Rights Investigation
Problems of working for rehabilitation of sex workers
Syed Taposh
In our country NGOs working for the benefit of sex workers and their children employ a large number of young men and women to work with the sex workers inside and/or outside brothel areas. These young men and women are hardworking people and are dealing with those from the high risk group with whom not many people in our country want to work. They face problems in work which don't match with what others who work for others in our NGO community face. In our country people don't have a positive attitude towards sex workers or those who work for them. Reflections of their negative attitude have been observed in their behaviour with those who work for the sex workers i.e. the NGO workers. To work for this vulnerable group, these NGO workers need to sacrifice a lot to stick to their courage. But many of us don't know much about their sufferings or sacrifice. Let's have a look at the problems faced by the NGO workers working for the sex workers in our country.
Workers belonging to active NGOs visit brothel areas on a regular basis for their work. Not only community people, sometimes members from their own family oppose their working with sex workers. The women workers face more problems than men. The problem is acute if the woman worker is unmarried. They face problems in getting married. There are examples of some women not able to marry in time or ever only because of their working for sex workers. Most of the brothels in our country are situated in the middle of the business places where workers are easily seen by other members of their family or people of the society while working in or out of the brothel areas. Because of their proximity with sex workers they are not provided with house rent. Sometimes, people pass abusive remarks about their work.
In our country the issue of sex workers still considered sensitive and people in general don't want to be open in talking about it. Not many people want to be employed in work with the sex workers though unemployment is a big problem in our country. Because of the shortage of people NGOs have problems to find good and committed field level staff to work for the sex workers. Sometimes the brothel areas are situated in isolated places like Doulatdia or Baniashanta. In such case the NGOs find it more difficult to find staff to work and stay there. The situation is worse for those NGOs which have rehabilitation centers in which full time women staff needed to look after children or girls. In Jessore, an NGO working with a project of DSS for rehabilitation of sex workers faced problems several times as its female staff left job after marriage as their families didn't allow them to work for this community. One of its staff named Ms. Hamida married late only because of her job. In Doulatdia, the NGO implementing the project for rehabilitation of sex workers and their children didn't find any suitable female staff for long time to look after children under the project.
According power structures of brothels in our country, there are different types of leaders who are locally called 'Sardarni'. Activities in brothel areas are controlled or dominated by these leaders. Some of them are the 'Gharwali' / 'Bariwali' who hire room(s) from building owners/landlords with position for a certain period in exchange of a considerable amount of money. Some women hire room(s) from the 'Gharwali'/'Bariwali' on a fixed daily rent basis and are called as the 'Bharatia' (means 'tenant'). Normally the 'Gharwali'/'Bariwali' are aged women who have lost their ability to fulfil the physical desire of the client. The 'Bharatia' (tenant) includes both aged and young women and their involvement in sex work depends on their age and capacity. However, both of these two types of leaders employ young girls or women in sex work in exchange of food and clothing. The young women/girls are locally called 'Chhemri'/’Chhukri' and the earnings from their hard work go to the above mentioned two types of leaders i.e. 'Gharwali'/'Bariwali' and the 'Bharatia'. These women involve pimps, hoodlums and sometimes police in their conduct of business. The NGO workers deal with these leaders of sex workers.
However, it is regardless to say that though all those people who work for development of sex workers play significant roles but most of them are working for uplifting the status of sex workers through providing different types of services on health, education, environment etc. and only a few dare to play the direct role in the process of rehabilitation and talk about alternative livelihoods which deny interest of many people who are directly benefited from this business. The workers who work for rehabilitation of sex workers face serious threats from different groups engaged in sex work business in brothel areas such as leaders of sex workers, pimps and hoodlums etc.
The NGO workers target young girls for rehabilitation which is not supported by the leaders as they are highly benefited from the share of profits in the sex business. Rehabilitation efforts in most cases are welcomed by the general inmates while the leaders always oppose because this make the young girls able to differentiate between the good and the bad. So they create problems for workers. They don't allow young girls to go outside brothel areas to take part in activities arranged by NGO workers. Some of the NGOs in recent times have established centres for health check-up, education, counselling etc. inside brothel areas so that the girls don't need to go out of brothels. But their efforts are about to fail due to obstacles from the leaders. The leaders don't allow young sex workers to attend the centres even inside brothel areas. Sometimes they don't allow young girls to talk to the development workers. The workers are sometimes not allowed to enter the brothel areas. The workers need to face others also in the process of rehabilitation. It is learnt that a big amount of money is transacted everyday to and from the hands of these leaders and they become so rich that they care nobody. These leaders have a good link with local influentials, sometimes even with people in the local administration.
For rehabilitation of sex workers, coordination efforts are needed. But sometimes co-ordination efforts prove to be futile as many people in different sectors don't want to work for them. In Jessore, under the initiative of a UNDP supported project of DSS to provide coordinated health service for sex workers and their children, a doctor was assigned by the office of the Civil Surgeon as per request of the partner NGO of the project to work in a satellite health centre inside brothel. After the first day of his work at brothel, the doctor refused to work saying that his family members wouldn't allow him work inside brothel areas. NGOs for rehabilitation of sex workers establish rehabilitation centre/shelter homes outside brothel areas for them and their children. These NGOs always find it very difficult to hire houses for establishment of such rehabilitation centres. The NGOs in city areas face more problems than others.
The NGOs working for floating sex workers are in big problems. Large numbers of children of sex workers studying at different government and non-government schools around the country under projects for rehabilitation and the staff who are involved in the process of admission of children face similar problems. It sometimes takes a long time to manage teachers and guardians to accommodate these children and the first hit are the workers.
Finally it is to say that not only the sex workers but also those who work for them are the victims of attitudinal problem of our people. Their work should not be considered as simple, neither should they be classified as similar to other service providers because they are dealing with specific group of people with whom not many people of our society want to be involved and they (the NGO workers) need some specific personal qualities to deal with these people. But ironically these workers are in most cases not well paid compared to others in profession. The employers should pay positive attention to the issue of these workers who should be considered differently than others. In fact we all should pay special attention towards these workers.
The author is a Site Coordinator - Jessore and Doulatdia, UNDP Assisted Project, Department of Social Services (DSS), Jessore.
