I recently finished the book “AIDS Sutra,” a compilation of stories about AIDS-susceptible demographics in India. From roadside sex workers to cross-country bus drivers, the essays painted a rich, complex mosaic of the AIDS epidemic in India, examining the root causes. Using the case studies, the writers demonstrate that high migrancy rates, wealth disparity and historically low social mobility combine with a religiously-based sense of sexuality to create the misrepresented epidemic of AIDS in India. The book was personal without adopting bias, empirical but also emotional.
Sex work is inarguably prevalent in India — Human Rights Watch estimates there are more than 20 million sex workers in the country. This is not surprising considering India hosts some of the world’s poorest populations and the abolished caste system still has lingering effects preventing social mobility.
But, in what has created a moral quandary for the Indian government, sex workers are beginning to fight for their rights and representation. One of the most famous red-light districts in India recently made waves by forming a workers union and advocating for the protection of its sex workers.
By merely using the term “sex worker” instead of “prostitute” to refer to themselves, sex workers seek to add legitimacy and dignity to their line of work.
Prostitution is not illegal in India but continues to be unofficially prosecuted, largely by police officers. State officials use The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act of 1956 to curb prostitution. The act illegalizes “solicitation in a ‘public place,’” said Sonia Faleiro in her contribution to “AIDS Sutra.”
Faleiro describes being humiliated by policewomen in public and recounts stories of women being verbally abused and made to drink their own urine. It seems contradictory and even corrupt that a government should crack down on sex workers while also allowing them to form unions and petition for workplace rights.
Many measures have been put in place to remove the danger surrounding sex work including holding abusive clients accountable and mandating client condom use. These are major steps toward ending the AIDS epidemic in India and have all been achieved by sex workers’ unions. Perhaps, for sex workers, taking ownership of their profession is only the first among many steps toward reclaiming their identities and livelihoods, securing workplace rights, and creating a safer, cleaner work environment.
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