Sex Workers of Sonagachi: Pioneers of a Revolution

[Guest guest]

Sending my article on Sonagachi sex workers published

in the Economic and Political Weekly (3 Dec. 2005.)

Moni Nag

Columbia University, New York

http://www.epw.org.in/showArticles.php?root=2005 & leaf=12 & filename=9417 & filetype=\

html

EPW Commentary December 3, 2005

Sex Workers in Sonagachi

Pioneers of a Revolution

HIV/AIDS prevalence among sex workers in the Sonagachi

redlight area of Kolkata is significantly lower than

that among sex workers in any other Indian city. The

unique success of the STD/HIV Intervention Programme

(SHIP) in Sonagachi can be attributed mostly to the

sex workers' active participation in its structure,

decision-making and implementation through their

association called Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee

(DMSC, popularly known as Durbar). The valiant

struggle for empowerment against the powerful vested

in the sex trade by the poor, socially stigmatised and

extremely vulnerable Sonagachi sex workers through a

collective of their own can herald the beginning of a

silent revolution among sex workers in the Indian as

well as global arena.

Moni Nag

It is a well-established fact that sex workers, as a

group, are the most vulnerable victims of HIV/AIDS in

India. The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO)

started STD/HIV intervention programmes among sex

workers in the red-light areas of a few Indian cities

since the early 1990s. But the prevalence of HIV/AIDS

is still increasing at a rapid rate in most of those

areas as well as among sex workers throughout India.

However, the STD/HIV Intervention Programme (SHIP)

among over 4,000 sex workers living in the Sonagachi

red-light area of Kolkata has had significantly better

success in controlling the spread of HIV/AIDS among

them.

I shall describe below the process by which the

Sonagachi project became a catalyst for the formation

of an association of sex workers called the Durbar

Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC) which, in turn, has

become a powerful tool not only for the

epidemiological success of the project, but also as a

vehicle for the poor and powerless sex workers in West

Bengal to gain some control over their own lives and

their children.

Sonagachi Project

The earliest cases of infection with HIV, the virus

that causes AIDS, were first detected in India in 1986

among a few sex workers in Chennai. In 1992, the

government of India initiated the Sonagachi project

with funding and technical assistance from the World

Health Organisation.

Within a few years, the Sonagachi project achieved a

remarkable success in increasing the use of condoms

among sex workers, reducing the prevalence of sexually

transmitted diseases (STDs) and in controlling the

spread of HIV/AIDS among them. For example, less than

4 per cent of sex workers were using condoms always or

regularly in 1992 compared to over 80 per cent in

2001; the prevalence of syphilis decreased from 17 per

cent in 1992 to 1 per cent in 2001 [sHDSA 2002]. While

the current prevalence of HIV/AIDS among the sex

workers of the Kamathipura red-light area of Mumbai is

over 60 per cent and over 30 per cent among sex

workers in a few other Indian cities, it is only

around 10 per cent among sex workers in Sonagachi

[uNAIDS 2000:13; Nag 2001]. NACO considers the

Sonagachi project as the most successful HIV/AIDS

intervention project among sex workers in India [NACO

2001].

One of the key reasons for the unique epidemiological

success of the Sonagachi project is that from its

inception, some sex workers are being recruited and

trained as peer educators for educating their peers

about STD/HIV/AIDS as well as motivating them to use

condoms for safer sex. The peer educators are selected

from the local community on the basis of their

interest in the project, capacity for grasping, and

leadership quality. They are paid a nominal salary

from the project to work for it in the morning hours

and are allowed to ply their profession at other

times. The six-week training module for peer educators

consists of classroom teaching on STD/HIV/AIDS as well

as field demonstrations of how to use condoms

correctly. The peer educators are required to visit a

specific number of sex workers daily, talk with them

about STD/HIV/AIDS, inquire about their problems

regarding use of condoms, supply condoms as needed,

and encourage them to go to the clinics set up by the

project, if they feel sick.

The blue uniform jacket with a printed red-cross

symbol on it, worn by a peer educator, gives her a

sense of pride and is a source of prestige in her

community. Also, the experience of working together

with social workers and physicians involved with the

project for the welfare of sex workers gives her

self-confidence and a sense of identity other than a

sexual commodity.

In course of their work, the peer educators soon

realised that most clients were reluctant to use

condoms because they believed that it reduced the

pleasure of sex. If a sex worker turned down a client

because he refused to use condom, the client could

easily find another sex worker willing to entertain

him on his terms, but probably at a higher price. The

peer educators discussed the problem with their

colleagues and came to the decision that the sex

workers should mobilise themselves in the form of an

association and collectively demand not only their

right to require the use of condoms but also for their

basic human and constitutional rights. The result: an

initiative to form the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya

Committee (DMSC) in 1995.

Steps towards Empowerment through the DMSC

The DMSC has become a powerful tool not only for the

prevention of STD/HIV/AIDS among sex workers, but also

help them gain control over their lives, which are

usually dominated by various types of exploiters

involved in the sex trade. Presently, it has a total

membership of over 60,000 sex workers distributed over

60 centres throughout West Bengal. Initially it was an

association exclusively for female sex workers, but

subsequently it responded favourably to the requests

of male and transsexual sex workers to open its

membership to them. The multifarious activities of the

DMSC and of the other entities spawned by it often

make headlines not only in Indian mainstream media but

also in internationally distributed magazines like

Newsweek and Time. A few of these entities and their

activities are outlined below.

ative Society

Formation of the Usha Multipurpose ative Society

(UMCSL) by the DMSC in 1995, exclusively for sex

workers, was one of its most significant steps taken

towards their self-determination and empowerment. The

DMSC has had to fight a long battle with government

authorities that initially maintained that sex workers

could not have a cooperative on moral grounds

[banerjee 2001]. Moreover, there was a strong

opposition against it from the moneylenders and

brothel keepers of the project area, who derived huge

profits by lending money to sex workers with interest

rates often as high as 4 per cent per day. The UMCSL

relieved many sex workers from such terrible

exploitation which previously made some of them

victims of perpetual indebtedness and sexual slavery

throughout their life.

With a current membership of over 6,000 and total

annual turnover of nearly Rs 8 crore, the UMCSL is

presently the largest cooperative society of sex

workers in the world (personal communication). It

encourages sex workers to develop the habit of saving

regularly by keeping the minimum limit for deposit as

low as Rs 5. The total amount of money deposited in

its several deposit schemes in 2004-05 was about Rs

3.3 crore and the total amount of loan issued in the

year was about Rs 1.2 crore. The UMCSL members have

easy access to loans at interest rates lower than

those charged by banks.

In order to promote safe sex and also to add to its

resources, the UMCSL runs a social marketing of

condoms programme among sex workers. It selects groups

of sex workers in the red-light areas of West Bengal

and trains them on effective use of condoms and also

on rudimentary strategies of marketing. The group is

called “Basanti Sena” (spring brigade). Presently,

about 100 Basanti Sena sex workers sell condoms in

various districts of West Bengal at rates considerably

lower than the market rates. They also function as

agents of DMSC for networking among its members and

encouraging non-member sex workers to become members.

The UMCSL has recently started to enter all its data

in computers operated at the DMSC headquarters located

in Sonagachi.

Forum for Performing Arts

In order to carve out a positive identity for its

members, the DMSC formed in 1996 a forum called “Komal

Gandhar” (a soft note in Indian music) that would

serve as a vehicle for expressing themselves through

music, dance, and other artistic media [Jana and

Banerjee 1999: 24-25]. From its inception, Komal

Gandhar has been involved in developing skills of sex

workers and their children in these arts. The staff

members of the Sonagachi project, endowed with talents

in performing arts, contribute significantly to the

endeavour. A few reputed Kolkata professionals in

drama, including Rudraprasad Sengupta, Usha Ganguly

and Badal Sircar, have devoted their time voluntarily

for helping sex workers to stage several dramas.

Komal Gandhar music and dance-drama teams perform

regularly in conferences and seminars organised by the

DMSC and on commemorative occasions like World AIDS

Day, Women’s Day, Labour Day, etc [ 2000: 69].

Sometimes they perform to raise money for various

kinds of charity. These performances have received

favourable reviews in the media, not just as sex

workers’ performance but as quality performance. Komal

Gandhar attained an international reputation for its

performance of a dance-drama called “Peace” at the

12th World AIDS Conference held in Geneva in 1998 [Nag

2002].

Some famous actors, musicians and dancers during the

first half of the 20th century, like Benodini and

Angurbala, had their origin in the red-light areas of

Kolkata. This is a great source of inspiration for the

performers of Komal Gandhar. Also the performances and

regular rehearsals necessary for the purpose help sex

workers a great deal in neutralising the terrible

experiences they go through in their daily life. Since

2001, the activities of Komal Gandhar have been

extended to various districts of West Bengal.

Educational Programmes

The DMSC carries out three types of educational

programmes for sex workers and their children: (i)

adult literacy programme for sex workers, (ii)

educational programme for children of sex workers and

(iii) vocational training for the children of sex

workers and aged sex workers [bandyopadhyay 1998].

Sex workers are more or less aware that the local

moneylenders, vendors, brothel keepers, clients,

policemen, pimps and shop-keepers take unfair

advantage of their illiteracy by cheating them

financially and exploiting them in various other ways.

So they responded favourably when in 1993 the

Sonagachi project staff members started an adult

literacy programme for them by setting up literacy

centres in the red-light areas of Kolkata. By the end

of 2004, 20 such centres were opened in Kolkata and a

few others in West Bengal districts.

Field investigations have shown that, contrary to

common perception, almost all contemporary sex workers

living in Kolkata and elsewhere in West Bengal aspire

to have their children – both daughters and sons –

educated and integrated into mainstream society.

However, for various reasons, including the extremely

unfavourable environment in which these children grow

up and widespread social stigma against sex workers as

well as against their children, a high proportion of

the children have no school education and many others

are school dropouts at an early age.

The DMSC started the following three types of

educational assistance centres for these children: (i)

centres for the school-going children studying in

lower classes, (ii) centres for the school-dropout

children and (iii) centres for school-going children

studying in higher classes. By the end of 2004, 20

educational assistance centres covering about 500 male

and 300 female children of sex workers were running in

Kolkata and other places in West Bengal. In these

centres, classes of about two hours duration are held

in the evenings when the sex workers themselves look

for or entertain their clients. In order to help these

children integrate themselves in mainstream society,

they are encouraged to participate in quiz,

sit-and-draw, photography and sports competitions.

In order to develop capacity of children of sex

workers and aged sex workers to earn an income,

however small, the DMSC has opened a vocational

training centre in its Sonagachi headquarter building

under the banner of “Srishti” (creation)

HIV/AIDS Counselling Services

The first telephone hotline service in Kolkata, along

with ancillary services regarding prevention of

HIV/AIDS and for promoting care for the people living

with HIV/AIDS, was opened by the DMSC in 1998 at the

Sonagachi field office of the project. During daytime,

it is staffed by sex workers trained under the

guidance of a physician. A few of sex workers’

children with some school education have been trained

and engaged to respond properly to telephone queries

in the evenings when their mothers are at work. The

wide publicity given to the hotline in the mass media

resulted in such a rapid increase in the number of

telephone inquiries that another telephone hotline

service was opened in 1999 in the Chetla red-light

area of Kolkata. These hotline services help many

residents of Kolkata and its suburbs to make

multitudinous queries anonymously about HIV/AIDS and

other STDs.

The DMSC opened in 2000 an HIV/AIDS counselling

centre, called City Counselling Centre, in a central

location of Kolkata. It has another telephone hotline

and its staff includes a physician, a social worker

and a senior peer educator. The centre helps sex

workers and others in getting tested for HIV/AIDS and

provides pre-test and post-test counselling through

telephone communication or one-to-one meetings. In

2002, the centre took the initiative to form the

Kolkata Network of HIV-Positive People with the

following objectives: (i) to extend physical, mental,

and social assistance to HIV-positive persons, (ii) to

help them in procuring anti-retroviral medication and

in getting admission to hospitals, when needed and

(iii) to mobilse them for protecting their legitimate

rights.

Three National Conferences

In addition to holding many seminars, workshops,

rallies and state-level conferences since its

inception, the DMSC organised three national

conferences of sex workers during 1997-2001. These

three-day conferences were widely publicised all over

India and had an impact on the public psyche regarding

issues related to prostitution and gave a boost to sex

workers’ morale throughout India. The fact that the

Left-Front government of West Bengal allowed all the

three national conferences to be held at the

government-owned Yuva-Bharati Sports Stadium attests

to its general support of sex workers’ rights.

The first national conference, held in 1997, was

attended by over 1,000 sex workers from various states

of India and by over 3,000 sex workers from Kolkata

and its suburbs. Some sex worker representatives came

from Bangladesh and Nepal as well as from the US, the

UK and Australia. This was the first time in the

history of sex work that so many sex workers, most of

whom were poor and illiterate, rallied together in a

conference to speak about their rights and inscribe

their self-defined identity on the public sphere. The

delegates from various Indian states and foreign

countries shared their experiences of exploitation,

deprivation and social stigma against sex workers.

Representatives from the West Bengal government,

government of India, WHO, UNAIDS, some trade unions

and NGOs as well as some distinguished writers and

other intellectuals participated in various panel

sessions of the conference.

The rallying slogan of the first conference was: “Sex

work is legitimate work: we want workers’ rights”. A

high point of the conference was when Indrajit Gupta,

then home minister of the government of India and

chairman of the Communist Party of India declared in

his speech his sympathy with sex workers’ demand for

their right to form trade unions which, he said, was a

reasonable enough demand for serious consideration by

the Indian government.

The second national conference, held in 1998, as a

follow-up of the first, was attended by 2,000 sex

workers from various Indian states and some delegates

of sex workers’ associations in Bangladesh and Nepal.

The major themes of the conference included: (i)

recognition of sex work as a profession, (ii)

formation of self-regulatory boards at various levels

for controlling the practice of prostitution (the

boards would comprise representatives from sex

workers’ associations, government departments, NGOs as

well as nominated professionals) and (iii)

decriminalisation of sex trade.

The third national conference, held in 2001, was

called “Millennium Milan Mela”, because it was

intended to have the character of a “mela” (fair) that

would inscribe sex workers’ identity on the public

arena mainly through music, dance, drama, etc. Its

inaugural session was presided over by the reputed

writer, Sunil Gangopadhyay, the then honorary sheriff

of Kolkata. The general mood of the mela was festive

with visitors enjoying the multi-ethnic music, dance

and drama performances in the evenings, while

attending the panel discussions on topics related to

prostitution during the daytime.

Self-Regulatory Boards

According to the DMSC, since the existing legislation

regarding prostitution and the relevant

law-enforcement agencies have failed miserably to stop

or even minimise the forcible entry of women including

minors into sex trade, it is necessary to form

self-regulatory boards at local levels for the

purpose. The major function of the boards would be to

see that the rules and regulation of the sex trade

were implemented properly at the local levels. At the

same time, the DMSC proposes that a centrally

constituted board be formed which would ultimately

function on the lines of professional bodies like the

Indian Medical Association or the Indian Bar

Association [Jana and Banerjee 1999: 20, Namaskar

1999].

The DMSC took the initiative to set up in 1999 three

local self-regulatory boards in Kolkata. The local

members in a few red-light areas of the city set up a

system by which they could monitor the arrival of new

women and counsel them before they started

entertaining clients. Best possible attempts were made

to ascertain whether new arrivals were below 18 and

whether they came voluntarily or against their will.

By the end of 2004, over 250 of them were identified

as below 18 years of age. It was found that they were

mostly victims of seriously adverse circumstances and

ended up in red-light areas through the widespread

network of traffickers and brothel keepers. The

majority of them, however, refused to return to their

parental homes for fear of being tortured by

parents/relatives or because of other reasons. So the

self-regulatory boards made arrangements with the West

Bengal state social welfare department so that they

could be sent to the boarding schools sponsored by the

department.

Publications

The Sonagachi Project and the DMSC have to their

credit a good amount of published material in the form

of newsletters, occasional reports and papers,

brochures, booklets, training modules and leaflets.

All these publications – some of them priced and some

not – are distributed and exhibited at conferences,

seminars and workshops organised by the DMSC or those

in which their members participate, as well as at the

annual Calcutta book fair. These are also available at

the DMSC headquarters at Sonagachi. Contents of many

publications, authored by the project staff and DMSC

members, relate to activities and achievements of the

project and DMSC. Many sex workers have written their

own life story in authentic simple language.

The most effective and regular publication by the DMSC

in both Bengali and English is the newsletter titled

‘Namaskar’. One or two issues of it published every

year since 1996, contain a variety of articles and

reports – some related to the activities of DMSC/SHIP

and others relevant to prostitution or aspects of sex

workers’ life. Four published books reporting the

DMSC/SHIP activities and achievements at the end of

three, five, seven and 12 years are well written and

informative. The reports published on the occasions of

conferences contain interesting articles of varied

nature authored by project staff and DMSC members as

well as by outsiders.

Emergence of a Silent Revolution

It is ironic that the fatal disease, AIDS, which poses

the greatest threat sex workers have ever faced, is

also responsible for an unanticipated opportunity for

sex workers covered by the Sonagachi project to

initiate a process of their empowerment. Thirteen

years of the project since 1992 have also demonstrated

that the success of any STD/HIV/AIDS intervention

project among a poor, powerless and stigmatised group

like sex workers depends heavily on how far its

members actively participate in its activities and

what roles they play in the project’s structure,

decision-making and implementation [Nag 2002].

That a sex workers’ association could formally be

responsible for carrying out the Sonagachi project was

at one time a fond and distant dream of a few leading

members of the project and DMSC. But, today, it is no

longer a dream. A significant step towards its

realisation was the transfer of the project’s

administration in April 1999 from the government of

India’s All-India Institute of Hygiene and Public

Health to the Usha Multi-Purpose ative Society

which operates under the supervision and guidance of a

high-powered body representing relevant government

agencies, DMSC and a few NGOs. Another simultaneous

step of important symbolic value was the appointment

of a member of the local community of sex workers who

had been working as a project staff since its

beginning, as the project director. By the end of

2004, majority of the 400 or so paid workers of the

project were sex workers. Most of them were peer

educators but a few held supervisory positions – a

significant development in terms of the empowerment of

sex workers and also of the sustainability of the

project.

As expected, the process of shifting the project’s

approach towards empowering sex workers, widely

perceived as “fallen women”, has encountered from time

to time various obstacles both from the sex trade and,

more seriously, from mainstream society. Despite all

these obstacles, the DMSC has already accomplished

some significant gains in favour of sex workers’

rights to self-determination defined by it in a

conference of sex workers in West Bengal [DMSC 1996].

When I met Carol Leigh, a leading American sex worker,

in San Francisco in 1999, she told me, “Sonagachi

represents a model for all sex workers in the world”.

She attended the first national conference of sex

workers held in Kolkata in1997.

Attempts to rehabilitate sex workers by government and

non-government agencies during the past decades have

failed miserably mainly because of the widespread

social stigma against them and lack of adequate

resources necessary for the purpose. So the most

fruitful way to deal with problems related to

prostitution is to help sex workers empower themselves

so that they can lead their lives with human dignity

and to ensure that none of their children or anyone

else has to practice prostitution against her will.

The leaders of the DMSC are aware that sex workers

have a long way to go in their fight against the

socially dominant ideology of sexual morality. But the

struggle for empowerment by the sex workers of

Sonagachi can be seen as heralding a silent revolution

in Indian as well as the global social arena.

Email: mn1925@...

References

Bandyopadhyay, Sandip (1998): They Speak Their Word: A

Note on the Education Programme for the Calcutta Sex

Workers, All India Institute of Hygiene and Public

Health, Kolkata.

Banerjee, Bhaskar (2001): ‘Usha Multi-Purpose

ative Society: The Flag-bearer of Sex Workers’

ative Movement’ in Ananya Banerjee et al (eds),

Millenium Milan Mela, Durbar Mahila Samanwaya

Committee, Kolkata.

DMSC (Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee) (1996): ‘Sex

Workers’ Rights to Self-determination’ in Proceedings

of West Bengal State Conference, April 29-30, DMSC,

Kolkata.

Jana, Swarajit and Bhaskar Banerjee (eds), (1999):

Learning to Change: Seven Years’ Stint of Sonagachi,

Society for Human Development and Social Action,

Kolkata.

, Carol (2000): Female Sex Workers: HIV

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Geneva.

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1999, http://www.naco/trend.htm, June 14.

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Anthropological Perspectives’, Economic and Political

Weekly, XXXVI (42), October 20-26, pp 4025-30.

– (2002): ‘Empowering Female Sex Workers for AIDS

Prevention and Far Beyond: Sonagachi Shows the Way’,

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473-501.

Namaskar (1999): ‘Self-regulatory Board’, Namaskar,

4(1), pp 13-15.

SHDSA (Society for Human Development and Social

Action) (2002): Report of the Fourth Follow-up Survey,

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UNAIDS (2000): Report on the Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic,

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