A 40-year-old former bar girl, who quit the profession in the year 2000, said that she never regretted taking up the job.
While duly recognising the pitfalls of the job, she claimed that nothing else would have helped her overcome her penury, and enable her two raise her two sons. The woman, who identified herself as Neelu (her name as a bar girl), now lives with her second husband and two grown-up sons in Vashi, Navi Mumbai. She is now a social worker and works with local self-help groups.
“It is rewarding for some, while a guaranteed doom for others. There are many girls who made the most out of the job and exited at the right time, to settle down. Many others got carried away and ended up suffering,” she said, adding, “During my time, most of us took up the profession out of despair. Over the years, many girls entered the industry because they were fascinated by the opulent lifestyle it promised.”
Neelu worked at a bar in Sion for over 10 years before starting afresh. Speaking about the conditions in dance bars, she said that girls are guaranteed protection from unruly drunken members by the bar staff and bouncers.
“If you are in a decent bar, you can stand on the dance floor for hours without being touched inappropriately. The money is fast and good and the easiest way for a pretty girl to make a quick buck,” she said.
According to Neelu, it depends upon the bar girls as to how far they will go with their customers. “Any form of physical entertainment gets vulgar and subsequently criminal. This is why you see young boys resorting to crimes to fund their dance bar trips. I have seen families suffer due to this. The husband blows off the month’s salary on his favourite girl, but thrashes his wife when she asks for some money to run the house. The ugly drunken fights affect the children and everything goes downhill,” she explained.