Since the Covid-19 pandemic has swept across the country, the livelihoods of lakhs of Indian female sex workers have come to a complete standstill with most of them being caught up in vicious loops of joblessness, poverty, hunger, debt and the fear of contracting the virus. The red light areas that used to earlier buzz with business and activities have now become completely deserted.
In India, according to the available data, there are as many as three million female sex workers who engage in providing sexual services on a daily basis as a means of earning a livelihood. Sex work for these women, who often come from highly marginalised sections of the society, is the sole way of feeding their families entirely dependent on them.
But the uninvited arrival of pandemic and the subsequent imposition of lockdowns and other stringent restrictions by the government has totally altered the landscape and had caused unparalleled negative repercussions on the lives of sex workers. Women in sex work, in particular, have historically been at the receiving end of multiple layers of systemic injustice, discrimination, shame and stigma with the pandemic only feeding onto further exacerbating and intensifying these existing societal cleavages, depriving these women of income, health and social justice.
One of the most important reasons behind the historic and pervasive oppression of women performing sex work comes from the absolute denial of social sanction for the nature of sexual services that sex workers provide.
While the pandemic had caused devastating damages to a myriad of people across the social stratum, it has particularly worsened the lives of sex workers because of the very nature of their work. The physical distancing measures and other subsequent regulations adopted by the government that controlled the mobility of people had adversely affected the possibility of gaining a steady income for those involved in sex work as their occupation itself is primarily based on active meetings, physical contact and intimacy between people.
The Indian government had even ordered certain states to shut down their busy red light areas, making it even harder for sex workers to continue their job. These looming factors of uncertainty and longing have taken a massive toll on them, jeopardising both their physical and mental well-being.
Although sex work is not entirely criminalised by the existing law in India, certain aspects of sex work, including running brothels, soliciting and living off the money acquired from sex work, are all criminalised to varying degrees. Sex workers are also not identified as labourers under the Indian labour law, devoiding them of many basic rights.
Therefore, they inevitably fall under the grey spectrum of society and are heavily demonised. Sex workers are routinely labelled as immoral, illicit and nasty. Furthermore, they are constantly subjected to repressive policing measures such as impromptu raids, fines and arrests, thereby interfering with and interrupting their day-to-day earnings.
Because of these reasons and more, the people involved in sex work are frequently forced to practice their occupation in the dark, hiding from the outside world and without being able to own up to their real identities. As a result of this, a majority of women encounter severe difficulties in acquiring important documents such as Aadhaar card, Voter’s Id, Ration card, caste documents etc., all of which are again vital for accessing the benefits of various government schemes and programmes.
Many of the sex workers are doubly and triply disadvantaged women who are either single mothers, orphans or illegally trafficked people; they are in no position to produce residence proofs or ancestral documents needed for the usual process of applying for these certificates. The government overlooks these structural difficulties battled by women engaged in sex work and stay reluctant in taking steps towards either providing them with temporary documents or making other necessary amends that would make it easier for them to rightfully enjoy the benefits of relief initiatives and schemes run by the state such as PDS and insurance benefits, especially under the prevailing miscellaneous circumstances.
In the wake of the pandemic, with little to almost no relief measures from the side of the government, hundreds and thousands of sex workers in different regions of India, including those from the major red light areas like Sonagachi in Kolkata and Kamathipura in Mumbai, are experiencing a striking crunch of customers. They are struggling to arrange for a day’s food, their family members are left hungry for days at a stretch, they are unable to pay for their child’s school, and they don’t have enough money left for buying medicines, paying bills or even settling rent.
Sex workers usually live out of their daily income and do not have any reliable savings to fall back to. Moreover, they are also unable to access loans from public financial institutions and banks owing to a lack of sufficient documents, collateral or surety. It is in such a situation, where sex workers have exhausted all other possibly safe options, that they turn to moneylenders who not only take unfair advantage of their situation but also exploit them in the most inhumane ways.
They offer money at exorbitantly high rates of interest that could practically never be repaid, pushing these women into a vicious loop of never-ending debts and suffering. There have been multiple instances during the pandemic where sex workers were forcefully vacated out of their houses due to delay or non-payment of rents. Many of them end up stranded in streets or in the middle of towns and cities with absolutely no safe place to go.
Online Sex Services During The Pandemic
With physical contact being made absolutely minimal during the lockdown period, some of the sex workers resorted to online and virtual modes of providing sexual services. They used social media including Whatsapp, Telegram and others to interact with their customers. But even the virtual mode came with its own set of challenges.
Not all female sex workers could successfully make this shift as it came with certain levels of financial and technical pre-requisites. Women who were older and who were not technically skilled, along with those women who could not monetarily afford to buy smartphones, were all denied the opportunity of virtual consultation.
Moreover, many women who initially resorted to such online services discontinued after a brief period of time out of the sheer fear and risk of their videos being recorded and getting spread on the internet. In addition, there are also instances of customers disappearing or refusing to pay the entire fees after the virtual service, leaving the sex workers at a huge loss. The virtual provision of sexual services hence had its own limitations and could never really become an effective substitute for in-person services.
Many studies conducted around the globe shows that sex workers are one of the most vulnerable population who are at the continuous threat of being subjected to alarmingly high levels of physical, emotional, verbal and economic violence of all forms in a variety of social settings including their workplace, in public spaces, medical institutions and even in their own homes.
The pandemic had only worsened the condition, with the women in sex work increasingly being victims of domestic violence at the hands of their family members. They have also been facing higher rates of physical, verbal and emotional violence from their customers and intimate partners who not only violate their bodily autonomy and integrity but also pose the risk of ruining their mental health.
Out of the plethora of challenges faced by the sex workers in the wake of Covid-19, the most important one was their inability to meet even the basic necessities of life such as food and medicine. With the instability in their incomes and the technical inability in accessing government rations provided for those hardly hit by the pandemic, sex workers had no other option but to rely on certain non-governmental organizations and philanthropists for their daily meals.
Even then, there were limitations in terms of quantity and quality that was provided. These limitations particularly had a grave impact on those sex workers who are either pregnant or are suffering from chronic diseases such as HIV-AIDS, diabetes or other comorbidities. The increased prevalence of such comorbidities in sex workers actually made them more susceptible to Covid-19 and in fact, quadrupled the chances of the virus progressing to more severe illnesses.
Post the pandemic hit India, sex workers who were HIV positive and in need of special healthcare attention including urgent ART medication for relief, and others who needed immediate gynaecological and obstetric consultations, or those who wanted emergency medical assistance with respect to STI, contraception, abortion or other ailments, were all often refused the timely provision of proper health care services by both government and private hospitals citing trivial excuses.
Even those hospitals who admitted them did so at really high charges that these women later struggled to pay with their meagre income. These factors severely pushed the female sex workers to seek services outside the formal healthcare system, which were mostly unsafe, unscientific, exploitative and largely ineffective.
Intersectionally disadvantaged women, including transgender sex workers and women who are trafficked, homeless or physically ill, are all more likely to face greater challenges brought about by the pandemic and the associated disruptions caused in their income and occupation. For these women, accessing shelter, housing, health services or claiming any sort of financial relief are all humongous tasks that are most likely to remain unfulfilled. Their mental health problems have only deteriorated due to the continuous stress and anxiety over these unmet basic necessities of life, alongside the lingering concerns of contracting the virus, especially in the absence of any concrete social protection.
Non-Profit Organisations To The Rescue Of Sex Workers
More than the government, it is actually the non-governmental and non-profit organisations working in the area of sex work that had come forward during the hour of need and actively participated in circulating food, medicines and other essentials for those women in need, along with helping them fill forms in accessing the benefits of finance reliefs provided by the government. They have also taken initiative in running campaigns that work towards creating awareness and encouraging women about the importance of taking covid vaccines as these women are at a much higher risk of contracting the virus.
They have repeatedly advocated for the absolute inclusion of sex workers in the pandemic response, including the periodic provision of adequate health care and safety for them. The organisations have further demanded immediate and targeted modes of interventions in order to effectively address all the concerns of the sex worker community.
In addition to the work done by the NGOs and other individual philanthropists, it is equally, if not more imperative, for the state to step up and work in unison with these organisations for developing effective relief measures that would help alleviate the burden on the affected population. Community-led initiatives and regular healthcare services with efficient redressal mechanisms are also a great way of facilitating services to a wider range of populations.
While it is definitely important to contain the spread of the virus, the state has to be more mindful in its activities and do it in ways that won’t damage the livelihoods of structurally vulnerable communities such as the sex workers who are already struggling to make both ends meet. In order to achieve healthier communities, it is inevitable to prioritise the needs of sex workers and provide them with state-sanctioned housings and safe support systems. It is also equally important to ensure their pro-active involvement as members in the formulation and execution of government-led schemes, healthcare services and information dissemination.
The pervasive invisibilisation and stigmatisation of sex workers in India had often led to instances where they are treated as less of citizens. A huge reason for this is also the comparative inexistence of strong social and legal policies that rigorously work towards the systematic elimination of discrimination performed against sex workers in our society.
Therefore, it is only fair to say that there is an impending need for strict affirmative action from the side of the state. Extending optimal support and ensuring social justice to the sex workers during the time of this devastating global health hazard should be at the epicentre of such interventions.