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Bar Girls: Dancers
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The dance-bar girls were once one of the best-known features of Bombay nightlife - until the present government of Maharashtra state closed the bars as part of a morality drive in 2005. It is believed to have put some 75,000 dancers out of work, and now the girls are intent on fighting back. They are to meet tomorrow to decide whether to form their own political party or stand as independent candidates in municipal elections. There was major controversy when the state government decided to close the bars. It accused them of "corrupting the youth" and being barely disguised brothels, and the bar girls of being prostitutes - accusations the dancers and bar owners deny. They say they were performers and there was no sex involved.
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Many bar girls were forced to become dancers because they belong to the Beria caste, whose girls traditionally were selected to become dancers, Kale said. Courtesans used to perform classical dance, in sessions called mujras, for royalty, tribal leaders and the upper class. In modern times, many of the women have ended up in bars, entertaining drunks who shower them with tips.
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It is interesting to study the revenue division between the bar girl and the bar management. What happens to the money showered on a girl? The currency is mopped up by a bar assistant, usually attired in suits and pinstripes, and the money is deposited into a box meant for the dancer. At the end of the day's business, the shower money is divided between the dancer and the management in a preset ratio. Usually, it is 40% for the dancer and 60% for the bar. The ratio varies across bars.
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Bar girls dance to Bollywood [3] and Indipop numbers on a colorfully lit dance floor, in the central focus of a dance bar's seating arrangement. Most of the time, they will be reservedly swaying to the music until they find some patron whose attention they wish to attract, or are called upon by a patron. They then dance in front of the patron, making fleeting eye contact, pointing, gesturing, or generally making their targeted patron "feel special". No bodily contact between the two is allowed [4], and the bar dancers often stay within the confines of the dance floor. Male waiters hover over patrons and dancers who get too close to each other, both to oversee transactions between the two as well as ostensibly to prevent sex-for-money deals being made.
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Many of the deals are fixed up within the bar itself. Again, there no fixed rate; it's the girl who retains the command. If she doesn't want to go with a customer, the customer cannot force her. The customers are forbidden from touching the dancers without their consent. There are watchful eyes all around.
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Mumbai's dance bar owners are fighting the ban in Maharashtra state's High Court, arguing that the government is infringing on the dancers' constitutional right to earn a living. A ruling is expected soon.
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