The Rights of the Sex Workers

24th

july 2001 is a date

that is etched in my memory

i remember i was an 18 year old

psychology student

staffed on a research project at

falkland road

an infamous street in mumbai’s red light

district

i was completely unprepared for what

i was about to witness i saw

scores of women of all ages

soliciting customers i

walked into one of the brothels

only to see the pain and struggle

that lay behind their painted faces

and beaming smiles

six women and eight children

were crammed into a 12 foot by 12 foot

room

a woman lay groaning in pain

on a bed raised on cinder blocks

no medical assistance in sight

children were half drugged to sleep

under the beds while their mothers were

servicing customers

on the beds with only a thin curtain

if any for privacy

hunger suffering

and filth was all i could see at first

despite being hungry themselves they

offered me

a cup of tea and a biscuit they spoke to

me about their hardships

and also spoke to me about their hopes

and their dreams for their children

it was then that i was able to see

their resilience their hope

and their courage these women

are as human as you and i

and yet i hear people referring to them

with words like vaishya randi

[ __ ] prostitute why

because the work that they engage in is

considered shameful

and immoral they are consistently

treated

like social outcasts by the societies in

which they live

they are often misrepresented

misunderstood and stigmatized

by communities across the world

my experience of working with these

women

moved me to be part of a non-profit

organization

that works in kamati pura one of

mumbai’s

oldest and largest sex

light areas this organization

helps sex workers and their children

attain their basic rights

according to the dasra report on human

trafficking

india has 20 million commercial sex

workers

16 million of these sex workers

are victims of human trafficking

40 percent of them are children

and teens between the ages of 9

and 18 years

one such girl was luni

she was only 14 years old when she was

brought by her father

from maratha to mumbai under the pretext

of showing her the ocean

he was an alcoholic and

left her behind at a brothel

in exchange for merely 20 000 rupees

to fuel his addiction in an attempt to

escape

muni ran out onto the streets but nobody

was willing to hear her story

onlookers shifted their gaze as she

desperately tried to make eye contact

with them

and she was brought straight back to the

brothel

munni is a sexually exploited child

yet in the eyes of people she’s a

prostitute

undeserving of empathy and care

another woman i know is bina

who is a 22 year old widow and a mother

of two young children

from rural west bengal she

too was brought to mumbai with the hopes

of finding a job by her own

brother-in-law

and left behind at a brothel

when bina tried to escape he called her

and told her if she

ever tried that again that he would

torture

her two young children

bina continues to work as a sex worker

in mumbai

and supports her parents her in-laws

and her extended family back home in the

village

in spite of going through so many

hardships

these women are consistently denied

their basic rights

like health care education

legal rights and sometimes no dignity

even during death

i have heard of instances of women

being asked for sexual favors by medical

staff

they are asked embarrassing questions

about which sexual positions they use

and sometimes are downright denied

medical care

the fear of mistreatment and humiliation

forces these women to go to local quacks

which poses a greater risk to their

health and safety

most women who are trafficked never had

the privilege

of an education but even their children

struggle to attend and stay in school

they are treated differently by teachers

who resent having them in their classes

the dropout rate remains high

as these children are in a very hostile

environment

in my 12 years as a psychotherapist

i have observed how stigma can

lower one’s belief in overcoming

barriers

and leads to a hopelessness about the

self

these women internalize their

marginalized position

they start to believe that they don’t

deserve better

because they are in fact fallen

they avoid the hospitals and the schools

and this way of treatment starts to feel

normal to them

women in sex work are entitled to their

rights

in the political social economic

and civil spheres of their lives

they too have the right to livelihood

and freedom from gender stereotyped

notions about a woman’s chastity

all this will only be possible

when discrimination is removed

from all spheres of a sex worker’s life

stigma and shaming

are real reducing stigma

requires not only policy and legal

change

but also cultural change

as a community we need to work towards

decriminalization of sex workers

anti-discrimination protections and

funding for rights based sex worker

organizations

however these steps alone are not enough

we need to work towards destigmatizing

them

and we need to do this together

the stories of muni and bina

are echoed throughout the world

it is up to us to listen to them and

have compassion for them

it is up to us not to look down

upon them they too

have a right to a life of dignity

you and i have a responsibility

towards the future of our women

and children by visibilizing them

by talking about them and by showing

them

that we care