The Extent and Nature of Fluidity in Typologies of Female Sex Work in Southern India: Implications for HIV Prevention Programs

Figures & data

TABLE 1 Typology of Sex Work Based on Place of Soliciting Clients, Place of Sex and Both Places in Four Southern States of India

	Typology* based on place of sex
Typology* based on place of solicitation	Brothel	Street	Home	Lodge	Dhaba	Highway	Bar	% FSWs ever used the place ^† for solicitation	Average number of places used for solicitation	% FSWs used the place for solicitation exclusively	Total
Brothel-based	22.6	2.7	7.3	8.7	2.3	0.5	0.3	24.4	1.85 ± 1.0	11.5
Street-based	8.8	30.2	39.7	44.1	8.0	9.5	1.6	64.6	2.09 ± 1.1	23.1
Home-based	5.2	9.9	26.7	15.5	3.4	2.3	0.7	28.6	2.86 ± 1.1	3.7
Lodge-based	5.0	10.9	15.6	23.3	3.4	2.1	1.1	26.4	2.91 ± 1.2	1.2
Dhaba-based	2.0	7.1	4.5	5.4	6.5	5.6	0.4	12.0	3.68 ± 1.3	0.5
Highway-based	0.4	4.8	4.1	4.0	1.9	3.8	0.2	6.8	3.22 ± 1.3	0.1
Bar-based	1.4	3.7	3.7	3.9	1.2	0.6	1.5	5.3	2.68 ± 1.2	0.3
Cell phone-based	3.3	5.3	14.2	14.0	1.3	1.5	0.3	22.1	2.49 ± 1.0	1.5
% FSWs ever used the place ^† for sex	26.7	31.8	54.4	57.6	10.1	10.3	2.2				193.1
Average number of places used for sex (mean ±SD)	1.99 ± 1.2	2.71 ± 1.0	2.35 ± 1.0	2.33 ± 1.0	3.36 ± 1.2	2.66 ± 1.4	3.30 ± 1.2				1.93 ± 1.0
% FSWs used the place for sex exclusively	13.6	4.4	18.7	16.8	0.6	2.7	0.2				57.0
Total								190.2	1.90 ± 1.0	41.9	5301

TABLE 2 FSWs Reporting a Particular Combination of Place for Solicitation or for Sex as a Percentage of Those Reporting the Use of at Least Two Places for Solicitation or for Sex

Place of solicitation
Typology Based on Place of Solicitation*	Brothel	Street	Home	Lodge	Dhaba	Highway	Bar	Cell Phone	No. of FSWs ^†
Brothel	100.0	49.1	37.7	32.5	12.4	2.8	3.9	22.7	684
Street	15.3	100.0	38.1	41.5	25.6	14.7	11.1	24.4	2198
Home	19.6	63.5	100.0	44.5	9.7	13.0	7.1	36.1	1319
Lodge	16.7	68.5	44.1	100.0	13.1	13.0	10.1	30.4	1331
Dhaba	13.9	91.7	20.9	28.4	100.0	23.2	12.6	8.3	613
Highway	5.4	92.6	49.1	49.4	40.6	100.0	6.6	30.9	350
Bar	10.1	91.0	35.2	50.6	28.8	8.6	100.0	9.4	267
Cell phone	14.2	49.1	43.5	37.0	4.7	9.9	2.3	100.0	1094
Place of Sex
Typology Based on Place of Sex*	Brothel	Street	Home	Lodge	Dhaba	Highway	Bar		No. of FSWs ^†
Brothel	100.0	25.1	54.7	81.2	20.8	5.8	3.6	NA	693
Street	12.0	100.0	47.5	71.2	22.1	20.3	4.8		1451
Home	23.6	42.9	100.0	81.4	14.6	10.7	3.6		1607
Lodge	26.1	47.8	60.5	100.0	15.7	9.3	3.5		2161
Dhaba	28.6	63.5	46.6	67.3	100.0	28.8	3.8		504
Highway	9.9	73.0	42.7	49.9	36.0	100.0	2.2		403
Bar	23.6	65.1	54.7	70.8	17.9	8.5	100.0		106

TABLE 3 Percentage of FSWs Reporting Ever Use or Exclusive Use of a Particular Place for Solicitation or for Sex by State

	% FSWs ever used the place for solicitation				% FSWs who exclusively used the place for solicitation
Typology based on place of solicitation*	Andhra Pradesh (N = 1514)	Karnataka (N = 1378)	Maharashtra (N = 1166)	Tamil Nadu (N = 1243)	Andhra Pradesh (N = 311)	Karnataka (N = 522)	Maharashtra (N = 687)	Tamil Nadu (N = 680)
Brothel-based	21.6	18.1	56.2	5.1	1.8	13.3	32.5	1.8
Street-based	68.9	45.5	53.3	91.3	13.9	12.7	20.7	48.4
Home-based	51.4	23.1	5.9	28.2	2.8	7.5	1.5	2.7
Lodge-based	36.8	24.5	16.8	24.8	0.1	3.2	0.8	1.0
Dhaba-based	20.7	14.6	7.1	3.3	0.1	0.2	1.7	0.0
Highway-based	8.8	4.7	1.5	11.4	0.0	0.4	0.0	0.2
Bar-based	9.4	1.3	4.4	5.6	0.0	0.0	1.2	0.0
Cell phone–based	23.4	39.6	9.2	13.4	1.8	2.8	0.6	0.6
% Who used only one for solicitation					20.5	40.1	59.0	54.7
Average number of places used for solicitation	2.41 ± 1.1	1.71 ± 0.7	1.54 ± 0.8	1.83 ± 1.2
	% FSWs ever used the place for sex				% FSWs exclusively used the place for sex
Typology based on place of sex*	Andhra Pradesh	Karnataka	Maharashtra	Tamil Nadu	Andhra Pradesh	Karnataka	Maharashtra	Tamil Nadu
Brothel-based	23.1	18.7	62.8	6.1	1.8	17.7	36.4	2.1
Street-based	56.0	17.1	9.3	39.6	5.6	4.5	1.8	5.2
Home-based	82.0	23.5	25.6	71.2	17.6	23.5	7.4	25.4
Lodge-based	61.5	43.2	54.6	71.7	2.3	27.6	16.6	22.8
Dhaba-based	21.9	4.5	8.1	3.8	0.1	0.5	1.8	0.0
Highway-based	8.9	15.4	2.9	13.3	0.0	9.4	0.0	1.0
Bar-based	3.1	0.1	3.5	2.0	0.0	0.0	0.7	0.1
% Who used only one place for sex					27.5	83.2	64.7	56.6
Average number of places used for sex	2.56 ± 1.1	1.32 ± 0.6	1.67 ± 0.9	2.07 ± 0.8

TABLE 4 Typology of Sex Work Based on Places of Soliciting Clients and Having Sex for Four Southern States in India

Places for	Andhra Pradesh (N = 1514)	Karnataka (N = 1378)	Maharashtra (N = 1166)	Tamil Nadu (N = 1243)
Soliciting clients
	Street (69%)	Street (46%)	Brothel (56%)	Street (91%)
	Home (51%)	Cell phone (40%)	Street (53%)	Home (28%)
	Lodge (37%)	Lodge (25%)
Having sex
	Home (82%)	Lodge (43%)	Brothel (63%)	Lodge (72%)
	Lodge (62%)	Home (24%)	Lodge (55%)	Home (71%)
	Street (56%)			Street (40%)
Both
	Street to home (54%)	Street to lodge (24%)	Brothel to brothel (55%)	Street to lodge (69%)
	Street to street (52%)	Lodge to lodge (23%)	Street to lodge (42%)	Street to home (66%)
	Home to home (47%)	Phone to lodge (23%)		Street to street (39%)
	Street to lodge (44%)	Home to home (22%)

TABLE 5 Characteristics Associated with Use of Multiple Places for Solicitation of Clients among FSWs

	Multiple places for solicitation of clients
Characteristic	%	N	Crude OR (95% CI)	AOR (95% CI)
Age group
19–24	53.0	753	Referent	Referent
25–29	61.2	1,944	1.4 (1.1–1.7)	1.4 (1.2–1.7)
30–34	59.5	1,310	1.3 (1.1–1.6)	1.4 (1.1–1.7)
35–39	58.1	829	1.2 (1.0–1.5)	1.3 (1.0–1.7)
40+	47.3	465	0.8 (0.6–1.0)	1.0 (0.8–1.4)
Education
Illiterate	58.7	1,817	Referent	Referent
Primary school	60.5	933	1.1 (0.9–1.3)	1.2 (1.0–1.4)
Secondary school	54.6	2,162	0.8 (0.7–0.9)	1.2 (0.9–1.2)
High school and above	66.9	387	1.4 (1.1–1.8)	1.8 (1.4–2.3)
Duration of sex work
0–2 years	59.8	1,046	Referent	Referent
3–5 years	56.8	2,359	0.9 (0.8–1.0)	0.9 (0.8–1.1)
6–10 years	57.9	1,493	0.9 (0.8–1.1)	1.1 (0.9–1.3)
11 + years	59.6	403	1.0 (0.8–1.3)	1.3 (0.9–1.7)
Program exposure
Yes	55.9	1,707	Referent	Referent
No	58.9	3,594	1.1 (1.0–1.3)	1.4 (1.2–1.7)
State
Maharashtra	41.1	1,166	Referent	Referent
Andhra Pradesh	79.5	1,514	5.5 (4.7–6.6)	5.5 (4.6–6.5)
Karnataka	59.9	1,378	2.1 (1.8–2.5)	2.6 (2.1–3.2)
Tamil Nadu	45.3	1,243	1.2 (1.0–1.4)	1.1 (0.9–1.4)

TABLE 6 Characteristics Associated with Inconsistent Condom Use among FSWs Overall and among Those Who Use Only One Place for Solicitation

	Overall (N = 5301)			Among those who use only one place for solicitation (N = 2230)
	Inconsistent condom use			Inconsistent condom use
Characteristics	%	Crude OR (95% CI)	AOR (95% CI)	%	Crude OR (95% CI)	AOR (95% CI)
Age group
19–24	52.1	Referent	Referent	53.1	Referent	Referent
25–29	54.4	1.1 (0.9–1.3)	0.9 (0.8–1.2)	46.7	0.8 (0.6–1.0)	0.8 (0.6–1.2)
30–34	42.9	0.7 (0.6–0.8)	1.1 (0.9–1.2)	34.3	0.5 (0.4–0.6)	0.9 (0.6–1.3)
35–39	26.2	0.3 (0.2–0.4)	0.9 (0.7–1.2)	25.1	0.3 (0.2–0.4)	1.2 (0.8–1.8)
40+	19.6	0.2 (0.1–0.3)	0.9 (0.7–1.3)	16.3	0.2 (0.1 -0.3)	0.9 (0.6–1.6)
Education
Illiterate	45.1	Referent	Referent	42.4	Referent	Referent
Primary school	58.5	1.7 (1.4–2.0)	1.3 (1.1–1.6)	48.2	1.3 (1.0–1.6)	0.9 (0.7–1.3)
Secondary school	37.6	0.7 (0.6–0.8)	0.8 (0.7–1.0)	31.8	0.6 (0.5–0.7)	0.7 (0.5–0.9)
High school and above	35.9	0.7 (0.5–0.9)	0.7 (0.5–0.9)	31.3	0.6 (0.4–0.9)	0.5 (0.3–0.9)
Duration of sex work
0–2 years	64.3	Referent	Referent	55.7	Referent	Referent
3–5 years	47.1	0.5 (0.4–0.6)	0.7 (0.6–0.9)	42.0	0.6 (0.5–0.7)	0.7 (0.5–0.9)
6–10 years	29.3	0.2 (0.1–0.3)	0.6 (0.5–0.7)	24.4	0.3 (0.2–0.3)	0.6 (0.4–0.8)
11+ years	24.3	0.2 (0.1–0.2)	0.5 (0.3 − 0.6)	20.9	0.2 (0.1–0.3)	0.5 (0.3–0.8)
Program exposure
Yes	33.8	Referent	Referent	26.8	Referent	Referent
No	64.6	3.6 (3.2–4.0)	1.4 (1.2–1.6)	60.2	4.1 (3.4–4.9)	1.0 (0.7–1.3)
State
Maharashtra	30.2	Referent	Referent	26.9	Referent	Referent
Andhra Pradesh	38.5	1.4 (1.2–1.7)	1.3 (1.1–1.6)	37.9	1.6 (1.2–2.2)	1.5 (1.1–2.0)
Karnataka	89.9	20.6 (16.6–25.5)	24.8 (19.2–32.1)	83.9	14.1 (10.6–18.7)	14.3 (9.8–20.9)
Tamil Nadu	11.7	0.3 (0.2–0.4)	0.3 (0.2–0.4)	12.2	0.4 (0.3–0.5)	0.4 (0.3–0.6)
Use of multiple places for solicitation of clients
No	38.1	Referent	Referent	N/A	N/A	N/A
Yes	47.9	1.5 (1.3–1.7)	1.4 (1.2–1.7)
Typology of sex work
Brothel				40.8	Referent	Referent
Street				30.6	0.6 (0.5–0.8)	1.3 (1.0–1.7)
Home				55.8	1.8(1.3–2.5)	1.2 (0.8–1.8)
Lodge				64.2	2.6 (1.5–4.4)	1.5 (0.7–3.0)
Cell phone				58.8	2.1 (1.3–3.3)	1.4 (0.8–2.6)
Others				51.1	1.5 (0.8–2.7)	2.4 (1.2–4.7)