TY - JOUR
T1 - Examining hopes, aspirations, and future plans of women in non-brothel-based sex work in Kolkata, India
AU - Sinha, Sunny
AU - Prasad, Indulata
N1 - Funding Information: The study was supported by the Fahs-Beck Research & Experimentation Award & the Walker Institute of International Relations & Area Studies, University of South Carolina. The views expressed herein are those of the authors alone and do not reflect the policy or position of the funding agencies. Data for this paper derive from the first author’s doctoral dissertation research project, completed at University of South Carolina. We thank Emily Apgar for conducting the literature search for this paper and the anonymous reviewers of CHS for their excellent feedback. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Sex work can offer a quick way of making money and is the only profession in which women may earn more in fewer hours when compared to other available jobs. However, most studies with sex workers in India are based on socially biased assumptions about sex work; that is, women are either coerced or trafficked into sex work. Limited attention has been paid to the voices of non-brothel-based sex workers in India. Drawing data from a larger ethnographic study conducted between December 2009 and July 2010, this paper analyses how women sex workers operating from non-brothel-based sex work settings in Kolkata, India, foresee their future. Unlike the popular ‘victim imagery’ of women sex workers in the Global South, this study found that women are not passive recipients of the trade; instead, they employ agency - sometimes transgressing the normative boundaries and at times reinscribing these boundaries to secure a future for themselves and their families. Therefore, to promote HIV preventive behaviour programmes reaching out to sex workers, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) must proactively inquire about women’s future plans and assist them in materialising their future goals, which are mostly concerned with their children’s future, a life free of stigma/shame, and financial security in old age.
AB - Sex work can offer a quick way of making money and is the only profession in which women may earn more in fewer hours when compared to other available jobs. However, most studies with sex workers in India are based on socially biased assumptions about sex work; that is, women are either coerced or trafficked into sex work. Limited attention has been paid to the voices of non-brothel-based sex workers in India. Drawing data from a larger ethnographic study conducted between December 2009 and July 2010, this paper analyses how women sex workers operating from non-brothel-based sex work settings in Kolkata, India, foresee their future. Unlike the popular ‘victim imagery’ of women sex workers in the Global South, this study found that women are not passive recipients of the trade; instead, they employ agency - sometimes transgressing the normative boundaries and at times reinscribing these boundaries to secure a future for themselves and their families. Therefore, to promote HIV preventive behaviour programmes reaching out to sex workers, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) must proactively inquire about women’s future plans and assist them in materialising their future goals, which are mostly concerned with their children’s future, a life free of stigma/shame, and financial security in old age.
KW - HIV risk
KW - India
KW - Perceived future
KW - prostitution
KW - sex workers
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U2 - 10.1080/13691058.2020.1740793
DO - 10.1080/13691058.2020.1740793
M3 - Article
C2 - 32452748
SN - 1369-1058
VL - 23
SP - 913
EP - 926
JO - Culture, Health and Sexuality
JF - Culture, Health and Sexuality
IS - 7
ER -