In 2005, children of sex workers from Kolkata’s Sonagachi red-light district formed their own collective, Amra Padatik (‘We are Foot Soldiers’), to work for gaining dignity for their mothers and claiming their own rights as children of sex workers. In this article the authors speak to AP’s founder members to demystify the culture of fear associated with their lives — perpetuated through popular representations — not to underplay their acute experiences of disadvantage, but to foreground them as politically astute citizens and decision-makers in policies that concern and affect them — to replace the compassion-driven traditional 3Rs of raid, rescue, rehabilitation with 3 counter-Rs: resilience, reworking and resistance.
Banerjee P. ( 2005) Letters to editor: Nightmares on celluloid. The Telegraph, 1 March. Available at: www.telegraphindia.com/1050315/asp/opinion/story_4491793.asp .
2.
Banerjee S. ( 2000) Dangerous Outcaste: The Prostitute in Nineteenth Century Bengal. Kolkata: Seagull Books.
3.
Born into Brothels. (2004) [Documentary film] Directed by Zana Brisky and Ross Kaufmann. USA: Think Film.
4.
Cubilie A. ( 2005) Women Witnessing Terror: Testimony and the Cultural Politics of Human Rights. New York: Fordham University Press.
5.
Dhawan H. ( 2009) ‘Pub Bharo’ to beat moral police: Renuka Choudhary . The Times of India, 6 February. Available at: timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Pub_bharo_to_beat_moral_police_Renuka_Choudhary/articleshow/4083214.cms.
6.
Doezema J. ( 2010) Sex Slaves and Discourse Masters: The Construction of Trafficking. New York: Zed Books .
7.
Dutta D. and Sircar O. ( 2008) From sex worker to entertainment worker: Strategic politics of DMSC. Sephis E-magazine. Available at: sephisemagazine.org/issues/volume_4_3.pdf.
8.
Faleiro S. ( 2006) The willing who want it legalised. Tehelka. Available at: www.tehelka.com/story_main18.asp?filename=Cr052006The_willing.asp .
9.
Gayen S. ( 2005) Letters to editor: Nightmares on celluloid. The Telegraph, 1 March. Available at: www.telegraphindia.com/1050315/asp/opinion/story_4491793.asp .
10.
Grover S. ( 2005) Advocacy by children as a causal factor in promoting resilience . Childhood12(4): 527-538.
11.
Hoijer B. ( 2004) The discourse of global compassion: The audience and media reporting of human suffering. Media Culture and Society26(4): 513-531.
12.
Holland P. ( 2004) Picturing Childhood: The Myth of the Child in Popular Imagery. New York: IB Tauris.
13.
Kapur R. ( 2005) Erotic Justice: Law and the New Politics of Postcolonialism . Hyderabad: Permanent Black.
14.
Kapur R. ( 2007) Faith and the ‘good’ liberal: The construction of female sexual subjectivity in anti-trafficking legal discourse. In: Munro V and Stychin C (eds) Sexuality and the Law: Feminist Engagements . Oxford: Routledge-Cavendish.
15.
Katz C. ( 2004) Growing up Global: Economic Restructuring and Children’s Everyday Lives. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
16.
Kempadoo K (ed.) (2005) Trafficking and Prostitution Reconsidered: New Perspectives on Migration, Sex Work, and Human Rights. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.
17.
Kleinman A. and Kleinman J. ( 1997) The appeal of experience; The dismay of images: Cultural appropriations of suffering in our times. In: Kleinman A, Das V and Lock M (eds) Social Suffering. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1-23.
18.
Mazzarella W. ( 2003) Shoveling Smoke: Advertising and Globalization in Contemporary India. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
19.
Mohanty CT ( 2003) Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
20.
Narayan U. ( 1997) Dislocating Cultures: Identities, Traditions and Third World Women. New York: Routledge .
21.
Selling of Innocents (1996) [Documentary film] Directed by Ruchira Gupta. Canada: Associated Producers Ltd.
22.
Seshu M. ( 2007) In the name of rescue: Of minor girls from sex work. Email to AIDS-India [aids-india@yahoogroups.com], 29 May 2007. Available at: health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AIDS-INDIA/message/7326 .
23.
Shah S. ( 2006) Producing the spectacle of Kamathipura: The politics of red light visibility in Mumbai. Cultural Dynamics18(3): 269-292.
24.
Swami P. ( 2005) A Missionary Enterprise, Frontline. Available at: www.hindu.com/fline/fl2208/stories/20050422000408100.htm .
25.
Uberoi P. ( 2006) Freedom and Destiny: Gender, Family and Popular Culture in IndiaNew Delhi: Oxford University Press.
