The very fact that the government has banned dance bars within 1 km of religious and educational institutes suggest that the authorities too are not comfortable of the activities taking place in these premises of entertainment. There is nothing wrong in dance bars as such but these have been converted into dens for prostitution and nobody visits them for an art performance which even the government is aware of. One kilometre distance rule too is illogical and insane. Prostitution or alcohol consumption or for that matter betting places or playing cards do take place in residential premises which could be in the vicinity of schools and temples at many places in the city. Also, people having the urge to visit them would even travel several kilometres and hence the law serves no purpose as such.
Mumbai is an international city apart from being the commercial capital of the country and a tourist attraction. Legalize prostitution in the city so that you do not need to have such activities behind the backdoors of dance bars. Also, legalizing sexual activities would mean professionalism which would bring in safety standards and that will go a long way in preventing AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Dance bars only gives rise to corrupt means as several palms are greased for illegal activities that takes place their in the name of art!
S.N. Kabra
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
