of these girls. They don’t know what they are doing, and where they are going. They are vulnerable to exploitation because those who hire them aren’t professionals themselves,” she adds.
In Jammu and Chandigarh, dancing institutes provide formal training to girls for working in private music albums. Jammu-based Monika, who worked as a dancer in video albums got a break in one of the serials of Star Plus channel.
However, lot of people are jumping into the trade and are producing low budget video albums, employing untrained girl dancers, often creating videos in bad taste.
The Consultant and Operational Head of private channel Take1, Zahid Manzoor says the channel last year started screening these albums before putting them on air. “We observed that some albums are really in bad taste. We screen the products now and only show the videos that do not go against our rules,” he says.
The local music albums are given to channels free, which telecast these in free time. “It is a symbiotic relation. They get their product advertised and we get material (programmes) for our free time,” says Zahid.
These albums are mostly consumed in the rural markets. “The buyers of these private albums are mostly rural class. I sell 20-30 CDs of these albums every day,” says Ishfaq, a music and entertainment CD dealer in Lal Chowk.
Ishfaq adds that there is demand for better quality music videos. “Most people prefer some two year old albums over some cheap stuff that has been coming in market from couple of years now,” he says.
Mohammad Yousuf Shah, an employee in education department calls it the ugliest change he has seen Kashmiri culture has undergone during his life. “This is not entertaining but shameful. It does not fit anywhere in Kashmiri culture. They make fun of themselves and embarrass those who watch them.” Shah says, adding, “They should never expect the society to speak high of them.”
The girl dancers know that the society looks down upon them. Sweety says she doesn’t know a single dancing girl who was married to a person outside her field. “Who will marry a dancer? They (girl dancers) marry people who are associated with the same profession.”
Sweety’s friend Ambreena had to leave her work before her family started looking for a match to marry her off.
Though the work has been left long back, they are yet to find a suitable match, says Sweety.
Another dancer, Shagufta, smelling the consequences shifted to choreographing.
Her subordinate Arifa, though married a boy from the same field, had to quit her job as the groom insisted on it before agreeing for the marriage. Arifa’s sister Nargis has also started working as dancer.
“My younger sister watches me on TV, she wants to join in. I said – never,” Sweety says, “I don’t want her to listen to those comments that have become part of my life now. I pray my husband should be from another profession. If he will be knowing this profession, he won’t respect me.”
