No bar on bar girls this Christmas season-Dance you blues away in Goa with girls from Mumbai

GOA SEASON OF WINE AND WOMEN

PREETU NAIR & PETER DE SOUZA

PANJIM: This may well be even more 'grand' than International Film Festival of India-2006, (IFFI-06), which was termed as the greatest show of the year. And why not, when it 'cheers' the hearts of thousands who have 'invaded' Goa this Christmas season.

The show is on. The 'damsels' of the Mumbai dance bars with their jhatkas are here to sizzle Goa.With hundreds of single, rich men, both Indians and foreigners, coming down to Goa during the peak season, there is a high demand for girls to accompany these men to the night clubs and rave parties.

And this demand is being fulfilled by the bar girls from Mumbai who flock to Goa in a group of 10 or 15. The money is good and the girls believe that it is better to be on home turf rather than be trapped in an unknown country.

Varsha Kale, president, Bharatiya Bar Girls Union agrees, "We have found that there is a huge demand for bar girls in Goa since December 15. Girls prefer to go to Goa instead of far-flung destinations abroad as it is safe".

She added, "Moreover, unlike in the past when the girls were paid Rs 1 lakh or more for a show abroad, now they are paid around Rs 30,000 or even less". Compare this with what they earn in Goa from Christmas to Valentine's Day: more than Rs 30,000 a month, depending on the work, attractiveness and personality of the girl.

Arun Pandey of NGO Arz, which is conducting a study on "Impact of ban on dancing in bars in Mumbai", admits, "Goa is one of the major destinations for trafficking of bar girls. It is well-organized and generates huge money for the entire chain of perpetrators and traffickers."

Incidentally, our investigations reveal that it is not only the perpetrators and traffickers who earn money. Even few men in khaki earn anything between Rs 50,000 and more a month, for turning a blind eye to the whole affair. No wonder, though the Margao police have caught Anthony Britto, the main supplier of bar girls in Goa, they have failed to catch his much more powerful accomplices Anish and Kumar, who traffic bar girls to Goa for commercial sex work with the blessings of corrupt policemen and politicians.

However, DGP BS Brar maintained, "If my policemen are doing something like this, I will definitely take action. We have taken action whenever we came across such individual cases. But I am not aware of any such organised activities."

GT goes beyond the obvious and digs further to reveal the prominent places where the bar girls are high in demand:

BAR BAR DEKHO

PLACE: Nightclubs
CUSTOMERS: Single, Indian male
CHARGES: Rs 2000 to 5000 for two hours
MODUS OPERANDI: The agents approach the Indian tourists visiting the nightclubs, majority of which insist on couple entry. Once the deal is stuck, the agent drops a girl at a decided destination, from where the customer picks up the girl, so that there is no suspicion. During the peak season the business is huge.

RAVE ALONG

PLACE: Rave parties
CUSTOMERS: Foreigners
CHARGES: $ 500 (around Rs 22,500) per hour
MODUS OPERANDI: There is a big demand for slim, beautiful, young, brown skinned women amongst foreigners. The money is also big for the girls as they are paid nothing less than Rs 50,000 per month for their services by the agent. However, there is a catch here. Often, the girls are forced to have unprotected sex at the rave party site itself. Otherwise, the girls are safe as the agent helps them and ensures complete protection.

INTERESTING SIDELIGHT: Contrary to DGP Brar's claim that there has not been a single rave party in the last ten days, GT investigations reveal that rave parties continue at Anjuna and Pernem. The latest big rave party started on Christmas afternoon and ended two days later.


MASS OPPOSE

PLACE: Massage parlours
CUSTOMERS: Not fixed
CHARGES: Rs 2000 to 5000 per hour, depending on the type of massage the customer wants
MODUS OPERANDI: Young Nepali and Rajasthani girls who were trafficked to Mumbai to work in the bars are now trafficked to Goa to work in the massage parlours to do exotic body massage.
INTERSTING SIDELIGHT: Tired of the police inaction against the massage parlours which employ scantily clad bargirls in Calangute, the locals rang up the Crime branch a week back and informed them that they fear two terrorists are hiding in the area. When the officials from the Crime branch rushed to the spot, they were taken to the massage parlour and asked to take action against the operators. Infact, even in the past, the Calangute Gram Sabha had created a stir when they unanimously demanded action against those running the illegal activity.

BACHELOR'S DAY OUT

PLACE: Private parties at hotels or clubs
CUSTOMERS: Bachelors
CHARGES: Rs 25,000 for one night show plus extra
MODUS OPERANDI: A group of five girls generally dance for the bachelors, the Mumbaiya dance bar style, on someone's bidding.
INTERSTING SIDELIGHT: Now the bar girls are also invited to perform at birthday parties. Revealed a Minister who attended a six-year-old's birthday party in a five star resort in the North recently, "I was surprised to see the bar girls performing there."

(Article appeared in Gomantak Times, Panjim Edition, December 29,2006)