Overview: Living Conditions of Sex-Workers in India

[The author, Suruchi Kumari is a first-year student of BA(H) Geography from Miranda House, Delhi University. She worked as an intern with the Gender Studies research group in the Niti Manthan Summer School 2019.]

Prostitution is an activity where people are involved in sexual acts in exchange for money. It is basically selling and trading of sexual activities. Sometimes, prostitution is called as world’s oldest profession as prostitution is a practice which can be found in the history of every culture.

In India, prostitution can be traced back to the time of Ramayana in the form courtesans, the term “courtesan” has been found in the epic literature. They were being served to the nobility especially at the time of the Mughal Empire. Devdasi system (girls were in charge of taking care of temples after being married and devoted to the deity) claimed to provide high social status until those temples destroyed by Islamic invaders resulted in eventual degradation of their status. Similarly, at another side of the world such as Greece, prostitutes especially female workers were some considered influential.They were independent and paid taxes. In ancient Rome, prostitution was legal but yet shameful. However, the condition of prostitutes varied in past and not always considered demeaning and shameful. [1]

At the current level, prostitution in some places is legal at the same time it is illegal at other places. In India, a number of activities such as prostitution in a hotel, child prostitution, soliciting in public places, pimping, kerb-crawling are illegal. Curiosity in relation to the living condition of prostitutes arises when the matter of prostitution enters as a subject.

From the observation, it has been noted the prostitution as a profession in India is much more depressing for the majority of people involved in sex work. Sex workers are mostly migrants and have migrated from poor states. A Majority of prostitutes hail from rural areas while others belong to urban areas. Many have migrated accordingly in order to earn money while others are being forced into this profession. Those who are being forced are mostly underage. They brought up to another place through agents who have tricked them into these works and compel them to continue their work by forcing and pressurising them. Some of them transfer to new places in order to pay their debts. Improvement of their livelihood and standard of living is another reason for their involvement in these works. Many natal families force their females to get involved in sexual acts in order to fulfil their dowry needs. This can be stated that involvement in sex work is mostly pressurised one and sometimes masquerading as their “will” which is the result of the desperation of fulfilling several of their socio-economic requirements. There have been cases where these sex workers are brutally beaten when they refuse to do work. These professions are driven by violence, abuse and cruelty. There are few cases only where sex workers seem to enjoy their occupation and sexual activities act as a source of satisfaction to them. In a developing country like India, the majority of sex workers hail from poor families while the rest of them are reported to belong to middle-income families. Majority of them has no schooling while the rest of them have some sort of primary schooling and secondary schooling. According to one survey conducted in India regarding sex workers, 50% of sex workers had no schooling while 7% of sex workers had primary schooling, 13.4% had secondary schooling, 6.5% and 11.3% had schooling up to 10th and 12th respectively.[2]

Many of these female workers have done other labour works before entering into this profession tend to emerge as a core occupation later in their lives. Some females are involved in multiple other labour works along with this profession.

The shelters in those brothels where these sex workers reside are very poorly built and they are dilapidated buildings which reflect their low-quality living condition. They don’t have access to basic facilities and they live in a filthy state. The rooms are covered in darkness along with boarded windows and obnoxious smell of dirt. Covering the walls of those shelters with led lights provides a hospital look to its whole structure, another characteristic of such shelters within those brothels.[3] Many of them have children and many of them have kept them at separate places in order to keep them abstain from those works or they are kept confined to backrooms under the same shelter where their mothers are at work. These children are sufferers of exploitation and alienation by society. The societal acceptance of such children are almost equal to zero, they are exposed to a vulnerability where they are being taken for granted. Most of the times, in spite of having children, these sex workers don’t have marital relationships and they live as single parents at the same times some of them are being forced by their own husbands and others are sold/cheated/forced by their acquaintances, lovers and friends.

Many of these sex workers do not possess their own bank accounts as they don’t have Id or proof of incomes. Some of them remain involved in paying their debts to their owners and pimps. They are the victims of sex slavery. The girls who are trafficked to other places are restricted to visit their families. There are many instances where they even have forgotten the last time of their meetings with their families.

In some cases, it has been noted many of the families of sex workers are not aware of their working and they do not disclose about their profession to their families, they leave for work by claiming to do some other works such as working on construction sites or some other works where labour activities are carried out. Many of their families have neglected after the realisation of their sexual works.

Proper protection from police most of times acts as a myth as police officials itself take them for granted and treat them disrespectfully. Many of these sex workers are ill-treated by them. They suffer from verbal abuse and sexual harassments by those police officials.

The conclusion underlining the fact that the living condition of sex workers are miserable. The term “sex” has been a taboo for some cultures and prostitution is forbidden in many religions, any work related to such taboo is remarked as a shameful act. Similarly, prostitution is considered a sin. The people involved in those sexual works are considered “sluts”. There is no doubt; they have been the victims of suppression, violence, abuse and rapes. This profession is done at an underground level in many places and coming out these dark places are almost impossible. Even, if they have managed to get rid of those conditions and get a normal life. Unfortunately, they are unable to adjust in that normal life with so many hidden difficulties in the form of lack of societal acceptance. Society rarely sees those figures as humans, even their children are the victims of discrimination and violence. There is always a fear which tails them to the end of their lives. Society fails to recognise them and their relatives as their part. They fail to accommodate them. They receive uncountable backlashes and tantrums every day. The fact is that even when they are able to afford a place to live; it usually coincides with lack of basic amenities. People refuse to provide them with food, water and the electricity-a result of the persistent stigma of prostitution rooted in society. They are being forced to live secretly. These are the major and core reasons for being unable to reach out of boundaries. Therefore, leading a normal life for them seems beyond the bounds of possibilities. . Their lives are seen invaluable that causes murders and killings of prostitutes. Many of their murders are unreported due to lack of tracking. The state of prostitutes has been in the condition of continuous deterioration with a very little scope of improvements. A proper Identity of them in society is another myth because in reality, they don’t have their own identity or it can be stated as ‘a spoiled identity’-a identity which is not less than an invisible yet unbearable recognition.

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[1] Virgil, Hayley. (2015). Beyond the Bedroom: The Surprising History Of Prostitution Around The World. Retrieved from https://allthatsinteresting.com/history-of-prostitution

[2] Sahni,Rohini and Shankar,Kalyan V.(April, 2011).The first pan-India Survey of Sex Workers. The Center for Advocacy on Stigma and Marginalisation.Retrieved from https://www.sangram.org/resources/Pan_India_Survey_of_Sex_workers.pdf

[3] Brown,Will.(2017,July 18).Indian Authority won’t help Million of trafficked women, Vice News. Retrieved from https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/9kdjy3/indian-authorities-wont-help-millions-of-trafficked-women