Room With A View

THEY started with killing 28 rats, clearing an enormous pile of pigeon droppings, sweeping away layers of dust and setting straight malicious mind-sets. And, they had created a space for Bombay's gay community on the second floor of a municipal building in the heart of Bombay. Spread over an area of 6,000 sq ft, the room is sparsely furnished with a few chairs, tables, filing cabinets, notice boards and magazine racks. And though entry is through a separate doorway, it's a regular place, except for its members, who by conventional morality, are not. 

Bombay's municipal authorities have come to realise that gay is no longer a dirty word. And so on October 31, 1995, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) allotted space to The Humsafar Trust, an organisation run by homosexuals, to set up a meeting place for the gay community to discuss their problems. 

It was not an easy task. In a society which almost denies the existence of this community, obliterating it from its social consciousness, a mindset sensitive to the needs of this community had to be first created. And then came the close cooperation from the BMC's health department. "During the course of AIDS-related projects in red-light areas, we realised there was a vulnerable group which needed to be addressed. Especially since anything that goes on underground flourishes and touches alarming proportions. It had to be brought out in the open and the only method of interacting with them was by understanding them instead of pouncing upon them and trying to change them," says Dr Jairaj Thanekar, deputy executive health officer, BMC.

With a team committed to function as "an NGO rather than a bureaucracy", ASHA (AIDS STD Health Action)—the only self funded AIDS programme undertaken by any bureaucratic body in India—was set up to delve deep into the psyche and problems of the gay community. 

It was easier said than done. The party in power was not only indifferent to the issue but was also virulently opposed to the community itself. Ironically, the project—much like the people it related to—could not be undertaken on the strength of the issue it addressed, but had to be masked under the respectability of an AIDS-related project. "The government still does not accept these people—evident by the fact that various programmes related to homosexuals are still not approved. Groups of politicians objected to the move as well, but we had reasons to fight it out. We wanted to do something. Our objectives were clear," says Thanekar. 

Fortunately, the concerned authorities were, in every sense of the term, really concerned. Propelled by former additional municipal commissioner Sudha Bhave, joint municipal commissioner (retd) A.P. Madhuskar, and executive health officer Dr Alka Karande, the project and its proponents emerged from the shadows and were able to achieve what they had set out to do for the community.

Soon, the Trust began furnishing a lot of data, hitherto inaccessible to the BMC. "The executive of the health council was surprised by the data we have collected in so short a time. It has taken two years for this allotment to come through, but it has been worth their while considering the work we have been doing," says Suraj Modee, a Humsafar volunteer. This despite the fact that the room is open only once a week on Fridays between 6 pm and 9 pm. "We neither have money nor staff, so why should we keep it open on other days," says activist Ashok Row Kavi. He admits though, that plans are afoot to extend the working days. 

The number of troubled souls that drift into the place every Friday, participating in the workshops being held, has risen to 30. And the wave shows no signs of abating. This because, as one volunteer puts it, "It is a safe place where you feel all right, where every opinion is accepted, no question is treated as a stupid one and the only ban enforced is on drugs and alcohol on the premises." 

"It is being utilised for a good purpose. It is not a joint," asserts Thanekar, "and we have no problems renewing their tenure on the place because of their work." The trust now foresees a documentation centre, a data base for case papers, a hospital and a whole range of health-care services. For them, the rats are now dead and the dust has finally settled. And though the entrance is still separate and access still through back alleys, the Trust hopes that the day will not be far off when their gay associates can walk confidently through the front door, hand in hand with them.