Re: TI needs situation specific assesment ! Kerala, focus to be on Process !!

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum members,

Re: /message/9467

I would like to add few things beyond the technical aspects which Dr.

Harikumar wrote.

When TIs were initiated in Kerala, FSWs were invisible to the mainstream, due to

the absence of demarcated brothels or " Red Street " and also because of the

highly valued sexual moral norms of a literate society of Kerala.

The " abject " position of sex workers was making it most difficult for the

program implementers to reach them out. The traditional value system, education

system brought by modernity and the progressive movements together reinforced

the sexual morality.

In such cultural milieu, creating an enabling environment for sex worker

intervention (Same was the case with MSMs and PLHAs) without a radical cultural

transformation, was impossible.

The transformation happened in the perception and attitude of Kerala society

towards sexuality matters, was catalyzed by the sex workers movementinitiated

from 1998. Of course, the space was created by AIDS prevention program.

The cultural exchange happened between articulate sex workers and

the intelligentsia in public sphere resulted in the proliferation of

documentaries, cinemas, articles, policy changes and institutions in support of

sex workers.

There was a commendable change in media representation of

sex workers by 2003.

There were platforms where administrators, political leaders, law implementing

agencies and cultural activists interacted with

sex workers. Sex workers themselves produced documentaries, organized

programs, published autobiography, and participated in other social

movements.

Of course these activities do not come in the domain of HIV

intervention or conventional public health. But this created an enhancing

environment for the " exist confidence. "

And it will be of interest for ethnographers and other scholars to know how HIV

interventions helped in transforming social perception and created space for

articulation of marginalized and stigmatized identities. And also it could be a

theme for widening the scope of public health in the frame of intersectionality

or interdiscursivity.

Regards

Dr. Jayasree. A.K

e-mail: <akjayasree@...>