Neither Victims Nor Voiceless: Sex Workers Speaking for Themselves

Since becoming a part of the U.S. sex worker rights movement five years ago, talking about contentious issues concerning bodies, labor, money, and rights has very much become my calling. In the past year alone, I’ve been quoted on CNN about the value of virginity, talked about South Carolina’s Governor Mark Sanford on WNYC’s The Takeaway, and admonished the Boston Herald for its slurs toward sex workers. Suffice to say, I give my opinion freely and often loudly.

I thought I knew a lot about sex work, rights, and organizing when, in September, I set off for two weeks in India with my colleague Khushbu Srivastava, Program Officer for Asia at the International Women’s Health Coalition. But as much as I am accustomed to being an "expert," I quickly realized that I knew next to nothing about the nuances of Indian culture and the dynamics of the local struggle for sexual rights and reproductive health. While there are many things that I learned during the two weeks I spent time with our partners at CREA, The YP Foundation, Commonhealth, and SANGRAM, perhaps the biggest lesson I learned--as a leader, as an advocate, and as privileged white lady from the United States who was way out of my element--was to shut up and listen.

I spent almost a week in Sangli, a rural district that’s six to nine hours (depending on who’s driving!) southeast of Mumbai. Maharashtra state, where Sangli is located, has progressive laws that afford many rights to its citizens, particularly in respect to accessing healthcare. However, populations that are already marginalized in their communities and in local institutions—like sex workers, HIV-positive women, and people who are not literate—do not know their rights or how to navigate the legal structures and institutions that facilitate access to these rights and services.

In Sangli, I spent time with the staff and organizers of SANGRAM, whichempowers individuals with the knowledge and tools they need to understand and claim their rights. SANGRAM was founded in 1992 to address the growing HIV infection rate in Sangli district, and they soon realized the value of mobilizing sex workers to become agents of change in fostering a sustainable and effective response to the epidemic. Today, one of the organization’s largest projects is a collective of 5,000 sex workers that manages a peer HIV prevention education and condom distribution program in Sangli. This collective also advocates to ensure equal access to health services and end violence and discrimination against sex workers. While many organizations train and bring in people from outside the community to help and support people in need (the social work model), SANGRAM operates under the principle that the only way to empower people is to provide them with the tools they need to claim their rights and facilitate change.

It was inspiring to meet the HIV-positive rural women, illiterate sex workers, and community health advocates who are working together to facilitate change in their communities. Many told me how for years, doctors in the local primary health centers refused to provide health services to sex workers or avoided touching them by giving them inoculations with extra long needles. With SANGRAM’s assistance, sex workers have been able to form alliances with some of the doctors and achieve a higher standard of care and respect. Their efforts have resulted in health system improvements that benefit the entire community: advocates have been successful in demanding that the primary health centers be functional, with trained staff, adequate supplies, and medicine.

In Sangli, I worked with SANGRAM to document their work and successes. On International Human Rights Day, we released a five minute video about sex worker organizing, the first collaborative media project of the International Women’s Health Coalition & SANGRAM.

Since we posted the short documentary about SANGRAM and the mobilization of sex workers in Sangli, it’s been interesting to read the posted comments and reactions. One of the most frequent responses is a well-meaning but slightly problematic one. To paraphrase: "It’s so great to see these women getting the protection and help they need!" Obviously, the respondents want what’s best for women, but this response doesn’t instill much trust in the agency of sex workers to realize what’s best for them on their own. Furthermore, it casts sex workers as damaged goods: victims in need of saving, delicate flowers in need of protection.