Embracing the rights of people in prostitution and sex workers, to address HIV and AIDS effectively

Abstract

As the world's HIV crisis grows, strategies continue to focus on containing the pandemic within high-risk populations. Is there a more effective way of engaging and approaching marginalised populations to help combat the global pandemic than the strategies pursued to date? If so, what would such an approach look like? This article will analyse the work of Sampada Gramin Mahila Sanstha (SANGRAM) and Veshya Anyay Mukti Parishad (VAMP), based in India. Through grassroots mobilisation and advocacy, SANGRAM and VAMP demonstrate how people in prostitution and sex workers can create effective strategies for HIV prevention, care, and treatment from a rights-based approach.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Point of View for their support.

Notes

1. DMSC is a union of 65,000 sex workers whose work has been well-documented. Their HIV and AIDS prevention project was recently selected as the role model for a $200m programme in six Indian states, funded by the Gates Foundation.

2. Stemming from a Hindu religious practice of ‘marrying’ a young girl to a deity, devadasis once occupied a high social status in Indian society. In addition to taking care of the temple and performing the Indian classical dance Bharatanatyam, devadasis engaged in sex outside of traditional concepts of marriage. The devadasi tradition was suppressed under British colonial reform resulting in the fall of devadasi status in society. Modern day devadasis are sometimes associated with prostitution and sex work. While the practice has been banned it is still prevalent today (V. Chakrapani, A. R. Kavi, L. Ramki Ramakrishnan, R. Gupta, C. Rappoport, and S. Subhasree Raghavan ‘HIV Prevention among Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) in India: Review of Current Scenario and Recommendations’(http://indianglbthealth.info/Home/Sexual%20Behavior.html). Kothis are a heterogeneous group and therefore it is difficult to provide a simple definition. Traditionally, kothis are defined as ‘males who show obvious feminine mannerisms and who involve mainly, if not only, in receptive anal/receptive oral intercourse with men’. But kothis also include cross-dressers, ‘drag queens’, gay/bisexual men (who might never cross-dress), male-to-female transgendered persons, pre-operative transsexuals, non-operative transsexuals, and male-to-female transsexuals in transition. Not all kothis are sex workers, but SANGRAM and VAMP work with kothis who are also PPS.

3. Veshya translates as ‘women in prostitution’. Muqabla translates as ‘combating’. Parishad translates as ‘a group of people’. Anyay translates as ‘injustice’. Mukti translates as ‘liberation’.

4. A zilla parishad is a local government body at the district level in India. It looks after the administration of the rural area of the district and its office is located at the district headquarters.

5. Life skills education provides young people with coping mechanisms and tools to develop respectful relationships and healthy living.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Supriya Pillai

Supriya Pillai is Programme Officer for Asia, at the International Women's Health Coalition

Meena Seshu

Meena Seshu has worked with VAMP, a collective of People in Prostitution and Sex Work in Sangli, India, and with SANGRAM, an organisation that works to build the capacity of sex workers to assert and defend their rights

Meena Shivdas

Meena Shivdas is Gender Adviser at the Commonwealth Secretariat, London. She has a DPhil in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, UK