Taking up mantle to rehabilitate sex workers

With little effort from the government to rehabilitate sex workers in the State, several NGOs have been coming forward to provide them with an alternative livelihood.

When Meenakshi* chose to be a sex worker to make ends meet, after being deserted by her husband, she barely had any idea about the turn of events in her life. Shunned by her parents, siblings and driven out of her rented house, her life took a tumultuous turn. Today, she is counselling young women who get into it through an initiative by former sex workers like her. “I, along with other former sex workers, talk to these young girls and women and tell them that they shouldn’t throw away their lives. I wish I was counselled when I decided to take up this job.”

Indira Female Peer Educators Collective, which has been supported by the Indian Community Welfare Organisation has been working with children of sex workers, ensuring that they are either educated or trained in skills.

AJ Hariharan of Indian Community Welfare Organisation (ICWO), that has been working with the community for many years now, observed that past efforts for rehabilitation have failed due to many reasons. “We even had a project to give them a space for themselves, especially for retired sex workers. However, that fell through and the women returned to their own dwellings.” Other projects like the Tamil Nadu AIDS Initiative by Voluntary Health Services (VHS) has been working towards roping in sex workers to embark on other professions.

A recent initiative called Taaras, a coalition of women in sex work and their organisations, is working towards ensuring legal aid, alternative employment and preventing trafficking in the State. Savithri* (38) has been trying to stop the trafficking of girls into flesh trade. It has not been an easy task for her as it means face offs and at times even the risk of being attacked by the agents. However, from stopping the entry of minor girls into the trade to ensure no woman is forced into it, Savithri has been a part of Taaras’ initiative by Swasti a health resource centre in Vellore. “It is not just about anti-trafficking efforts, but also about ensuring that the women engaged in sex work have their legal rights, including property rights, apart from ensuring that they don’t depend on sex work for their livelihood,” she said.

K Jeyaganesh, State lead, said that there have been instances when these women are chased away and are denied property rights because of their proffesion. “The police also foist false cases against them. This is when we intervene and help them seek redressal through the District Legal Service Authority,” he added. Taaras has also brought about entrepreneurship opportunities for the women so that they can find a way out to depend on sex work. He said, “They have their tailoring units or have started own provision stores.”

The coalition makes it clear that they are not trying to promote the trade. Kallana Gowda, chief impact officer-associate director, said, “Through these measures, we work against it in a productive way.”

The initiative that began in late 2016 is driven by the efforts of community-based organisations that work closely with the population. Some of the challenges they work around are the fact that unlike a few years ago, the population is invisible. “In such a setting, they are more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. There are no platforms to help them to come together or raise their voice. So, people are not considering them,” Gowda said.

The number of sex workers in the state is estimated at 90,000 with 6,000 and odd in Chennai alone. In the past, the government had taken efforts to rescue sex workers and rehabilitate them, as a high per cent had been willing to get rehabilitated. In fact, an Apex Court panel had recommended rehabilitation of sex workers who wish to leave the trade. Hariharan opined that the State Government is unwilling to rehabilitate them as soliciting clients for sex work is a crime. “One government will have schemes and the next government, after a change in regime, would drop it saying that the crime prevailed only during the previous government’s term.”