HIV/AIDS and Subaltern Autonomous Rationality: A Call to Recenter Health Communication in Marginalized Sex Worker Spaces

Abstract

Sex workers in India constitute a marginalized population. They are considered at high risk of HIV/AIDS and are stigmatized for “selling sex” in a culture that generally censures sex outside marriage. HIV/AIDS initiatives targeted at this population have mostly adhered to promoting condom use, increasing awareness, and encouraging blood tests to screen for HIV/AIDS. Missing from this discourse are voices of sex workers and their autonomous consciousness. Based on an analysis of interview data from an eight-week field project, this paper seeks to centralize sex worker subaltern rationality in a call to reframe expert-led HIV/AIDS communication efforts that cater to sex worker communities.

Keywords:

• HIV/AIDS
• Sex Work
• Subaltern
• Health Communication

Acknowledgements

Thanks to my research collaborators in Kalighat, to the New Light staff, and to Dr. Mohan J. Dutta.

Notes

1. Names of research participants have been changed to maintain anonymity; unless otherwise stated, research participants mentioned in this paper are sex workers in Kalighat.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ambar Basu

Ambar Basu is at the Department of Communication, University of South Florida in Tampa