15 May 2020, NIICE Commentary 4659
Dr. Rajeesh C Sarngadharan & Naseer Ahmad Bhat
The enduring repercussions of the COVID-19 have been affecting each and every sector and community across the globe. Now, when one speaks about physical distancing and social solidarity, the only community which struggles badly for survival is that of sex workers. For sex workers, physical distancing means no jobs. In this light, who will take care of them? Can anyone expect declaration of any sort of social solidarity by the state, civil and political society for the sex workers, as we have seen in the case of the homeless, street children, daily wage labourers, farmers, and other such communities? The answer is an absolute No. The sex workers constitute a subordinate social group. Social exclusion and low social capital has already made them a vulnerable community. In most of the countries, they are stigmatised, socially fenced, economically exploited, politically disabled and culturally enslaved. During the COVID-19 pandemic, situation has become beyond the pale for sex workers.
The situation is more grievous in the case of sex workers in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. Sex Workers Network (SWN) Bangladesh reported that there are more than 150,000 sex workers who will be slipping into utter poverty in the near future. Most of them had relied on hotels, brothels and floating sources of shelter for livelihood. The complete shutdown of such facilities without adequate resettlement measures, have made them more vulnerable. The bonded, semi-bonded and independent sex workers in Bangladesh are becoming the worst hit sections following the enforced shutdown in purview of maintaining physical and social distancing. According to SWN, around 400 children and over 1,000 enlisted sex workers live in Daulatdia with their mothers, which is one of the largest brothel towns in the world. The Kandapara brothel hosts around 500 sex workers and they are engaged in the trade through brothels, hotels, homes, other residences or what they call mini-brothels and street-based sex work. Among them, about 5,000 women work in 11 registered brothels, while 70 percent work as floating members. But the lockdown dragged all of them into limitless hunger and poverty.
Now, the only way left for them to earn a livelihood is to find an alternative platform. One avenue available to those who have the equipment and space to do so, is to take their sex work online. The only way to earn some money would be by this means, which is otherwise very exploited and a hyper-saturated medium. They can resort to phone sex with some regular customers, but earning has become meagre. The daily income through phone sex dripped down from Tk800 to Tk200 via bKash. The governmental assistance in the form of civic amenities, particularly food through the Public Distribution System, has not reached them properly. The floating nature of sex workers labels them as citizens without proper identity proofs, which denies them significant privileges. The distribution of food materials, including 30kg of rice in several parts of the country, is a privilege that has not reached a huge chunk of the sex workers.
In purview of improving the existing socio-economic situation of women who are involved in sex work, the Ministry of Social Welfare in Bangladesh has initiated a project in Capacity-Building, Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Livelihood for the Socially Disadvantaged Women and their Children. The core focus was to rehabilitate the sex workers to better shelter homes, and providing them with substantial livelihood income. It was also expected that some of them could go back to their families, while others could enter the marital life. But statistics shows that all efforts in this regard have been in vain.
Unfortunately, the situation of street and brothel-based sex workers is a stark reminder of the fact that there has been no ‘real change’ for the better since the sex workers’ rights movement started almost three decades ago. Under contradictory laws and regulations, the profession is criminalised and sex workers are subjected to violence. It clearly shows that despite many years in existence and few achievements, the sex workers’ movements have hit a wall. Consequences of prostitution are healthy neither for the people involved, nor for the society as a whole. Women who are involved in this work are the worst victims, as this becomes a sort of social stigma for them due to the prevalance of different social, cultural and religious values prevalent within respective countries.
Availing healthcare facilities seems rather impossible during COVID-19 days and it increases bitter effects on the welfare of sex workers. A sex worker has a bigger probability than others of contracting HIV and sexually transmitted infections. NGO data suggests that sex workers, mainly the young ones, frequently participate in unsafe sex in Bangladesh. Many of them retire by thirty, which is usually the reproductive age and are hence, highly susceptible to accidental pregnancy. Frequent unprotected sex with different partners often puts women sex workers at a high risk for many health problems. Data shows that the prevalence of HIV among female sex workers in Bangladesh is about 1 percent, while the incidence of Syphilis is at 3 percent.
Global changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic have had a profound impact on migration, public policy, healthcare and economies of all countries, as well as on the livelihoods of their citizens. The Pandemic shall have its adverse consequences for sex tourism as well, wherein customers are delivered to the site of consumption. The halting of global migration has impacted the prospects for trade and diversity in incomes for sex workers. As it is not safe in this pandemic to move from one place to another, a sex work is reserved in its scope and reach. Not carrying on business as usual also deters a sex worker’s mental and physiological balance, which is why, sex industry and workers in Bangladesh and elsewhere need better counselling from the state, NGO out-reach programmes, and through society at large.
Bangladesh here can take a cue from Indonesia, wherein Video Teaching meditation and other breathing techniques are being taught at a large scale through the efforts of the OPSI which is Global Network of Sex Workers of Indonesia. Apart from survival, sex workers won’t be mentally satisfied till they get something equivalent to what they have left behind, or are compelled to stay away from. Sex workers in Bangladesh are organising and coordinating themselves in ‘collectives’ in order to quell the impact of COVID-19 and Bangladesh Sex Workers Network has mobilised financial help and succour for more than 2100 sex workers across the country. In order to get the Government’s aid, a citizen needs ‘entitlement’ and that is what was missing in many cases, when the dole came in for sex workers. In these extraordinary and distressing times, the need of the hour is to generate temporary entitlements for sex workers who work both informally as well as professionally so that their life gets going. The dole from the government will definitely not replace their jobs as a sex worker, but will be enough for them to pass through this difficult phase.
The structural violence and stigma faced by sex workers in normal times itself, is humongous, and this multiplies in the crises that have been created by a health disaster. The need of the hour is to absorb the capacities and energies of sex workers within societal structures, so as to give them enough opportunity to sustain themselves.
