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Komol Gandhar is the name of
Durbar's cultural wing. It was formally registered in
1997. 'Komol' means soft and gentle. If you split the
word 'Gan-dhar' into two, you get 'Gan' which means
song, and 'Dhar' which means sharpness. So Durbar can be
soft and gentle as well as sharp and incisive, and the
organization uses song and other performing arts as its
medium to propagate its cause.
All Durbar cultural activities are used pragmatically as
tools for HIV prevention work - raising awareness and
challenging stigma, and also used as a strategic front
to sharpen Durbar's movement in highlighting sex
workers' rights, bringing sex workers' demands into the
public arena, and challenging dominant stereotypic
representations of sex work and sex workers.
Komol Gandhar gives sex workers and their children an
opportunity to claim the rights to joy full life and a
space to express through cultural performances. These
medium has helped them to express their creativity,
helps them to pacify some of the brutalized experiences
of being sex workers or their children, at the same time
by unleashing a huge opportunity to express their
potential imaginary and creativity. It gives sex workers
a 'voice' to negotiate with mainstream society.
Komol Gandhar and Durbar has succeeded in drawing a very
wide range of volunteers and well known playwrights,
singers and dancers to join the group's activities. High
profile cultural artistes in Bengal has built the
group's capacity, lent credibility, facilitated access
to mainstream performance venues and helped generate
further public interest and publicity. However, in the
beginning the involvement of 'outsiders' has inevitably
meant that the cultural styles and political
representations of sex workers' lives have been
influenced by outside perspectives rather than enabling
sex workers' to develop their own representations. So
Komol Gandhar started to develop its own scripts, plays
and composed dances, based on sex workers' life stories
where renowned technique expert play their role as
facilitate but role as created of program which have
been performed at various venues all over India and West
Bengal. One of its proudest moments was when Durbar was
requested to perform during the opening ceremony of the
1998 International AIDS Conference in Geneva. The group
also performs in many Durbar meetings and rallies. Upon
request, Komol Gandhar now also organizes specific
activities for sex workers' children.
Performances reflect different themes - HIV prevention,
social stigma, gender inequality, the social
construction of sex work or trafficking - and they have
stepped into mainstream cultural spaces through their
excellent skill and unique approach. They have performed
in prestigious venues such as Kolkata's Academy of Fine
Arts as well as street corner and in village
performances and have won various accolades, awards all
across India. Their heightened popularity has helped sex
workers to recognize and believe in their own
capabilities. Most importantly it has contributed in
community mobilization, dissemination of HIV messages to
wider audiences, and to help greater understanding
regarding structural and political causes of HIV
vulnerability and structural barriers.
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For a group of sex workers coming
from diverse backgrounds Komol Gandhar has created an
opportunity to explore their cultural heritage and to
preserve and expand their cultural expressions. Komol
Gandhar since its inception has been playing as a
platform for exchange of various cultural traditions,
across linguistic, ethnic and regional barriers and
forging a common identity as sex workers. It is a
powerful driver force behind the sex workers' movement.
Komol Gandhar is not merely an instrument to communicate
their messages effectively. By stepping out to perform
in public spaces the sex workers see themselves as
asserting their rights to equality with the privileged
class of cultural world who otherwise has denied their
access to this area since ages.
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