This world is full of glitter and gloom. A sex worker’s life might be one where this binary gets converged overwhelmingly. On International Sex Workers’ Day, OrissaPOST brings you various facets of their lives.
Lisa (identity withheld) came to Bhubaneswar with a friend in search of a job and got into sex trade after failing to find work in the city. She says her friend was trafficked into the trade.
Beneath layers of glamour and flamboyance; a sex worker’s life is full of hardship. If the trauma of selling the soul was not enough, Lisa tells the tale of how she was harassed at every step of her life.
“I was in a relationship with someone who knew what I do for a living. He often used to get drunk, beat me up and extort money. Worse, he used to force me to keep physical relations with his friends against my will. Help, however, was not forthcoming with my identity as a sex worker”.
Approaching police is often an exercise in futility as their behaviour remains hostile. “They often force us to have physical relations with them,” she added.
Bhubaneswar Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Prateek Singh, however, had a different version to share. Singh suggested that law being equal for everybody irrespective of their profession, police are careful while dealing with sex workers. Besides, he assured that action will be taken if reports are filed in connection with harassment.
Meanwhile, standing at crossroads of life where leaving the trade means leaving livelihood, Lisa awaits external support to somehow scrape through.
Odisha Patita Udhara Samiti (OPUS), an NGO, has implemented many Targeted Intervention programmes for upliftment of sex workers.
OPUS Secretary Abharani Choudhury says, “We provide free condoms, regular counselling and organise health camps to sensitise the workers regarding sexually transmitted diseases. Besides, We ensure HIV-infected women get anti-retroviral therapy to suppress viral replication.”
Attention to healthcare, however, doesn’t solve all the miseries Lisa and others like her face.
Choudhury suggests that ITPA protective homes (short-stay homes where sex workers are kept following their rescue) should be functional as per Supreme Court guidelines.
“The workers who want to quit the trade should get proper rehabilitation from the government along with access to education for their children,” she adds.
Responding to a question concerning the attitude of police towards sex workers and their pimps, DCP Singh says, “We conduct regular training to sensitise our officers regarding their responsibility towards vulnerable groups and communicate each direction coming from higher offices to our personnel.”
Singh went on to add that they primarily act upon reports that they receive about immoral trafficking for purpose of sex trade. The city cops rescued five trafficked women and arrested six persons involved in their trafficking in 2022-23.
‘Sex work also a profession’
The story of Lisa is not just of her own. UNAIDS estimates there were 6,57,829 prostitutes in the country as of 2016. Most of them face the same dilemma as Lisa. To address these issues, Supreme Court constituted a committee in 2011 to formulate guidelines on sex worker rehabilitation and prevent trafficking. The committee submitted its report in 2016. The Centre time and again informed the court to bring legislation based on the recommendations. However, it was all Henry, no Kissinger.
The Apex Court in May 2022 exercised powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to issue directions regarding the welfare of sex workers. The court also recognised voluntary sex work as a profession. However, the wait for legislation still continues.
