WB teaches Kamasutra in its fight against AIDS

Lessons in scintillating asanas and mudras. Various ways of hugging, kissing and caressing. Stimulating shower bath. Ways to get a man charg...

Lessons in scintillating asanas and mudras. Various ways of hugging, kissing and caressing. Stimulating shower bath. Ways to get a man charged up — and then to give him a premature but pleasurable discharge if he refuses to use a condom.

Four women are listening agog, sometimes seeking clarifications from the teacher. The students are prostitutes from Sonagachi, Kolkata’s biggest red-light area. The teacher is Dr Sacchidananda Sarker, Assistant Director of the West Bengal government’s State AIDS Control Society. And the subject: Kamasutra.

In a lecture hall of the Institute of International Social Development (IISD), in the prim Gariahat locality of South Kolkata, the ancient treatise on love has been co-opted as the latest arsenal in the battle against AIDS.

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Head of the IISD — a Kolkata-based NGO working for the prevention of AIDS — Rajyashree Choudhary explains that so far, the only thing drilled into prostitutes to guard themselves against AIDS is to insist on a condom. But what if, she asks, the client says no. ‘‘The prostitutes have to give in or lose the customer. This increases the risk of spreading HIV both among the girls (if they give in) and also the men (when they ultimately find someone who will agree to unprotected sex).’’

The aim of the IISD project, a brainchild of Choudhury, is to train the prostitutes on the various ways laid down in the Kamasutra to give pleasure without consummation.

The social worker approached the State AIDS Control Society and it responded positively. Says Sarker: ‘‘Since 88 per cent of HIV cases come from unsafe sex, the various ways laid down in the Kamasutra can be resorted to by prostitutes to help their customers achieve ultimate pleasure. The girls are quite responsive.’’

In another initiative, the IISD has roped in Kathak guru Chitresh Das, who has been teaching the girls dance. ‘‘The red-light areas were famous for the Baiji culture, which has almost disappeared,’’ he told this reporter. ‘‘In earlier days, the baijis used to entertain customers with dazzling dances. If the girls show seriousness, I am ready to teach them on a regular basis,’’ he promises.

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Das adds that so far the girls have shown eagerness to learn the art form to entertain clients without sex — and earn more in the process. Alpana, a young prostitute, says she is willing to learn any trick that will help avoid chance of contracting AIDS from customers who refuse to use condoms. ‘‘Every day I entertain about 10 customers and I am exhausted at the end of it all,’’ she says. ‘‘Sometimes I have to fight with some customers who refuse to wear condoms.’’

Krishna, another prostitute, agrees with her. ‘‘We know how HIV spreads but sometimes we have to bow to the demands of recalcitrant customers,’’ she says.

During 2002, West Bengal reported 1,137 fresh HIV cases, and this year the number is already 603.