In her 1988 controversial essay titled ‘Can The Subaltern Speak?’ scholar and literary theorist, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, criticises the dangers of attempting to speak for those who have no voice in society. In her analysis, the problem is rooted in the inability to truly understand and comprehend something that you have only studied and heard about ‘in words,’ not something that has been experienced. Though her essay is a critique of Post Colonial intellectuals granting speech to the ‘oppressed; colonised, whom she calls subalterns, her explanations and analysis can be applied to understand several universal circumstances.
Why? Because trying to write about dire situations and the people who we are in a way detached or disconnected from, can only provide pieces to the entire jigsaw puzzle. As per Spivak’s observations, our grasp of the situation is in the form of words not lived experiences, as someone looking in from outside the marginalised group, producing logocentric assumptions and ideas that place the oppressed in relation to their ‘rulers’ rather than being granted an identity of their own.
In the context of prostitution and sex trafficking in india; we hear the news, we empathise and try to imagine the terrible circumstances of these women, children and men. We create a mental image of the ‘victims,’ but our engagement with the situation is completely on our terms, not on those having lived through it or are directly affected by it. The question then remains—how accurate can it be, really? Their voices are distorted and lost in the mouths of others, and the Red Light Despatch (RLD)—a monthly newspaper written by and for women living in red light districts across India—is on one such attempt to recover these lost voices.
Launched in October 2006 by Apne Aap Women Worldwide, an organisation fighting for women’s rights and towards ending sex trafficking, RLD is an eight-page-long newspaper that serves as a platform for sex workers, as well as ex-sex workers, to speak for themselves, share their experiences and tell their stories in an effort to create a community of understanding, humanising the discrimination and exploitation they face. Women from the red-light districts of Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi and Bihar write for RLD, which is then compiled by the editorial team and edited by founder of Apne Aap, journalist Ruchira Gupta. It is then emailed to numerous people and institutions on the non-governmental organisations mailing list. After being registered in June 2009, the newspaper was printed in a simple black-and-white format, and distributed in various red-light areas and NGOS. “Initially, we had newspaper reading exercises but soon the women and girls said that there was nothing in the paper that was relevant to them. That was how we thought of the Despatch,” says Gupta, speaking to The Indian Express. “Women, girls and men trapped in prostitution from the red-light areas of Bihar, Delhi, Maharashtra and West Bengal write for the Despatch. They write for each other and share stories of their dreams, struggles and hopes…Without a registration, the girls would mostly write on their personal experiences. But now they can work like mainstream reporters and we can get the magazine printed,” she added.
According to the report, stories and articles are written in Hindi, Urdu and Bengali, and then translated in Hindi and English, with some women writing themselves and others dictating it to a volunteer of the organisation. Each issue is uploaded on the organisations website and copies are read out in meetings to other women and girls by NGO workers across India. For them, it’s hearing that they are not alone, their pain and suffering is being shared by thousands of people stuck in similar situations and with the same desire to break free, that matters most. “I do very little editing so that the flavour of the writing is not spoilt,” stated Gupta.
“Red Light Despatch is not a top-down approach to reporting on prostitution where women are portrayed as cardboard creatures. This humanises them. This is to end the voyeurism. These are women who can feel the pain, suffer repeated body invasion, and are there because of the absence of choice,” commented Gupta to Al Jazeera.
One of our favourite sections of the publication is the column titled My Dream. In the February 2016 issue 17-year-old Aditi from Bihar pens her dream in ‘Help Uplift Other Girls,’ “I am Aditi and 17-year-old. As we are aware that computer is a great blessing to modern age. It has made our life easy and more convenient. It brought the world closer. I live in a small town…Learning computer is like a dream come true for me. There is no age limit to learn it. With computer knowledge it becomes easier for us to find a job. These days, every well reputed organization requires a candidate with computer skills. Generally, I try to motivate other girls in our community and tell them the importance of learning basic computer skills. Now it is almost impossible for us to imagine finishing a technical work without the help of computer. It is my passion to connect with people via internet worldwide and share our girls‟s educational and social status to the world outside. I know such things don’t happen overnight. But, I believe and hope that one day the girls from my town will be self- motivated to go to work.”
In her piece for the column titled ‘Men Can’t Pay for the Right to Abuse,’ published in the September 2011 issue, Shelly from Khidderpore, Kolkata, writes, “I am a daughter of woman in prostitution, who is working hard day and night to offer a dignified life to her family. We are very poor and my mother has to work very hard so that we don’t suffer too much…Though my earning is not enough for our sustenance, but still I do not want to see my mother as a prostitute. With my mere experience I am looking forward for better pay jobs. I don’t want to see any of our family members involve in flesh trade. I had seen the torture and the violence one has to tolerate for a square meal. You (clients) have come to here to satisfy your urge against money, so do it and get lost. I couldn’t understand what pleasure a person derives from torturing a woman. I had seen so many customers (boys as well as men) shouting and using illicit language to girls and women…. I really look forward to a day when women like my mother would not have to live the lives that they do.”
RLD serves as a mouthpiece for those who are neglected, abused, oppressed and discriminated against in a vicious manner by our society. Not all those who are part of this industry come here voluntarily. Many are victims of their circumstances, many are abandoned in red-light areas, even bought or sold. But, writing anymore about them will be speaking for them, furthering Spivak’s belief in her essay. Instead we’ll let them speak for themselves, and with permission from Apna Aap, we have posted below the latest February 2016 edition of Red Light Despatch for you to read. To learn more about the newspaper and the organisation behind it you can visit the Apne Aap website where each issue has been uploaded for all to read and understand, from the empowered ‘victims’ themselves.