Sex workers need better skill training, opportunities, not just rehab: Experts

Yatmika (name changed) was recently rescued from prostitution by Anti-Vice Squad of Central Crime Branch and sent to the government rehabilitation home. She spent days in confinement to be trained in tailoring and bag-making before she was released and she is back to her work. This time, she is a little more careful of not getting ‘caught’ again. Yatmika is not alone, but most of the rescued sex workers end up in the trade again after the rehabilitation not just because there are no other alternative lucrative employment opportunities for their skillset, but also because most of them are into the trade on their own. “We are not trafficked and forced into prostitution by somebody else, at least not anymore as authorities assume,” she says.

Kumari (name changed), another sex worker from Chennai who has taken a backseat due to her advanced age, says women like her do not cheat on anybody else or rob them to tag them anti-social. “We are doing it for the welfare of our family and as a service to people who come looking for us,” she says. Vanitha (name changed) from Madurai has been into prostitution for over a decade. “I entered this profession when I was 19 and now I am 29. I have no regrets for what I do because I do it willingly,” she says. “What we women like us do is a service to the society. I satisfy a person and get paid for it and it is like any other service,” she says. While she initially had inhibitions about her work, she learnt the trade over the years and now she is more confident to say that what she does for a living is not wrong. “It is not just me who benefits out of this work, but my entire family,” says Vanitha, whose son is in school. She and her husband separated a few years ago.

While the government cites various reasons for the failure of their rehabilitation initiatives, one factor they fail to acknowledge is that most of women get into prostitution on their own and not by force as it is mostly considered.

R Anandkumar, manager of South India Aids Action Programme (SIAAP), an NGO that works with commercial sex workers, says, “Government homes for rescued women are run as per laws and policies in place which want them to leave sex work, learn another craft and make a living out of it. Because the immoral trafficking prevention act considers women in flesh trade are trafficked victims who have been forced into this profession. But it is a flawed perspective as 90 per cent of them are voluntary sex workers.”

He added, “If somebody is forced into prostitution, they should be rescued and rehabilitated. But the reason that most of such projects are a failure is because majority of the sex workers are in the profession voluntarily. The government, however, wants them to make a living by making candles and phenyl, earn 10 times lesser than what they used to. They do not have the skills or education to earn more. With their skills, they have to take up meagre jobs for a far lesser salary where they also run the risk of sexual exploitation.”

Anandkumar says while some women are willing to come out of flesh trade if they get an equally lucrative job, others do not agree for it as they feel that sex trade is not wrong. “Older women, who have been in the trade for years and can no longer earn from it, need rehabilitation,” he says.

A J Hariharan, founder secretary of Indian Community Welfare Organisation (ICWO), another NGO that works with sex workers, says that there is no successful model for rehabilitation anywhere in the country or even world as none of it addresses their concern. “It is possible only if they want to reform on their own as forcing does not work. So, we work on making alternative source of income for them. If they fall sick and cannot continue in the profession, there should be other opportunities available for them,” says Hariharan, who has taught driving to sex workers and obtained licences for them.

ICWO regularly conducts awareness programmes to sexual workers to undergo periodical medical examinations, importance of using condoms and give skill-based training to get them alternative employment opportunities. Hariharan says the model of forcing women into flesh trade does not work in city like Chennai as there is a no dedicated area as it is there in other states like Mumbai, Pune and Kolkata. “It is in camouflaged state in the city,” he says.

While the era of internet and smartphones has made it easier for women with exposure to get strike a deal with their clients over the phone itself, in tier II and tier III cities, many sex workers still depend on the old ways such soliciting standing on the streets or getting client through middlemen. “It makes their lives vulnerable to abuses, attacks and exploitation. Many sexual workers complain that police personnel themselves exploit them and take away the jewels to let them go without producing them to magistrates. If they don’t budge, they book the women in other sections on robbery charges and remand them,” says Anandkumar.

“What is referred to as brothel in which a third person is receiving money for two people’s consensual sex is not okay and police action against them is right. But intervening into two persons’ business is not acceptable,” he adds. Both Anandkumar and Hariharan agree that panels formed for reformation sex workers should have their representations and their voices should be heard. “A few intellectuals get together every time and decide what sex workers want. That is why all the models fail. Listening to them, recognising their work and regularising the trade is the only way forward. That will give sex workers self-esteem, confidence and will reduce the abuses and exploitation they had to undergo,” says Hariharan. “At the national level, sex workers form a network to bring about a police change to recognise their work. We work with poor sex workers to help them in capacity building, advocacy and creating an agency for them. I feel that when flesh trade is regularised, the incidents like rape and child abuse will come down drastically,” says Anandkumar.

R Lalvena, the Commissioner of Social Defence Department said that they were going by the provisions of law and treat rescued women as victims in need of reformation. “We intend to reunite them with family members and those who do not have a caretaker are sent to NGOs for training. We have reunited so many women of other states with their families,” said the official.

He added that they cannot follow-up on them as it would expose them to the society. “Most of the women rescued in the city are from other states and it is not possible to personally check whether they were involved in prostitution or not,” said an official. “Legalising flesh trade is a policy decision, but I think it it would only make victimisation more prevalent,” he added.