-- Devika Sequeira, DH News Service

A year has now passed since the Baina slum demolition yet not even a temporary shelter has been provided for the slum dwellers by the state government.

Dozens of women and men waited patiently outside the modest office of Arz (Anya Rahit Zindagi) in the Baina slum of Goa on Friday. Arz, a pro-active NGO, is one of the few organisations working to help the hundreds displaced by the slum demolitions last year.

"A year has gone by, and not even temporary shelter has been provided by the government," Arz director Arunendra Pandey points out.

Some 750 homes were bulldozed and 2500 lives uprooted by the 14 June 2004 demolition. The action, based on a High Court directive, intended to clear out the 1500-odd commercial sex workers (CSWs) living in Baina slum. However, it also targeted hundreds of others from the area not related to the sex trade.

ABANDONED

Today, the area looks like an abandoned football field in what is still one of Goa's biggest seaside slums.

"We know for a fact that 80 per cent of those who lost their homes were not in prostitution or flesh trade," says Pandey. Neither have they nor the commercial sex workers been rehabilitated by the state government.

Those affected have been forced into rented accommodation around Vasco, and narrate stories of harassment and stigmatisation, he adds.

Many who lost their homes were settlers from Karnataka, employed in the Mormugao Port Trust, PWD, and scrap dealers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Interestingly, over 1000 sex workers fled well before the demolition.

"They were largely from Andhra Pradesh, and have found their way into the red light areas in Sangli, Hubli, Mumbai and Pune in the neighbouring states," says Daniel Vijay Kumar who worked as a tourist guide and photographer in the area since he moved from Andhra Pradesh nineteen years ago.

Did the government initiative actually rid Goa of organised prostitution? Far from it, says social organisations and NGOs. In fact, some 450 women continue to operate as sex workers and prostitutes from rented accommodation around Vasco Da Gama and elsewhere in Goa.

Worse still, it has made HIV intervention programmes for commercial sex workers tougher to broadcast and implement. "The affected population has dispersed, which makes it difficult to promote safe sex methods like condom use and contraception," says Shamir Paes, Director of Positive People.

BREAK THE NETWORK

"This was the government's chance to round up the pimps and brothel keepers and break the organised network of prostitution. Instead, it gave them a safe passage to flee and operate elsewhere," claims Pandey.

The State government had notified the 'Rehabilitation Scheme for Commercially exploited Women and other Residential and Commercial Establishments at Baina' in January, but the application forms for the organisation were made available only recently.

Thus far, Arz has helped 235 settlers and 33 CSWs apply, but the organisation says the government is yet to respond.