As an Indian woman living in America, I have visited sex worker
programs across seven states in India. Most of these visits were
conducted through official roles within international NGOs, but a few
were personal visits to see friends who lived in red light districts
and brothels. These experiences, whether discussing the effectiveness
of condom distribution strategies in HIV prevention or sharing some
local beer and ruminating about life, profoundly shaped my own
thinking. Beyond a greater practical understanding of how it is
critical to address issues of stigma in order to reach out to
vulnerable high-risk groups, I also learned some things about what it
means for movements to celebrate sexual diversity.

For instance, I spent considerable time with members of a very powerful sex workers’ organization, Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee
(DMSC), one of the largest sex worker collectives in the world, made up
of over 65,000 sex workers across Kolkata. Since 1995, a core strategy
of DMSC’s efforts to address the HIV/ AIDs epidemic has been the
political mobilization and social empowerment of sex workers.

For myself, I valued the camaraderie of being around individuals who
were so politically, artistically and sexually diverse and open.
Together, we conducted outreach to government officials in Delhi, we
sang songs and ate ice cream, too. These moments, in fact, were my
first introduction to queer community in India. The experience of being
in a peer group made of straight women, lesbians (including butch
women), transgender women and gay men was a much-needed breath of fresh
air.

At a recent January 2009 meeting in Bangalore organized by Action
Plus, a network of civil society groups fighting to make India’s
HIV/AIDS policy more responsive, one transgendered woman reminded us of
the specific vulnerability caused by queerness. She shared her story
that while growing up, she had excelled in her studies, but was forced
to leave school given the daily violence she faced from students and
teachers. She was later kicked out by her family and sexually tortured
repeatedly by the police. To support herself, she entered sex work.

When we talk of sex workers in developed countries, many are from
the most excluded groups, including low-caste and Dalit women, widows,
those whose lands have been usurped by inequitable development and
those who are migrant workers who cannot support themselves through
seasonal work alone. Amongst the most vulnerable, are also those who
are gay, lesbian and transgendered.

Queer sex workers who are part of DMSC had explained to me how they
considered themselves lucky to have found DMSC, where their peers
accepted their differences and where they could work together to fight
police and client brutality. Within DMSC, while there were subsets of
butch lesbians serving women, gay men serving men, transgendered women
serving men and women serving men, all members conducted outreach and
held meetings together. When there was violence against any sex worker,
all members, regardless of their orientation, spoke with a single voice.

I was again reminded of the commitment that sex workers activists
have towards LGBTQI rights during an April trip to Maharashtra, a state
in Western India. There, we accompanied Meena Seshu, the visionary
behind SANGRAM, to a sex workers
meeting. SANGRAM is a phenomenal organization that empowers various
vulnerable groups including sex workers, HIV positive women, positive
youth, migrants and elderly care-takers in the fight against HIV/ AIDS.

On the hot balmy night, I listened attentively as the women
explained recent developments to Meena, including their many successes
negotiating with police and maintaining strong condom usage.
Eventually, the discussion moved to the story of two women sex workers
who had recently fallen in love. Once their relationship was discovered
by the other sex workers, they were chastised. One woman in the lesbian
relationship attempted suicide by badly slicing her arms, as she could
not cope with either the ensuing rejection of her female lover or the
stigma she faced from her own community.

Meena patiently asked the sex workers why they had rejected the
couple. The women replied that while they felt it was acceptable for
men to sleep with me, or transgendered women to sleep with men, women
loving one another was something they had never seen. They felt that it
was against the nature of women.

What ensued was a long and passionate debate, as Meena methodically
explained the values of sexual diversity, the existence of lesbians and
the right of women to love one another. “Just as you do not want people
to judge you for the sexual choices you make in your profession, why
would you judge the right of people to decide who they want to love?”
Meena asked. After much agonizing back and forth, the conversation
eventually ended with the sex workers promising to support the two
women and move forward with greater solidarity. Both of the women
seemed relieved to still have a home and place in their community,
although still shaken from the episode.

As demonstrated in these exceptional examples, many of the strongest
sex workers movements deeply embody the values of sexual diversity, in
both theory and practice. Moving beyond strict ideological positions
about the relationships of men and women that is all too-often pushed
by conservative governments, religious leaders and feminists, sex
workers movements offer some concrete suggestions for how we can all
better celebrate diversity. If we take the time to listen, that is.

 

Original Post:

http://blog.iwhc.org/2009/07/indian-sex-workers-and-a-celebration-of-sexual-diversity/