Indian Sex Workers and Psychological Effects of Job

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Discussion
Conclusion
References

Introduction

A part lifted from William Dalrymple’s article, gives us an overview about the article: “We have a song,” Rani said. “Everyone sleeps with us, but no one marries us. Many embrace us, but no one protects” (2008, p.1).

The article “Serving The Goddess”: The dangerous life of a sacred sex worker” is a brief account of the life of two devadasis (literally ‘female servants of a god’) (Dalrymple, 2008), particularly their experiences as sex workers. Rani Bai and Kaveri (not their real names) share the first days of their lives as devadasis, the progression from resistance to full compliance to their chosen money-generating jobs, and the other aspects that contributed to the life they are living today.

The writer of the article, William Dalrymple, is a Scottish writer spending his life both in London and Delhi with his wife and three children. He was the same author of the books “In Xanadu”, “City of Djinns” and “White Mughals”. His others works include “From the Holy Mountain” and “The Age of Kali”, a compilation of his pieces about India. He has won many awards for his literary works and is also a member and a manager of many literature societies (William Dalrymple Official Website).

Discussion

What do they do

Devadasis are, in the older concept, ought to be mere servants of a god. They patterned their life to Yellamma, a servant-wife of Jamadagni. They lived in a place which the temple of Yellama in modern times depicted: by the waters, situated in a remote area. When their fourth child was born, they had to be subjected to chastity. From then on Yellama had been a dedicated servant of her man, adhering every day to the devotions of her husband.

One day Yellama witnessed a fiery love-making near the lake. Captivated by the site and the thought that she will never be able to experience what she was seeing, she manifested some effects brought about by the scene: she wasn’t able to make a pot out of the sand and wasn’t able to concentrate on her yoga, which she usually does. When Jamadagni discovered her sudden incapabilities, without even knowing what actually transpired, he cursed, dishonored, and sent her out of their love nest to the streets, wandering out of nowhere. She became a ravaged wife with no one to accept her presence.

Everything but the men they make love to (for in the original story, Jamadagni was of high personality), the devadasis are attributing all their actions to their goddess, thinking that all the pleasant experiences they have been brought about by Yellamma, so are the unpleasant ones, because they basically suffered the same fate. They didn’t intend to be where they’ve been put to, and therefore just goes on with the flow and live the predicted life they’ll have (Dalrymple, 2008).

What initiates this life of the sex workers in India is their dedication (initiation to the industry of sex trade, or in the religious sense, the act of offering a girl to Yellama). As per the story of one of the ladies interviewed by Dalrymple, Rani Bai, the parents or even any of the relatives facilitates the dedication. For reasons like belonging to a family belonging to the poverty line, or sometimes, following the tradition that has been running out for quite some time, the dedicated girl is given as a gift to a man, and in one night, her whole life changes.

The first time is usually the best because a girl is a virgin and therefore the client will surely experience greater pleasure because of the feeling itself and the machismo idea that she will have sex with an untouched girl. This is done either forcibly or submissively, but in most situations, the girl would oppose the act. Rani Bai shared that after her dedication, she chose not to speak with her mother for two years (Dalrymple, 2008).

As a woman gradually finds relief, especially financially, in being a sex worker, she starts to explore the job more. She now plans on where to meet clients and chooses who to sleep with. She can now save money and buy whatever she intends, and given these reasons, she looks out for more clients. The house where she experienced the nightmare of her dedication suddenly becomes her marketplace. She befriends women of the same fate and eventually, they are sharing the same effects: diseases, maltreatment, loss of the people she treasures, and another life-degrading outcome.

Yet she doesn’t have a choice, so she just lives every day of her life with closed eyes.

What happens to them?

There are a lot of effects on the job of sex workers. All the aspects of their life- physiologically, socially, emotionally, psychologically- are the main targets of the job they live up to.

AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is a progressive disease caused by Human Immunodeficiency Virus. A person who is diagnosed to have the disease has his immune system deteriorated (AIDS.org). It is transmitted sexually and is currently one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide. AIDS is one of the leading risks of having sexual contact with a sex worker due to unprotected sex.

Following the effects mentioned above, the women are neglected. Society sees them as plagues that have the ability to spread the incurable virus. Since we all know that the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases is an individual choice to be avoided, we know that the sex workers are responsible for the spread of the disease (Sen, 2008), and she is disregarded by society. When she walks the street, people around her are murmuring and laughing with her knowledge that she is the subject of their conversations. She walks straight ahead, and in a few moments we know that somebody, who may be looking old and unattractive, will come up to her and ask “How much?”.

After she is disregarded from most of society’s affairs, she eventually feels sad and hopeless. For having lost the respect of society and probably her children (in the article, the women shared experiences of their children’s untoward behavior against them for bearing them out of an “unblessed” sexual intercourse, (Dalrymple, 2008)), lack of love and belongingness which is third in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Simons, et. al., 1987), no sense of a real job to support her life, she develops the feeling that her indecent job will leave her out of nowhere after her looks, figure and all her characteristics that make her attractive to her clients deteriorate.

The psychological effects of their job

As mentioned in the discussion above, the woman is left out feeling sad and hopeless about her life because of the effects of her job.

The psychological effect of the infamous diseases that are common among sex workers- AIDS and STDs- make a woman feel dumped and useless. Having been knowledgeable that they have an incurable disease, they resort to just continuing their routine until they pass away because that’s the only pleasurable feeling left out for them to enjoy.

Several other maltreatments are experienced by a sex worker. In the article of Dalrymple, one of the ladies shared that her son reacted angrily when the bank clerk asked for the father of the child, saying that he wished he was never brought to earth if he’s to suffer this kind of neglect. A woman is blamed directly by her children because they don’t have a normal family. They were products of paid sex and they were set to suffer an indecent life forever, which they didn’t choose.

The sex worker suffers this blame, but is left without any choice because had she chose to abort the baby, would suffer the punishment of the human law. Her only aim was to bring life to a child, regardless of the process of how this child was made (Dalrymple, 2008).

The woman suffers from the fact that everyone is feasting on her, and given this status, she belongs to no one. She cannot enter a stable life of a married woman because the nature of her work won’t permit her to do so. The third level in Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs isn’t fulfilled, therefore she isn’t able to satisfy the feeling of self-actualization (Simons, et. al., 1987). The level of love and belongingness is important in humans because this provides us security in terms of giving importance to ourselves. If we feel that we don’t love, we develop hatred towards ourselves, and eventually, towards the society which isn’t giving us importance. Sex workers are overflowing with pleasure, but lacking a great sense of love security from the people around them.

The psychological effect of the fact that she knows she doesn’t have a realistic and decent job makes her feel restless about herself. When she walks the street, she can’t love straight to other people and feel all the insecurities about her job. She can’t walk with all the pride she could’ve felt because she knows how hard society opposes her chosen job.

Analysis: Compare and Contrast

There is one interesting short story that is important to discuss when we talk about the issue of sex workers.

In “Douloti the Bountiful”, a short story lifted from the book “Imaginary Maps” by Mahasweta Devi, a lady was to suffer a bonded work as a sex trader to repay her father’s loan. She worked and accepted her fate. Yet she realized in the end that this won’t be her fate forever, so she chose to escape from the work after finding out that she was infected by a sexually transmitted disease. She was directed from a hospital to another and finally decides to just stay in the comfort of her home. However, was never able to go back home as she died along the way (Spiyak, 1989).

The lady in the short story is similar to the sex workers in India as represented by Rani Bai and Kaveri. All of them chose to live the life predicted for them amidst their objections to the nature of the work. This, apparently, is brought by the fact that the money they’ll get from working as a sex trader will bring them ease from being poor. The instant money they’ll get is going to help them serve meals in a day. With the money they’ll generate, they’ll be able to buy the needed and wanted things not only for them but for the rest of the family. Not to mention the fact that the job will be able to help them survive even if they’re illiterate, or lack scholarly accreditations.

While they have similarities, they do have differences too. The lady in the story decided to get out of the sex trade business in the end. If she had developed the feeling of guilt, or just got tired of the job, we don’t really know. Nevertheless, the important thing is she got herself out of the industry. The majority of the sex workers in India, represented by the women in Dalrymple’s article, don’t have plans of getting out of the business. The life they’ve gotten used live by is hard to be dumped after years of benefiting from its rewards, and therefore there is a clear sign that the ladies really never got tired of being a sex workers.

Conclusion

In my own opinion, as I read through Dalrymple’s “Serving The Goddess: The dangerous life of a sacred sex worker”, the ladies are in a money-generating job which they have cloaked in the devotion to their faith (that is, belief of Yellamma). They have suppressed in their minds the real nature of the industry they work for. It is even mentioned by Rani Bai in the article that the devadasis know that men don’t give regard for their devotion – and their service is merely just another paid sexual experience to their client (Dalrymple, 2008).

One of the questions that arise in me is this: If historically, being a devadasi was intended to be just to serve God, why has it become, in modern times, that they serve a lot of men with the sole purpose of getting income? Is it then safe to say that they can’t refer to themselves as sacred sex workers, but just another prostitute that we see on the streets waiting for her client?

Citing the fact that the financial advantages aren’t even enough to support the sex workers when they finally suffer the psychological consequences of their job, is it still wiser to resort to this job?

As they say, we’d never fully understand them, as we aren’t wearing their tired shoes.

References

AIDS. Web.

Chapters.Indigo.Ca. Web.

Dalrymple, William. “Serving The Goddess: The dangerous life of a sacred sex worker”. The New Yorker 2008.

Sen, Amartya. “Aids Sutra: Untold Stories from India”. BBC NEWS. 2008.

Simons, Janet, Irwin, Donald, Drinnien, Beverly. “Psychology –The Search for Understanding” 1987.

Spiyak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “Woman in Difference: Mahasweta Devi’s “Douloti the Bountiful””, 1989 p. 105.

William Dalrymple’s Official Website. Web.

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