Seeking new horizons

I was married off to my cousin when I was just about to step into my teens. My first child was born when I was 14 years old and the second came along when I was around 16.

My husband, who was also in his late teens at the time, was unable to earn enough to sustain our growing family. Eventually, due to the constant financial troubles and the harassment I faced at the hands of my husband, I took to doing sex work.

I wanted to leave him and prostitution offered me the means to be able to strike out on my own and provide for my children. Nowadays, I live with my mother and younger child while the older one stays in a hostel and studies in a school in a nearby town where one of my relatives teaches.

We meet him every alternate weekend. He is in high school and doing quite well. I have even managed to build a house with my earnings,” reveals Indira, 29, from Gadag district of northern Karnataka.

Like her Maheen from Haveri district in Karnataka took to doing sex work after she got out of an abusive marriage. Compelled to get married when she was just 17, Maheen, in her mid thirties now, tried to adjust to a miserable, violent relationship for many years.

She shares, “As a practising Muslim it was very tough to leave my violent and oppressive husband and take up sex work to make ends meet. But I did not want to go back home and burden my elderly parents.

Over the years, I have supported my younger siblings, who know that I am a sex worker. Presently, I am focused on motivating my daughter, a college student, to be independent and her own person. Of course, I have decided that I support her life choices, even if she wants to do sex work. I truly believe that sex work is work.”

Indira and Maheen are part of the Uttara Karnataka Mahila Okkutta (UKMO), a federation of community based organisations in five districts of northern Karnataka that advocate for the human rights and dignity of sex workers.

Initiated in 2010, the UKMO reaches out to around 12,000 sex workers and assists them in accessing healthcare and other social entitlements.

Generally, sex workers are perceived as immoral, criminal and carriers of sexually transmitted diseases, which is a judgmental opinion often created because of a lack of awareness and understanding of their lived realities.

While the law does not prohibit sex workers from soliciting, except if it is within 200 metres from a place of worship or educational institution, and they have the right to refuse sex and complain about rape, abuse, violence, assault or harassment, they have continued to be deprived of their social entitlements and are subject to discrimination.

The censure is so deeply entrenched in the system that the very state schemes that have been created to ‘assist’ them in giving up the trade are impractical or moralistic.

At times, even social and religious activists try to ‘rescue’ or ‘reform’ sex workers. And if they are detained in a police raid, they are often placed in government-run homes where they, instead of being safe, are vulnerable to violence and even forced to provide free sexual services. Rehabilitation is often absent or minimal.

“Sex workers have a negative stereotypical image; we are seen as home breakers, who deserve to be disrespected and abused. It’s not uncommon for police personnel to verbally abuse us and demand free sexual favours.

They do not address our grievances, especially if they are against the local ‘goondas’ (ruffians), questioning how a sex worker can complain of rape or sexual violence,” shares Prabha Devi of Saheli Sangh, a collective that campaigns for the rights of sex workers in Pune, Maharashtra.

Organisations and collectives like the UKMO, Saheli Sangh and others are actively advocating for the rights and dignity of sex workers. Indeed, these days, they have upped their campaign for decriminalsing their “profession” instead of the proposed legalisation.

Many sex workers openly criticise the Swedish model of legalising sex work, which India and other countries around the world, are trying to adopt, as it regulates the location, timings and duration of sex work. Furthermore, it could mandate their periodic examination for STDs, disclosure of HIV status and condom usage.

Jules Kim, CEO of the Scarlet Alliance, an Australia-based organisation that advocates for the rights of sex workers, is a vociferous supporter of the decriminalisation move. According to her, decriminalising sex work in the state of New South Wales in her country has effectively safeguarded the rights of sex workers.

She states that decriminalisation encourages sex workers to access HIV/AIDS prevention and care programmes without fearing stigma, discrimination and harassment by the police and other agencies. The positive experience in Australia is reason enough to seriously consider the demand for decriminalising instead of legalising prostitution.

Among the many stigmas that the sex workers’ organisations are trying to overcome is the belief that most women in this line of work have been trafficked, deceived or coerced into it. Whereas many of them do get trapped, there can be no denying that there are many who start and remain in it voluntarily.

In fact, nearly 5,000 women sex workers, collectivised through the Veshya Anyay Mukti Parishad (VAMP), created under the aegis of the Sampada Grameen Mahila Sanstha (SANGRAM), an organisation that voices the concerns of sex workers in parts of southern Maharashtra and northern Karnataka, are aggressively fighting trafficking today.

Kiran, a feisty VAMP member, discloses, “We ask new sex workers if they were brought under compulsion or deceit. Additionally, we ensure that girls below 18 years do not enter or remain in sex work by requesting for evidence of their age or getting them examined medically.

We negotiate with brothel owners for fair and regular pay, dignified treatment and healthcare for all our members. After all, a happy worker can satisfy a customer well.”

VAMP has created Thanta Mukti Samitis, or grievance redressal committees. Talking about an instance where their Samiti successfully managed to help a woman, Sangita, a VAMP member since 10 years, who chose to do sex work, says,
“When Balavva, a brothel owner, discovered that Rimi, a young sex worker who had been trafficked into Maharashtra from Nepal and forced to be in the trade, was reluctant to continue, he approached us. Ultimately, Balavva accompanied Rimi back home with assistance from the Thanta Mukti Samiti and the Jagruti Mahila Maha Sangathan (JMMS), a national network of sex workers’ organisation in Nepal.”

Such experiences and articulations only go on to highlight the fact that contrary to the overwhelming public perception, sex workers are not helpless women who need to be ‘saved’.

They are individuals with real hopes and dreams that they believe they can realise if the society becomes more open and equitable.

By:Pushpa Achanta