Sex Workers In Kolkata Research Articles

“We are Treated as Outsiders in Our Own City”: Lived Experiences of Intersectional Stigma Against Sex Workers in Kolkata, India

“We are Treated as Outsiders in Our Own City”: Lived Experiences of Intersectional Stigma Against Sex Workers in Kolkata, India

Experiencing, Negotiating and Challenging Stigma in Sex Work: Examining Responses from Brothel-Based and Transient Sex Workers in Kolkata, India

Stigma is felt, constructed, understood and negotiated differently by varied marginalized groups, including diverse groups among commercial sex workers themselves. Brothel-based sex workers in India have more visibility and undergo greater social scrutiny, moral surveillance and stigmatization. For the transient sex workers, invisibility and non-identification as sex workers are strategically used to mitigate stigmatization. The current research conducts semi-structured interviewing of 23 brothel-based and 21 transient sex workers in and around Kolkata in Eastern India. The results delineate the differences between the impact of stigmatization on brothel-based and transient sex workers in India and how these two groups negotiate with and resist stigma in their lives. The current study shows that the impact and extent of stigmatization varied among the sex workers in accordance to their location and status.

Sex Workers, Stigma, and Self-Image: Evidence from Kolkata Brothels

AbstractThis paper studies the link between self-image and behavior among those who face stigma due to poverty and social exclusion. Using a randomized field experiment with sex workers in Kolkata (India), we examine whether a psychological intervention to mitigate adverse effects of internalized stigma can induce behavior change. We find significant improvements in participants' self-image, their savings choices, and health clinic visits. Administrative data confirm that these changes in savings and preventive health behavior persist 15 and 21 months later, respectively. Our findings highlight the potential of purely psychological interventions to improve the life choices and outcomes of marginalized groups.

Do Sex Workers Listen to Radio? Deconstructing the Radio Listening Habits of the Sex Workers of Sonagachi

ABSTRACT Ever since the inception of radio in India, it has played a significant role as a medium of mass communication and entertainment. It must be noted that the technology used by radio has been in existence for almost over a century. Listening to morning news over radio has been reported as a habit widely practiced across the globe. Radio as a tool of communication has been preferred by not only activists and people’s movements but also by marginalized and stereotyped communities. This paper attempts to deconstruct the radio listening habits of the sex workers of Sonagachi (often referred to as the largest red-light district of Asia that harbors around 15,000 sex workers) in order to assess the role communication plays within the boundaries of the community. To arrive at conclusion, the researcher incorporated the usage of semi-structured in-depth interviews of five female sex workers, chosen with the application of snowball sampling technique. The findings of this study can be used to initiate the creation of a community radio station (a sustainable, sensible alternative for infotainment) or any other form of community public sphere for sex workers in Kolkata’s red-light districts. Further, it can be used to offer recommendations to government and policymakers who are responsible for establishing such stations for marginalized communities, essentially giving a voice to the voiceless.

Community-Based Strategies for Harm Reduction Among Sex Workers in Kolkata, India

Research conducted with diverse groups of sex workers in India as well as around the globe have shown that decriminalizing sex work can promote the health, safety, and security of sex workers. Nonetheless, in many countries, including India, legislations criminalizing buying of sex—that is punishing clients of sex workers—have gained momentum with the accompanying rationale of rescuing/saving women trapped in sex work. Such legislations ignore the reality that sex work is an economically viable vocation for a majority of women, men, and transgender people in India—especially when compared to low-paying jobs with long, fixed hours of work. Consequently, such legislations have also not deterred people from choosing sex work as a livelihood option. In addition, little information is available about the community-based harm reduction responses. We as scholars—who have separately conducted field-based ethnographic research with diverse groups of brothel- and non-brothel-based sex workers in Kolkata India between 2009 and 2016–-share our findings about the impact of criminalization on varied groups of sex workers in India. In addition, we provide a critical analysis of the several community-based strategies—ranging from self-regulatory boards, stakeholders-NGOs negotiations, NGO-police partnership, and drop-in-centers—adopted by the sex worker organizations to mitigate the harms associated with sex work in Kolkata, India.

Successful integration of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis into a community-based HIV prevention program for female sex workers in Kolkata, India.

We assessed the impact of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in the context of a community-based HIV program among female sex workers (FSWs) in Kolkata, India. This was an open-label, uncontrolled demonstration trial. HIV seronegative FSWs over 18 years were eligible. Participants were administered daily tenofovir/emtricitabine (TDF-FTC) with follow-up visits at months 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15. Drug adherence was monitored by self-report, and a random subset of participants underwent plasma TDF testing. 843 women were screened and 678 enrolled and started on PrEP. Seventy-nine women (11%) did not complete all scheduled visits: four women died of reasons unrelated to PrEP and 75 withdrew, for a 15-month retention rate of 89%. Self-reported daily adherence was over 70%. Among those tested for TDF, the percentage of women whose level reached ≥40 ng/mL was 65% by their final visit. There were no HIV seroconversions, and no evidence of significant changes in sexual behavior. This study demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of PrEP for FSWs in Kolkata, with very high levels of adherence to PrEP and no HIV seroconversions. The integration of PrEP into an existing community-based HIV prevention program ensured community support and facilitated adherence.

Correction to: Consistent Condom Use by Female Sex Workers in Kolkata, India: Testing Theories of Economic Insecurity, Behavior Change, Life Course Vulnerability and Empowerment.

The original version of this article unfortunately contained an error. The authors would like to correct the error with this erratum.

Depression and Its Relation with HIV Risk and Social Well-Being among the Brothel-Based Female Sex Workers in Kolkata, India

Depression and Its Relation with HIV Risk and Social Well-Being among the Brothel-Based Female Sex Workers in Kolkata, India

Ethical and Safety Issues in Doing Sex Work Research: Reflections From a Field-Based Ethnographic Study in Kolkata, India.

While much has been said about the risks and safety issues experienced by female sex workers in India, there is a considerable dearth of information about the difficulties and problems that sex work researchers, especially female researchers, experience when navigating the highly political, ideological, and stigmatized environment of the Indian sex industry. As noted by scholars, there are several methodological and ethical issues involved with sex work research, such as privacy and confidentiality of the participants, representativeness of the sample, and informed consent. Yet, there has been reluctance among scholars to comment on their research process, especially with regard to how they deal with the protocols for research ethics when conducting social and behavioral epidemiological studies among female sex workers in India and elsewhere. Drawing on my 7 months of field-based ethnographic research with “flying” or non-brothel-based female sex workers in Kolkata, India, I provide in this article a reflexive account of the problems encountered in implementing the research process, particularly the ethical and safety issues involved in gaining access and acceptance into the sex industry and establishing contact and rapport with the participants. In doing so, it is my hope that future researchers can develop the knowledge necessary for the design of ethical and non-exploitative research projects with sex workers.

Consistent Condom Use by Female Sex Workers in Kolkata, India: Testing Theories of Economic Insecurity, Behavior Change, Life Course Vulnerability and Empowerment.

Consistent condom use (CCU) is the primary HIV/STI prevention option available to sex workers globally but may be undermined by economic insecurity, life-course vulnerabilities, behavioral factors, disempowerment, or lack of effective interventions. This study examines predictors of CCU in a random household survey of brothel-based female sex workers (n = 200) in two neighborhoods served by Durbar (the Sonagachi Project) in Kolkata, India. Multivariate logistic regression analyses indicated that CCU was significantly associated with perceived HIV risk, community mobilization participation, working more days in sex work, and higher proportion of occasional clients to regular clients. Exploratory analyses stratifying by economic insecurity indicators (i.e., debt, savings, income, housing security) indicate that perceived HIV risk and community mobilization were only associated with CCU for economically secure FSW. Interventions with FSW must prioritize economic security and access to social protections as economic insecurity may undermine the efficacy of more direct condom use intervention strategies.

Filmed Ethnography or Ethnographic Film? Voice and Positionality in Ethnographic, Documentary, and Feminist Film

And tomorrow? Tomorrow will be the time of completely portable colorvideo, video editing, and instant replay (instant feedback). Which is to say, the time of the joint dream of Vertov and Flaherty, of a mechanical cine-eye-ear and of a camera that can so totally participate that it will automatically pass into the hands of those who, until now, have always been in front of the lens. At that point, anthropologists will no longer control the monopoly on observation; their culture and they themselves will be observed and recorded. And it is in that way that ethnographic film will help us to share anthropology.-Rouch (46)HIN 2009 I DIRECTED AND PRODUCED, along with Alexia Prichard, Soma Girls, a twentyseven-minute documentary that explores the lives of children of sex workers in Kolkata, India. Alexia, whom I met at a start-up cable channel in New York City in 2001, told me about New Light,1 a nonprofit, community-based organization in Kolkata, a city that is my mother's ancestral home and where I had spent many summers as a child. New Light conducts community work in the Kalighat area, and Alexia, impressed with their activism, wanted to collaborate on a film about them. I politely declined her suggestion in 2001 for I had several concerns. One, I feared that Alexia had asked me to collaborate on this film because I was Indian and that my involvement would be intended simply to give the film a stamp of authenticity. Two, and more importantly, I did not want to add to what is an oversaturated body of work, especially in Western media, featuring poor, malnourished images of Indian women and children in need of saving. To my mind, trafficking in such images perpetuates the status quo, reifies Orientalist assumptions, and further alienates those whom we claim to care about. Alexia was incredibly persistent over the ensuing years, and as I got to know her better, I became more trusting of her intentions. In 2006, we decided to work on a film together about New Light's community activism. Alexia made a reconnaissance trip in early 2007 without me, and we returned together a year later, me with toddler in tow, and began work on what eventually became Soma Girls (2009).Borders and Boundaries: Anthropology and Ethnographic and Documentary FilmHaving worked as an experimental and documentary filmmaker for several years, I returned to graduate school to study anthropology in 2001. Despite slippages between the two disciplines, I discovered some reassuring overlaps between documentary filmmaking and ethnographic fieldwork. Both methodologies look to document and understand the human experience through careful research and the willing participation of subjects. Both struggle with issues of power and representation of their informants, and thoughtful anthropologists and filmmakers worry about the ethical consequences of the end product. These overlaps aside, during the shooting of Soma Girls in Kolkata, I wondered why I never described Soma Girls as an ethnographic film (as opposed to a documentary). I certainly never hesitated to call my doctoral research ethnographic, which was considered an essential badge of honor for good anthropological training. If it was permissible, even prideful, for me to be working on a written ethnography of odissi dancers in India and the United States, why did I hesitate to call Soma Girls an ethnographic film? What were some of the key differences between documentary filmmaking and ethnographic filmmaking? Had ethnographic film become unfashionable, and if so, when and why?2 Were there differences in the approach to ethnographic cinema in the United States and other parts of the world? After all, both methodologies involve significant immersion in the community and a good level of participant observation. Although I am certainly not the first to raise such questions, I was interested in unearthing my hesitation-and this hesitation became a point of entry to examine some of the differences and similarities in what may be two approaches to filmmaking, ethnographic and documentary. …

Depression and anxiety among HIV-positive sex workers in Kolkata, India: Testing and modifying the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale

We examine how the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was modified to measure anxiety and depression among HIV-infected sex workers in India. Supervised by a community advisory group, HADS was translated and administered to 100 HIV-infected sex workers in Sonagachi, Kolkata, India. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine validity. Results indicate that the inability to remain calm is experienced as depression rather than anxiety, whereas functional impairment induces anxiety rather than depression. The cross-loadings were interpreted in the context of prevalent cultural norms. The modified instrument identified a high prevalence of depression (30%) and anxiety (44%).

Beyond compassion: Children of sex workers in Kolkata’s Sonagachi

In 2005, children of sex workers from Kolkata’s Sonagachi red-light district formed their own collective, Amra Padatik (‘We are Foot Soldiers’), to work for gaining dignity for their mothers and claiming their own rights as children of sex workers. In this article the authors speak to AP’s founder members to demystify the culture of fear associated with their lives — perpetuated through popular representations — not to underplay their acute experiences of disadvantage, but to foreground them as politically astute citizens and decision-makers in policies that concern and affect them — to replace the compassion-driven traditional 3Rs of raid, rescue, rehabilitation with 3 counter-Rs: resilience, reworking and resistance.

Mobilizing collective identity to reduce HIV risk among sex workers in Sonagachi, India: The boundaries, consciousness, negotiation framework

The significantly low rate of HIV infection and high rate of condom use among sex workers in Kolkata, India is partially attributable to a community-led structural intervention called the Sonagachi Project which mobilizes sex workers to engage in HIV education, formation of community-based organizations and advocacy around sex work issues. This research examines how Sonagachi Project participants mobilize collective identity and the manner in which collective identity influences condom use. Using purposive sampling methods, 46 Sonagachi Project participants were selected in 2005 for in-depth qualitative interviews. Taylor and Whittier's (Taylor, V & Whittier, N (1992). Collective identities in social movement communities: lesbian feminist mobilization. In A. Morris & C. Mueller (Eds.) Frontiers in social movement theory. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press) model of identity-formation through boundaries, consciousness and negotiation was used to interpret results. Subjects mobilized collective identity by (1) building boundaries demarcating in-group sex workers from out-group members, (2) raising consciousness about sex work as legitimate labor and the transformative change that results from program participation, and (3) negotiating identity with out-group members. This research establishes a conceptual link between the boundaries, consciousness and negotiation framework of collective identity mobilization and condom use. Condom use among sex workers is motivated by each element of the boundaries, consciousness and negotiation model: condoms mark boundaries, enunciate the consciousness that sex with clients is legitimate labor, and help negotiate the identity of sex workers in interactions with clients.

“Rights to Stop the Wrong”: Cultural Change and Collective Mobilization—The Case of Kolkata Sex Workers

In the past decade-and-a-half, sex workers in Kolkata (India) red-light districts have involved themselves in a STD–HIV health project and, at the same time, formed an autonomous organization to protest against exploitation and to challenge social norms that ostracize them. This paper examines how this marginalized group, who previously saw themselves as socially alienated victims, came to reinvent themselves as social actors, endowed with a sense of collective rights and capacity. The analytical focus is on the transformation of the worldview and self-perception of sex workers, and on the specific aspects of the development intervention that facilitated this transition. The following elements were found to be most significant: (a) the establishment of an egalitarian organizational culture in the health project; (b) the introduction of a dialogic educational programme; and (c) the development of a culture of political activism among sex workers, animated by a notion of their right to protest against injustice and inequality. The study draws attention to the change of attitudes and identity as the key factor propelling the engagement of the socially excluded and the poor in development processes and public action. By analysing this largely neglected theme in development literature, this paper contributes to debates on the question of participation from a hitherto under-explored perspective.

Detection of intersubtype recombinants with respect to env and nef genes of HIV-1 among female sex workers in Calcutta, India

HIV-1 detected among female sex workers in Calcutta, India was characterized in respect to env and nef genes. A total of 39 HIV-1 seropositive samples were used in the study. Phylogenetic analysis of the nucleotide sequences of respective regions showed that 22 out of 39 samples (56.4%) were infected with subtype C with respect to both env and nef genes; however, 17 samples (43.6%) showed distinct subtype discordance. Simplot analysis of these samples showed the presence of intersubtype recombination between subtypes C and B. Both env C/ nef B and env B/ nef C recombinants were found to be present; 16 samples were found to be env C/ nef B and 1 sample was detected as env B/ nef C. This result indicates the emergence of intersubtype recombinants of HIV-1 for the first time in this eastern part of India.

Empowerment to participate: a case study of participation by indian sex workers in HIV prevention

AbstractThe popularity of ‘participation’ and ‘empowerment’ in international development discourse is not matched by sophisticated conceptualisation of these terms. Critics have argued that their vagueness allows ‘participation’ and ‘empowerment’ to be used indiscriminately to describe interventions which vary from tokenism to genuine devolving of power to the community. This paper suggests that conceptualising empowerment and participation simply in terms of a scale of ‘more or less’ participation or ‘more or less’ empowerment does not capture the qualitatively different forms of empowerment that are necessary for different activities. Instead, the paper conceptualises participation in terms of concrete domains of action in which people may be empowered to take part. An ethnographic case study of a participatory HIV prevention project run by sex workers in Kolkata illustrates the argument. Four domains of activity in which sex workers may participate are distinguished: (1) participating in accessing project services; (2) participating in providing project services; (3) participating in shaping project workers' activity; (4) participating in defining project goals. To be empowered to participate in each domain depends upon a different set of resources. Asking the question ‘empowerment to do what?’ of health promotion projects is proposed as a way of facilitating appropriate project design. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Phylogenetic analysis of the p24-p7 region of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 gag gene to determine subtype distribution among female sex workers in Calcutta, India.

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) subtype C, based on the envelope region, has been reported to be predominant in India. We sequenced the p24-p7 gag region from 51 HIV-1 seropositive female sex workers in Calcutta, India, for more-detailed molecular characterization. Subtype C was found to be prevalent, although no strong monophyletic cluster was observed.

Evaluation of Sexually Transmitted Diseases/Human Immunodeficiency Virus Intervention Programs for Sex Workers in Calcutta, India

The Sonagachi Project in Calcutta, India, organized sex workers to improve working conditions. To compare rates of sexually transmitted diseases between the Sonagachi Project and other areas in which only the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) interventions were implemented. A cross-sectional survey of randomly selected female sex workers. There was no difference in the prevalence of all STDs between the 2 areas; both were lower than reported in other surveys in 1992. Analysis using propensity scores also failed to demonstrate any difference. The number of preventive activities was similar in the Sonagachi and NACO-only areas but was more prevalent than in 1992. Sex workers in the Sonagachi area had better treatment-seeking behavior and attitudes. Both the Sonagachi and NACO strategies have resulted in lower STD rates, but the Sonagachi Project also increased the proportion who had an optimistic attitude and increased prevention and treatment-seeking behavior.

Epidemiology of HIV infection among brothel-based sex workers in Kolkata, India.

A cross-sectional study was carried out during January-June 2004 to assess the status of HIV infection among brothel-based sex workers in Kolkata city, India. Six hundred and twenty-two sex workers, selected from six brothels, were included in the study to assess their HIV status, and 362 sex workers, a subset of the above population, were interviewed to study their risk behaviour and practices. Blood samples were collected from each sex worker for testing HIV by an unlinked anonymous method. The prevalence of HIV infection was 9.6%, but was much higher among younger sex workers aged 20 years or less (27.7%) compared to the older age group (8.4%). This difference was statistically significant, indicating an association of younger ages with HIV infection [p = 0.006 and odds ratio (OR) = 4.18; (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2-13.8)]. HIV was not associated with duration of sex work, average number of clients entertained per day, condom use, practice of sex during menstruation, pre-coital examination of penis for visible ulcer/discharge, suffering from sexually transmitted infections, and entertaining clients outside the brothel. There was a big gap between the reported and the evaluated condom use by sex workers. The results suggest that there is a need to develop suitable HIV intervention strategies, considering the socioeconomic and cultural aspects of city sex workers, with a provision for continuous monitoring and evaluation.