They flirt with death in the ring, with little to fall back on

Vimla, from Hetora in Nepal — incidentally about 80 per cent of the female artistes in the circuses are from Nepal, and most of them from Hetora — joined the circus when she was eight. “I underwent a training of two days and started appearing for the tiger show,” says Vimla. “In fact you need only courage and luck to perform the game,” she added. And if luck fails they have nothing else to fall back on except their owners. Very few of them are covered by any kind of insurance.

“It’s totally on our own initiative that sometimes we go in for insurances like Medi-claim,” says Subal Biswas, an 18-year-old who is a globe-rider at Ajanta Circus. “In our profession there are chances of getting hurt or even dying, but it totally depends on the owner how much you or your next of kin get if an accident takes place,” says Biswas.

Adds Nanu Gurung, who is a globe rider at the Kohinoor Circus: “Except for the helmet we don’t wear anything else.” The 20-year-old girl said she had underwent training for one month before entering the ring. “If we get hurt which we sometimes do, our owners take care of us. The medical treatment is on the management and for the days we are off duty we are paid,” she said.

But there no fixed norms when it comes to payment. It depends entirely on the skills of a performer. Vimla and Nannu gets about Rs 2,000 a month. And all the employees get free accommodation and food (lunch and dinner).

Many of the employees get married within the circus community. Take the case of Bablu Khan performs on the trapeez. While he gets about Rs 3,000, his wife gets only Rs 1,000 and his two daughters aged 13 and 11 perform for free.

“It’s a wretched profession,” says Surajit Puro Kayashta, Superintendent of Police, Howrah, who investigated Rita’s case. “Children of poor people, mostly from Nepal, come and join the profession. We are investigating the case and and we are trying to find the scale of negligence on the part of the owners,” the official said.

Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya also said he would take a look at the existing laws to find out what the state government could do about the plight of circus artistes.

Circus officials, however, put up a brave front saying that they do their best for the artistes. “We try our best to give them benefits like Providend Fund and if any accident happens we are ready to go by the present labour act in this regard,” says Mani Das, manager of Kohinoor Circus. Adds Khondokar Abu Salam, an official of Ajanta Circus: “If you do not pay the artistes well they will not stay at your company,”