Month: April 2023

I recently watched a movie called Gangubai Kathiawadi staring actress Alia Bhatt based on a true story. It was the extraordinary story of Gangubai, a matriarch, a prostitute, an Indian social activist, and the chief of the brothel in Kathiawadi. Gangubai was known for fighting rights for more than 3,000 sex workers. She was named Ganga, since birth and had a dream to be a big star in the film industry until one day, she ran away with her suitor Ramnik Lal who promised to fulfil these dreams and unknowingly she was sold into prostitution by him. Since working as a prostitute, she changed her name to Gangubai and everyone used to respectfully call her Gangubai Ganga Maa (mother). Many women in India have either been coerced or abducted and then sold into prostitution, but sadly they were unable to go back home to their families because they were tainted, and because they carried the shame of being a prostitute. These brothels were establishments dating back to colonial times and since Gangubai was referred to as the Madam of Kamathipura and was the most influential pimp in the city, her strong connections led to justice for the sex workers between 1947 – 64. It was during that time, allegedly she met Jawaharlal Nehru to discuss the dilemma of sex workers and improve their living conditions. However, but these women still face prejudices today.

Sex workers are considered as ‘women of the night’, facing stigma and ostracization during the day. I was applauding Gangubai during the film for her speech given at a rally where she spoke from her heart and engaged the audience:

“All of you, sitting here must have an occupation or business? Someone here is probably a doctor, engineer or teacher? A qualified person sells his intelligence, and we sell our bodies.  We work bloody hard! What is wrong with that. Why do they object only to our establishments? Why is our profession seen as immoral? Men from our neighbourhood come to ours and yet our neighbourhood is scandalous. Why? Do you know what the oldest profession in the world is? Prostitution! Without us, even heaven is incomplete. You must give us some respect, don’t you think? To tell you the truth, we have more dignity than you. Ask me how? You lose your dignity once and it is gone forever. We sell our dignity every night. Yet, it does not seem to run out. No matter whoever turns up at our doorstep, we don’t judge them, it is our principle! We don’t ask your religion or caste, dark skinned or light skinned, rich or poor, everyone pays the same rate. When we don’t discriminate among people, then why do you discriminate against us? Why are we excluded from your society? The minister who was preaching about unity and equality…, visit us some time, we practice what we preach! It is not that we don’t matter to people, we do, just like politicians, we are their votes; to policemen, we are currency notes, to men we are winter coats, and to women, you all know who we are…..We have fire in us and yet bloom like a rose. We satisfy the lust of men and protect the integrity of women. Just imagine, if there was no Kamathipura, this city would turn into a jungle, women will be raped, families will fall apart, relationships will end, and our glorious Indian culture will turn to dust. And you will be responsible for this! We guard not only our dignity, but also the dignity of society, that’s why I am proud of being a prostitute just as you are of being a doctor or a teacher. You are applauding to my speech, but it’s funny that you’re still hell bent on making us homeless. And if that is not enough, you want to throw our children out of school too. I want to ask you all something truthfully – Don’t our children have the right to education? Aren’t our children like your children, the future of India? [They all agree with her] Then it’s decided that the women of Kamathipura will not be homeless, and our children will get the right education. And we will get our right to live in society with dignity!

There we have it, a well said speech reflecting on inclusion, diversity, and equality. The above is based in India, but elsewhere in the world sex workers are driven by a complex intersection of social and economic factors in which poverty, unemployment and inequality are key drivers too. We need to stop judging them and start treating them with respect, kindness and I only hope they receive the same rights as us!

I first came across the concept of literature review whilst writing my dissertation – it was not the easiest idea to comprehend initially and some of my peers felt the same way. Since it was considered the most challenging element of the dissertation, I started with this, as the researching side of it can take time.

My understanding of literature review is reviewing secondary research that is related to your topic and synthesizing the data then applying your evaluative and critical analysis. The sources of such research can stem from books, magazine articles, journals, reports, websites etc.

Academic Support online had a resource available for students on writing a dissertation, which covers research questions, methodology, literature, abstract and so forth. It states the following, which now makes perfect sense to me:

“Some, but not all, dissertations use a literature review. If this applies to your project, your literature review might be included within the introduction alongside your research methodology. Alternatively, you could be asked to write your literature review as a separate section. In essence, the literature review should reflect your confidence within a field of study, synthesising and summarising prior research in a critical and organised way.

Pat Thompson (University of Nottingham) asks us to use the metaphor of a sorting through items in a wardrobe when composing a literature review. We have an entire wardrobe of research, but there are certain configurations or outfits that suit our dissertation best. Some reading might be sent to the charity shop or the back of a drawer, whilst other books are foundational to our research and need to be displayed.”

There are 3 distinct stages to creating a literature review:

• Identify and collect.
• Deconstruct and evaluate.
• Reformulate and synthesise.

The one thing a literature review should not be is a list!

In hindsight, I did understand what was expected from a literature review and I enjoyed the process.