this problem in a pragmatic way. 

One police officer opined the need for demarcating a red light area for the sex workers, where police can monitor their movement and NGOs check the health of these women. “The only solution is a red light area” said the police officer and added, “Why should we hesitate when we know that prostitution is in our society?” He said that the law is not enough to check the trade, and added that the public are not aware of what goes on when a sex worker is arrested and forwarded to court. 

He said that arresting a sex worker is not a big deal but once a sex worker is caught and forwarded to court, the male and female pimps bail them out. The sex workers after being bailed out are again in the streets with an added burden to now pay back their pimps for bailing them out. Thus, the job becomes tougher for the law enforcing agencies. 

Professor Imchayanger disagreed with the idea of having a red light area. He views the establishment of a Red Light Area in the city is a means of indirect legalization. He said that only 30 to 40 percent of the Naga women might be involved in the trade for now, however, if such an area is demarcated, then the number will dramatically increase if it is legitimized. He said that it is morally, socially and ethically wrong to justify such trade. “In no way it is justified as a Christian state,” he said. 

Rev. R P Murry, Pastor of Lotha Baptist Church, Dimapur advocates creating and providing other means of livelihood through entrepreneurship and other business. He however, doubted that most of the women are involved in the trade for a livelihood, implying that some are there just for the sake of it or for enjoyment.  

K Ela, Director of Prodigals Home in Dimapur, said that speaking from the perspective of NGO intervention, there is nothing like demarcating a red light area, to make better and easy access of health services. However, she does understand the strong views of the church, though she opined that ‘prostitution is here to stay’.  “Being a Christian state, we cannot ignore the church, it has a big say and its decision will stay,” said Ela. She called for collaboration among the Church, the government and the NGOs to check commercial sex worker, especially the trafficking of women to be involved in the trade.   

The Assistant Director of Prodigals Home, Maong Jamir also said a positive response is needed to face the problem of commercial sex worker, saying that these women need care and support from the society. However, he said that all the efforts of the NGOs, sometimes go in vain, as the sex workers go back to their trade because of their want for drugs and alcohol.  

Notwithstanding the diverse opinions and perspectives on Commercial Sex Work, it is a reality that the sex industry is luring many young men and women and also encouraging human trafficking. These issues pose more than just a moral predicament; they have  social and economic causes at the roots with far reaching societal consequences. It is important that Naga society and its institutions start addressing the questions of poverty, economic deprivation and social degeneration so that it begins to understand and address the causes and consequences of why people turn to what is assumed to be the oldest profession in the world!