Empowering Female Sex Workers for AIDS Prevention and Far Beyond: Sonagachi Shows the Way

MONI NAG

This paper describes the process by which the STD/HIV Intervention Programme (popularly known as Sonagachi Project) among female sex workers (FSWs) in a red-light area of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) became a catalyst for the formation of an association of sex workers called Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC) and how the DMSC, in turn, has become a powerful tool for not only the epidemio­ logical success of the Sonagachi Project, but also a vehicle for the poor and powerless FSWs to gain some control over their own lives and environment. The training and recruitment of a few selected FSWs as Peer Educators of the Project at its beginning was the first important step. The novel experience of working together with the Pro­ ject physicians and college- graduate women supervisors for the welfare of commu­ nity FSWs gave the Peer Educators a new sense of pride and self-confidence. They became increasingly convinced that in order to protect their health and fight against the injustices they suffered from, FSWs had to mobilse themselves and demand their legitimate rights through an association of their own. With the guidance and help from some dedicated Project staff, the Peer Educators took the initiative to form DMSC in 1995. The multifarious activities of the DMSC and of a few other bodies generated by it are described in this article These activities and their consequences demonstrate that active participation of sex workers in all aspects of a HIV/AIDS in­ tervention project among them as well as their united struggle for the power to protect their health and basic human rights is essential for the project's success and also con­ tributes towards an over-all betterment of their life.

Prof. Moni Nag is associated with The Population Council, New York, and is Ad­ junct Professor, Department of Anthropology at the Columbia University in New York, United Slates of America.

INTRODUCTION Recently, the UNAIDS published a book containing case studies of the following three HIV/AIDS intervention projects among female sex workers (FSWs) in three countries of the Asia-Pacific region: 474 Moni Nag

1. Sonagachi Project in India, 2. SHAKTI Project in Bangladesh, and 3. Transex Project in New Guinea (Jenkins 2000). The main criteria for selecting these projects out of 25 such pro­ jects in the region were their effectiveness, impact, validity and com­ pleteness of information and relevance. The primary objective of the case studies was to describe the 'experience and lessons that might clarify for others the areas of strength and weakness typical in suc­ cessful female sex worker projects'. The Sonagachi Project demon­ strates more cogently, than the other two does, the crucial role of empowerment of FSWs in the success of HIV/AIDS intervention pro­ jects among them. The article describes the process of how the Sonagachi Project was a catalyst in the emergence of an association of FSWs and how this association, in turn, has not only contributed sig­ nificantly to the Project's success in controlling the spread of diseases among the sex workers, but also towards their power for gaining some control over various aspects of their lives.

STD/HIV INTERVENTION PROJECT The STD/HIV Intervention Project (SHIP), popularly known as the Sonagachi Project, started in 1992 in the red-light area of Kolkata, comprising mainly of five contiguous colonies of brothels, namely, Sonagachi, Rambagan, Sethbagan, Jorabagan and Rabindra Sarani. The area has about 370 brothels housing about 4,000-5,000 sex work­ ers. It also accommodates a further 1,500 floating FSWs daily who rent rooms in the brothels on an hourly basis, when they bring clients picked up on the streets, parks and other places. The Project was ini­ tially funded by the World Health Organisation and administered by the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health. The Norwegian Agency for Development funded all components of the Project for about next two years and has been funding a few developmental activ­ ities like the literacy programme for FSWs and vocational training of the children of FSWs in boarding schools. Since October 1994, the Project is being funded mainly by the Department of International De­ velopment, formerly known as the Overseas Development Agency of the United Kingdom. The Sonagachi Project has attained an international reputation for its unusual success in reducing the prevalence of STDs and in increas­ ing the prevalence of the use of condoms among sex workers. For ex­ ample, the prevalence rate of syphilis as determined by VDRL test Empowering Female Sex Workers for AIDS Prevention... 475 declined from 25.4 per cent in 1992 to 11.9 per cent in 1998 (Jana and Banerjee, 1999: 19). The prevalence of using condoms 'always' in­ creased from 1.1 per cent in 1992 to 50.4 per cent in 1998, and the prevalence of using them 'often' increased from l.6 per cent in 1992 to 40.1 per cent in 1998. A few clinics attended by physicians have been set up in the Project area for treating STDs and other minor illnesses of sex workers free of any charge. The prevalence of HIV infection has not shown any decline in Sonagachi, but has always remained much lower than that in other large Indian cities. For example, HIV prevalence among FSWs in a Mumbai red-light area was over 70 per­ cent in 1997 compared to 5.5 per cent among FSWs in Sonagachi in 1998 (Jenkins, 2000:79; UNAIDS, 2000:13). The Government of In­ dia's National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) considers the Sonagachi Project as the most successful HIV/AIDS intervention pro­ jects among FSWs in India (NACO, 2001). The remarkable epidemiological success of Sonagachi Project can be attributed, to a great extent, to the active participation of FSWs in all its phases. It was decided, at the initial stage of the Project, to re­ cruit a few sex workers who would be the primary channel of commu­ nication between the Project staff and the community of FSWs. They were called the Peer Educators (PEs) who later on took the initiative in the formation, in 1995, an organisation of FSWs called Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC). Subsequently, a few other organised bodies of FSWs grew out of the DMSC. All these bodies contributed significantly to the Project's success. PEER EDUCATORS: AGENTS OF CHANGE The basic approach of the Sonagachi Project is expressed in terms of three 'R's: 'Respect' for FSWs, 'Recognition' of their profession and rights, and 'Reliance' on their understanding and capacity. This was translated into action by making efforts to actively involve FSWs in all components of the Project and to build a relationship of trust and partnership between the Project staff members and FSWs in the Pro­ ject area. The Project staff realised at an early stage that the Project's main activity of educating FSWs regarding STD/HIV/AIDS and mo­ tivating them to use condoms can be performed best by their own peers, if the latter are adequately trained for the purpose. Initially, 12 FSWs were selected to work as PEs from the community on the basis of their interest in the Project, capacity for grasping, and leadership quality. They would be paid a nominal salary from the Project to work 476 Moni Nag for it in the morning hours and were allowed to ply their profession at other times. The six-week training module for PEs consisted of classroom teaching as well as field-based orientation. In addition to the nature, modes of transmission, and symptoms of STD/HIV/AIDS, the subject matter of teaching included how to prevent these diseases with special emphasis on the use of condoms. The PEs were taught how to demon­ strate to FSWs the correct use of condoms and how to negotiate with their clients effectively regarding condom use. They were also en­ couraged to explore with the FSWs in the community the ways by which the Project could fulfill its objectives more effectively The PEs were required to visit a specific number of FSWs 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, particularly, if they felt sick. Personal communication between PEs and the community FSWs, based on mutual trust, is a source of the Project's strength. The blue uniform jacket with a printed red-cross symbol on it, worn by a Peer Educator while on duty, gives her a sense of pride and is a source of prestige to her children and to others in the red-light area. The PEs have regular periodical meetings with the Project's supervisors (mostly women college graduates) and physicians. The experience of working together with the latter for the welfare of FSWs in the com­ munity enhances a Peer Educator's self-confidence and instills in her a sense of identity other than being a mere sex object. In the course of their work, the PEs soon realised that educating and motivating FSWs to have safe sex was not of much use unless their clients cooperated with them in using condoms. Despite wide publicity through mass media regarding the danger of AIDS and the need to use condoms for preventing it, most clients were reluctant to use them on the ground that condoms reduced the pleasure of sexual intercourse. Most clients strongly resisted all attempts of the FSWs to use condoms. At the initial stage of the Project, until FSWs mobilised themselves to some extent, if any FSW turned down a client for his re­ fusal to use condom, he would not have difficulty at all in finding a FSW in the neighbourhood, who would be willing to entertain him sexually without the use of condom, but most probably at a higher price. The PEs as well as the Project staff became increasingly convinced that, unless FSWs belonging to a community could unitedly demand Empowering Female Sex Workers for AIDS Prevention... 477 the use of condoms from the clients visiting the community, it would be very difficult for any individual FSW to persuade a client to use a condom. Also, they realised that if they could mobilise themselves to form an association of their own, they could use it to fight against the many injustices perpetrated against them and try to gain some control over their own lives. But a great obstacle in the effort to mobilise the FSWs of Sonagachi, who are extremely poor and powerless against their clients, was that they themselves were in severe competition with each other for attracting clients. They could hardly be expected to unite themselves without some external guidance and concrete help. Fortunately, the Sonagachi Project with its highly dedicated and sympathetic staff, provided the needed guidance and help. There was already a sense of solidarity among the sex workers, who became PEs, through their regular group meetings in which they shared their prob­ lems and tried to find solutions jointly. They took the initiative to form an association of FSWs, which would deal with not only the problems they faced with their clients but also with those they were confronted with in their daily lives. After a considerable amount of deliberations by the PEs and the Project staff, such an association was formed and it was called Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC).

DURBAR MAHILA SAMANWAYA COMMITTEE: A UNIQUE ORGANISATION OF FEMALE SEX WORKERS The DMSC (literally translated means the Irrepressible Women's United Committee) of FSWs was formally established in February 1995 with the objective of fighting against the exploitation and atroci­ ties against FSWs and for their basic human rights in all walks of life. Its declared mission is to solve FSWs' day-to-day problems by build­ ing on the experience gained, to protect their rights and to fight against social injustices they suffered from. The DMSC gets full sup­ port and guidance from the Sonagachi Project staff in all its activities and its members actively participate in Project activities. The DMSC is not, however, the first association of FSWs in Kolkata. Before de­ scribing the current activities of DMSC, a brief account of two organi­ sations of FSWs in Kolkata preceding DMSC is given below.

United Women's Council The Founder-President of the Council, an organisation of FSWs, was Indubala, who was the daughter of a FSW living in the Rambagan 478 Moni Nag red-light area of Kolkata, but with her extraordinary diligence and perseverance, became a legendary figure in Bengali music and drama. She acted in 55 dramas in Kolkata's professional stage and in 50 mov­ ies and also had about 300 highly popular disks to her credit as a singer (Dasgupta, 1984). She continued to live in Rambagan where she was raised as a child. Indubala hated hypocrisy and never tried to hide her origin as a sex worker, As a protest against a proposal of the Government of India's Planning Commission to eradicate prostitution without any reason­ able plan to rehabilitate the uprooted FSWs, the United Women's Council organized, under the leadership of Indubala, a conference called the All West Bengal Conference on the 'Fallen Women': Ne­ glected by Society in a Kolkata red-light area in 1958. The Govern­ ment of India's Minister of State for Education chaired the Conference. One of the resolutions passed in the Conference was that the Central Government should constitute a Board that would create various types of opportunities for the FSWs to earn their livelihood. Nothing, of course, came out of these resolutions. Being frustrated with the activities of the Council, Indubala came out of it and later formed another organisation called West Bengal Women's Welfare Committee. A statement issued by this Committee and signed by Indubala and 11 Committee members included the following: Since there is no room for us in the society of our country, we must build our own society. One by one we must establish our own schools, charitable hospitals, libraries, shops and funds for helping the poor .... You are one of us. Would you not contribute a little money and time to help our efforts?. No follow-up records of this Committee are available.

Mahila Sangha Prior to the formation of DMSC, there were frequent incidents of tor­ ture and exploitation of FSWs in the Project area by local hoodlums, the police and others. In the mid-1980s, when a gang of hoodlums be­ came a veritable threat to the FSWs in the Sethbagan red-light area, a few FSWs became courageous enough to carry out a campaign against forcible extraction of money by these hoodlums from FSWs (Bandyopadhyay, 1997: 9-10). Sometimes, the FSWs who started the campaign were beaten severely and harassed in every possible ways. As a result, the FSWs of the area met together and made an elaborate plan to teach the notorious leader of the hoodlum gang a good lesson. Empowering Female Sex Workers for AIDS Prevention... 479

One day, they attacked him suddenly in an unguarded moment and beat him heavily with bamboo sticks almost to the point of death. Sub­ sequently, a section of local youths in Sethbagan stood by the FSWs and once fought with the hoodlums when the latter attacked the FSWs with bombs and firearms. With the help of local youths, the Sethbagan FSWs formed an association of their own and called it the Mahila Sangha (or Women's Collective) in 1985. The Sangha was able to get the leader of the hoodlum gang arrested by the police. Later on, it took up activities like literacy programme and a health clinic in Sethbagan. But when the Sonagachi Project started in 1992, many of Sangha's ac­ tive members joined the Project as PEs, resulting in a gradual decline of the Sangha's activities and influence. A two-page printed leaflet in Bengali titled Barbonita Bolchi (or We the Prostitutes Speaking) with Mahila Sangha as its author, cre­ ated quite a sensation in the prestigious Kolkata Book Fair in 1993. A few women who introduced themselves as FSWs belonging to Mahila Sangha distributed it among the middle and upper class visitors dur­ ing the three-weeks long Fair. The leaflet identified FSWs as beshyas (the commonly used Bengali term for prostitutes) and gave a vivid narration of the toil, tears and trauma that characterised their life. It appealed to the gentry (Bandyopadhyay 1997:5): You may not respect us, but please, don't refuse us a footing in society. We have also our children like yours.... If you cannot help us , at least resist those who oppress us at every step. Remember, sir, one day you have to face us Those who read the leaflet asked themselves and each other ques­ tions like this: How can a group of prostitutes have the courage to come out in the open and face the gentry at the Book Fair ground? Some of them and the local media took enough interest to inquire about the Mahila Sangha. Since its leaders were already associated with the Sonagachi Project, the latter began to attract public attention in terms of support as well as opposition.

Current Activities of DMSC When the DMSC was formed in 1995, it was an organisation exclu­ sively for FSWs, but subsequently some male sex workers (MSWs) and transsexual sex workers (TSWs) of Kolkata expressed their inter­ est in joining it. Members of the DMSC agreed to their request, as they perceived it as a supplement to their strength. The DMSC cur­ rently represents over 40,000 sex workers of all three categories in its 480 Moni Nag

60 branches all over West Bengal with FSWs having the predominant role in it and with its headquarters located in the Sonagachi red-light area. With a view to giving an idea of the various types of activities the DMSC has been engaged in since its inception till the end of 2000, its current Secretary has prepared a list about 200 items (Dutta and oth­ ers. 2001: 3-13). These include many conferences, seminars, work­ shops, processions, rallies, observance of memorial days, and so on, organised by DMSC itself and also those in which the representatives of DMSC participated. Most of these activities pertain to issues af­ fecting lives of FSWs directly or indirectly. Some of the activities like a rally protesting the Government of India's nuclear test explosion in 1997 are not directly related to the lives of the FSWs, but were under­ taken to demonstrate the concerns of the FSWs, as citizens, about is­ sues like world peace. Large conferences organised by the DMSC in which delegates included FSWs from foreign countries and semi­ nars/workshops in which participants included distinguished politi­ cians; intellectuals and artistes are dignified events in the public eye and helped to raise the morale of FSWs who attended them. In gen­ eral, all the events contributed to the sense of solidarity among the FSWs and encouraged them to continue their struggle for their rights with renewed vigour. The DMSC has generated the following organisations of sex work­ ers with specific objectives and corresponding activities: Usha Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society Limited (UMCSL), Komal Gandhar (Cultural Wing of DMSC), Self-regulatory Board of Sex Workers, and Sathi Sanghatan (Companion's Collective). In addition to above organisations, the DMSC's five main activities listed are three large conferences, publications by SHIP/DMSC, positive hot­ line, literacy programme, and the Asia-Pacific Network of Sex Workers

Usha Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society Limited (UMCSL) One of the most significant steps that the DMSC took shortly after its formation was to start a Cooperative society of sex workers, the UMCSL, and have it registered with the West Bengal Government in August 1995 (Jana and Banerjee 1999:23). The UMCSL emphasises that its objective is not economic rehabilitation of sex workers and it is designed to provide a financial resource for the sex workers to fall back on in a crisis situation and to minimise their economic Empowering Female Sex Workers for AIDS Prevention... 481 desperation. As a Cooperative society catering exclusively to sex workers, it is the first of its kind in Asia. The DMSC has had to fight a long battle with concerned government authorities that initially main­ tained that sex workers could not have a Cooperative on 'moral grounds' (Banerjee, 2001). They pointed out the government regula­ tions regarding cooperatives, which states that, its 'members should be bearing good moral character' and held that sex workers cannot be regarded as 'bearing good moral character'. Moreover, there was strong opposition from the private moneylenders of the Project area, who derived huge profits by lending money to sex workers with inter­ est rates often as high as 4 per cent per day, amounting to 1,500 per cent per year. The DMSC fought back resolutely. Finally, the State Minister of Cooperation took sympathy and acknowledged the right of sex workers to form the Cooperative and have it registered with the government. Within a span of five years, the UMCSL enhanced its membership from the initial 13 to about 500 by the year 2000 (Banerjee, 2000). Its registration with the government has made it advantageous for the DMSC to reframe the definition and meaning of prostitution. Its members use it as a leverage in their campaign for the de-criminalisation of prostitution and for sex workers' right to self-determination. Four major activities of the Cooperative are men­ tioned below.

Saving Scheme and Micro-Credit The UMCSL encourages the habit of saving among sex workers and accepts savings from its members with interest rates ranging from 5.5 per cent to 7.5 per cent per year - considerably lower than the usual rates offered by banks. The members have easy access to loans up to Rupees 5,000 for 36 months at 16 per cent interest.

Social Marketing of Condoms by Basanti Sena By September 1998, 50 per cent of the FSWs in the Project area were 'always' using condoms and another 32 per cent were using it 'often'. Up to that time, most of the condoms used were distributed to them free of any charge. Some were purchased either by the FSWs them­ selves or by their clients at the market price. In order to promote safe sexual practice and also to add to its sources of income, the UMCSL started social marketing of condoms among sex workers as exten­ sively as possible. It selected groups of sex workers in red-light areas 482 Moni Nag of West Bengal and trained them on the effective use of condoms and also on rudimentary strategies of marketing. The group was called the Basanti Sena (or the Spring Brigade). By the end of 2000, about 60 Basanti Sena members were selling condoms in 75 red-light areas in various districts of West Bengal at rates considerably lower than the market rates. These members also functioned as agents of the DMSC outside Kolkata for networking among the 40,000 or so DMSC mem­ bers in West Bengal and for encouraging non-member sex workers to join the DMSC. The social marketing of condoms and the relevant counselling by Basanti Sena members have been so successful in rais­ ing the demand for condoms among sex workers, that from August 1999, the SHIP has discontinued free distribution of condoms in all its operation areas (Bandyopadhyay, 2001).

Production of Handicrafts and Supply of General Orders From its very beginning, UMCSL started producing various handi­ crafts like jute and cloth bags, bedcovers, doormats and other materi­ als. These are usually sold in DMSC stalls set up in various types of fairs and conferences. The Cooperative also makes some money by supplying office consumable articles, medicines, condoms, and so on, to various non-government organizations (NGOs).

Evening Creches In collaboration with the Mahila Sangha, the Cooperative runs a few evening creches for the children of FSWs in red-light areas during their working hours. These are a source of employment for out-of-work FSWs. The Cooperative has plans for increasing the number of creches.

Komal Gandhar: Cultural Wing of DMSC Due to a deep-rooted prejudice against prostitution, sex workers in all societies are kept as much isolated and silent as possible. Members of DMSC felt it crucial to carve out a positive identity for themselves and reclaim their rightful place in public spheres. They realised that one of the best ways to achieve such an identity was to establish a fo­ rum that would be a vehicle for expressing themselves through music, dance, drama, painting and other artistic media. So they formed Komal Gandhar (a soft musical note) as the cultural wing of the DMSC (Jana and Banerjee, 1999:24-25). Since its inception, the Komal Gandhar has been involved in developing the skills of DMSC Empowering Female Sex Workers for AIDS Prevention... 483 members and their children in music, dance, drama, and other per- ' forming arts. Staff members of the Project, endowed with relevant tal­ ents, have been contributing significantly to this endeavour. A few reputed professional artistes of Kolkata have also been generous in devoting their time voluntarily for helping sex workers to stage sev­ eral dramas. A few members of Komal Gandhar with guidance and help from some Project staff composed a play based on the realities of the lives of FSWs' and depicting their movement for self-determination. After public staging of this play in a few halls in Kolkata, Komal Gandhar staged this play in a drama competition in New Delhi in 1996. Sex workers from other Indian cities also per­ formed in that competition, where Komal Gandhar won the first prize. It also won the first prize at a National Cultural Competition for sex workers held in Varanasi in 1997 (Jenkins, 2000: 69). When DMSC was preparing for the First National Conference of Sex Workers in 1997, an established theatre group of Kolkata con­ ducted a theatre workshop with members of Komal Gandhar. The workshop gave rise to a play that was staged at the Conference and subsequently at public theatre festivals across West Bengal. Since then the Komal Gandhar music and dance-drama team performed in many programmes organised by SHIP and DMSC. It also performs on commemorative occasions like World AIDS Day, Women's Day and Labour Day. Some cultural programmes of Komal Gandhar have re­ ceived favourable reviews in the Indian media, not just as sex work­ ers' 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 June 1998. Two male sex workers, working as PEs in the Sonagachi Project, participated in it. The picturesque costumes and exquisite dance poses of the performers drew wide applause from the interna­ tional audience and attracted wide media attention. Among stiff com­ petition from teams of sex workers representing many countries, 'PEACE' was selected as the only one for performing at the Inaugural Session of the Conference. Komal Gandhar has been fortunate in getting encouragement and guidance from some eminent actors and directors of Kolkata in the field of drama. They include Rudra Prasad Sengupta, Badal Sircar, Usha Ganguly, and Shobha Sen. A few reputed dance and musical in­ stitutions of Kolkata have offered their services for training sex work­ ers and their children in music and dance. The fact that some of the 484 Moni Nag very famous musicians, dancers and actors of Kolkata, during the first half of the twentieth century had their origins in the red-light areas of Kolkata is a great source of inspiration for the performers of Komal Gandhar. Two of them, namely Benodini and Indubala, are acknowl­ edged as icons in performing arts, even in contemporary West Bengal. Komal Gandhar has created an opportunity for sex workers com­ ing from diverse cultural backgrounds to exchange their own cultural traditions across linguistic, religious and regional barriers (Jana and Banerjee, 1999: 24-25). Messages of health promotion and preven­ tion of diseases conveyed through familiar cultural forms have proved to have an enormous impact in terms of comprehension of compli­ cated diseases and the action needed to prevent them. Komal Gandhar is being used as a forum for propagating the dangers of STD/HIV in­ fection and ways for preventing it among the wider community of sex workers as well as among the general public. Moreover, the opportu­ nity provided to sex workers and their children to express their cre­ ativity through Komal Gandhar helps them a great deal in neutralising the many terrible experiences they go through in their daily life. Komal Gandhar is also contributing towards the DMSC's attempts to forge a common identity among sex workers and has become a politi­ cal tool for claiming their right to enjoyment through cultural means.

Self-Regulatory Boards of Sex Workers

The demand of DMSC members for self-regulatory boards, so that sex workers can have a major role in dealing with issues related to sex trade, was first articulated in a three-page paper printed in both Ben­ gali and English. It was distributed on the occasion of DMSC-organised First West Bengal State Conference of Sex Workers held at the University Institute, Kolkata in March 1996 (DMSC, 1996). The paper argued that the Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act (SITA), 1956, and its amended ver­ sion, Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act (ITPA), 1988, both aimed at inhibiting 'commercialised vice' and regulating the inflow of minor girls into prostitution, have failed miserably. It claims that since the enactment of the laws, the numbers of FSWs and of minor girls traf­ ficked into prostitution all over India have been growing steadily, rather than going down. Exploitation of sex workers by traffickers, brokers, pimps, madams and landlords of brothels, hoodlums and po­ lice has also been increasing. Empowering Female Sex Workers for AIDS Prevention... 485

The paper also articulated the sex workers' demand for their right to regulate their own lives, both within their profession and outside it. With this objective, it proposed to form local boards, comprising rep­ resentatives of sex workers as well as non-sex workers that would deal with issues related to sex workers in various localities. The for­ mal term used for such a board in the paper is Self-Regulatory Board. The major function of the Boards would be to make rules and regula­ tions for the sex trade and regulate the entry of minor girls into the trade. It is not clear from the paper whether each local Self-Regulatory Board would make its own regulations or whether the Self-Regulatory Board at the state or national level would make them, in consultation with the local Boards. Perhaps the latter option is implied. This paper constituted the main theme for discussion in the State Conference of 1996. The matter was discussed in a few subse­ quent seminars but no further documents specifying the structure and functions of the Boards are available as yet. The presence of minor girls working as sex worker in Indian broth­ els is a vexing issue for law enforcers as well as for older sex workers. Procuring and inducing a minor for prostitution and for living off her earning are punishable offenses under the SITA and ITPA. According to FSWs living in Kolkata's red-light areas, police officials often make raids in the brothels in the name of rescuing minor girls and arrest some of them under the ITPA, whether they are actually minor or not. In most of these cases, the girls are reported to be released later when pimps or brothel madams pay handsome amounts of money to the police as bribe. Many older sex workers also do not want young sex workers around them because the clients are more attracted by the young girls. Despite sincere efforts of some honest senior police officials at the state level to check trafficking of minor girls for prostitution from within and outside West Bengal, thousands of minor girls are victims of this crimi­ nal activity every year, according to some DMSC members and NGOs working in the red-light areas. The influx of such girls into the state through the Nepal and Bangladesh borders has also been growing. The DMSC members claim that sex workers themselves are in a much better position than the police or any other agency to control the entry of minor girls and also regulate the entry of any woman in the sex trade, if they are given adequate powers to do so. In a few red-light areas of Kolkata, local members of the DMSC have set up a system by which they can monitor the arrival of new and minor girls and counsel them before the latter start entertaining 486 Moni Nag clients. In the beginning, they attempted to send the girls back to their homes, but the majority of girls refused to return for fear of being tor­ tured by the parents/relatives or because of other very unfavourable circumstances at home. So the local DMSC members made arrange­ ments with the State Social Welfare Department, whereby most of the girls are sent to the boarding schools sponsored by the Department. With the aim of formalising such self-regulatory efforts, the DMSC set up, in 1999, three local Self-Regulatory Boards at Sethbagan, Tollygunj and Rambagan in Kolkata and also a State-level Steering Committee of West Bengal Self-Regulatory Boards (Namaskar, 1999). The Boards, at the local level, are comprised cur­ rently of representatives from the Government of West Bengal, women's rights groups, and sex workers. The Steering Committee would comprise 15 members, out of whom eight would be representa­ tives of sex workers, preferably from the sex workers represented in the local Self-Regulatory Boards. The remaining seven members of the Steering Committee would comprise representatives from the fol­ lowing: Office of the Labour Commissioner, West Bengal; West Ben­ gal Human Rights Commission; Bar Association of West Bengal; West Bengal Commission of Women; Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of West Bengal; Department of Social Welfare, Government of West Bengal; and one renowned woman ac­ tivist of West Bengal The DMSC's political objective is to fight for a more secure legal status of sex workers and for their self-determination in all walks of life. In conformity with this objective, the DMSC wants the proposed centrally constituted Self-Regularity Board formed for regulating the Indian sex trade to function ultimately in the line of professional bod­ ies like the Indian Medical Association and the Indian Bar Associa­ tion, so that representatives of sex workers themselves can act as principal arbitrators of all issues related to the sex trade (Jana and Banerjee, 1999: 20). The proposed Board, in which sex workers would have the major role, would be responsible for formulating guidelines that would safeguard basic interests of sex workers and en­ sure that the sex trade abides by them. For example, one of the pri­ mary tasks of the Board would be to stipulate the minimum criteria for the entry of any woman into the sex trade like minimum age, freedom of choice, and so on. It seems that the DMSC members have a long way to go before their ideas of self-regulatory boards get accepted by the government. Empowering Female Sex Workers for AIDS Prevention... 487

Sathi Sanghatan

Very little is known about the clients of FSWs in Sonagachi and other red-light areas of West Bengal, because most of them are reluctant to be interviewed. But the remarkable increase in the prevalence of con­ dom use ('always') among FSWs in the Sonagachi Project area from 1.1 per cent in 1992 to 50.4 per cent in 1998 indicates a significant change regarding the attitude and behaviour of the clients in the Pro­ ject area, at least in their cooperation with the sex workers in using condoms. It shows that a considerable proportion of clients, who ini­ tially resisted FSWs' attempts to make them use condoms, changed their minds. The DMSC's efforts towards empowering FSWs in vari­ ous ways might have been the main factor responsible for the ob­ served change, but it can be reasonably presumed that the change can be attributed partly to a section of clients who are known as babus in the context of prostitution in West Bengal. The Bengali term, babu, is generally used as a prefix to the name of a middle or upper class man. During the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, the term was also often used to designate an upper class man in Kolkata, who was more or less a permanent patron of an attrac­ tive woman who used to entertain him as his mistress with dance and music as well as with sexual favours in exchange of substantial mone­ tary and other benefits. In the context of contemporary West Bengal, if the a relationship between a man and a FSW gradually turns into a fixed one, that is, more or less a permanent relationship, the former is called a babu in relation to that FSW, whatever class the man may be­ long to and whatever may be the quality of the FSW as an entertainer. While some of these men actually care for their FSW lovers by pro­ viding money regularly and otherwise, some are reported to be abu­ sive and exploitative (Jenkins, 2000:80). Some FSWs have to often spend money on their babus simply in return of protection given to them from the local hoodlums. This is why FSWs classify babus into two categories: denewala (one who gives) and khanewala (one who eats). Some of the FSWs who work as PEs in the Sonagachi Project - particularly those in the age group of 30 years and over - are known to have babus. These babus may or may not have their married wives but seem to have a steady relationship with the PEs. The babus in the Sonagachi Project area , particularly those at­ tached to the PEs, have been closely watching the activities of the Pro­ ject for the past few years. They have also been observing the respect 488 Moni Nag shown by the Project staff and the visitors from outside to the PEs and other FS Ws in the area. It did not take much time for the babus to real­ ise that the Project was genuinely interested to keep the FSWs free of any disease like STDs and AIDS as well as in their overall welfare. When the Project staff started creating rapport with the babus, the lat­ ter offered their cooperation in the Project activities. The Project staff organised a meeting of the babus in the Botanical Garden in June 1997 (Jenkins, 2000: 75-76). About 150 babus, their sex worker part­ ners and some PEs attended it. The focus of discussion was the prob­ lems of the FSWs in the Project area and the role of babus in the establishment of safer sex norms. In another meeting of the babus and their sex worker partners held at an outdoor venue outside Kolkata, they were divided into a few small groups and each group was assigned a separate topic for discus­ sion (Mukherjee, 1998). Two of the topics selected for discussion may be mentioned here as examples: (i) how can the SHIP and the babus help each other in combatting the oppression and atrocities faced by FSWs? (ii) What is the role of babus currently in the life of their FSW partners and what should it be? Each group presented its deliberations where it was unanimously agreed by the babus that the children of their FSW partners, whether or not born of them, should enjoy equal rights as their own children and deserve equal help from them in building up their future. The Babus expressed love for their partners and said that they did not feel guilty about coming to the red-light areas or staying there with them. They showed a high level of awareness regarding modes of transmission of STD/HIV and the need to use condoms for safer sexual practice. No in-depth study has been done as yet to assess the validity of what the babus say about their attitude and behaviour. After two more meetings in subsequent months with different fo­ cus, an association of babus, called Sathi Sanghatan (literally, Com­ panion's Collective) was formed. The two main objectives of the Sathi Sanghatan are to • work collaboratively with the Sonagachi Project in its efforts to prevent STD/HIV transmission among FSWs, their babus and casual clients as well; and • to work with the DMSC to fight against all forms of harass­ ment and violence against sex workers by police and hood­ lums. Empowering Female Sex Workers for AIDS Prevention... 489

One of the services, the members of the Sathi Sanghatan have been providing regularly has been to escort casual clients of FSWs so that police and hoodlums that loiter in the Project area do not harass them.

Conferences of Sex Workers As stated earlier, Kolkata has a history of the collective efforts of FSWs to resist the injustices suffered by them and to hold at least one conference of their own in 1958. But nothing happened in the past like what has been happening in Kolkata after the DMSC was formed in 1995. Since then, Kolkata has witnessed quite a number of confer­ ences, seminars, workshops, rallies, and so on, organised by sex workers. The three large conferences described below can be said to have had a lasting impact in terms of the Sonagachi Project as well as the empowerment of FSWs living not only in the Project area but also in other places in India. The fact, that all the three conferences were allowed to be held in the West Bengal Government-owned Salt Lake sports stadium, can be considered as a recognition of the democratic rights of sex workers as citizens by the state government, unthinkable until a decade ago in West Bengal, and perhaps still unthinkable in many other Indian States.

First National Conference of Sex Workers In November 1997, the DMSC organised a three-day Conference, which was attended by over 1,000 FSWs from various Indian states, and by over 3,000 from West Bengal, most of whom were daytime visitors. Some FSWs came from Nepal and Bangladesh as well as also from the United States of America, Australia and England as visitors. This is the first time in the history of prostitution that so many FSWs, most of whom were poor, illiterate and living in pitiable conditions, rallied together in a conference to speak about their rights and to in­ scribe their self-defined identity on the public sphere. The delegates of FSWs from various Indian States shared their experiences and planned strategies for their struggle against the condition of their ma­ terial deprivation and social stigmatisation against them. Representa­ tives from the Government of West Bengal, the Indian Government, the World Health Organisation, UNAIDS, women's organisations and local trade unions participated in panel discussions of the Conference. The rallying slogan of the Conference was: 'Sex work is a legitimate work. We want worker's rights'. The DMSC members realised that in order to improve the material circumstances of their lives and working 490 Moni Nag conditions, they had to gain recognition as legitimate workers. They shared a common premise that prostitution is not a moral condition, but an occupation and, as sex workers, they are engaged like many other workers engaged in marginal, exploitative and low-status jobs with high risk of occupational hazards. The text of a widely distributed large-sized banner at the Conference was: 'Gatar khatiye khai/ Sramiker adhikar chai' (We survive by physical labour/ We demand labourer's rights). Indrajit Gupta, who was the then the Home Minister in the Central Government joined a session on the rights of sex workers to form a trade union. He said that, under the current Indian law, sex workers were not eligible to form a trade union, because they do not have employers and because their work was not considered productive. But contrary to the general expectation and as a message of great hope for the assembled sex workers, he expressed clearly his personal sym­ pathy with their demand and said that it was reasonable enough for seri­ ous consideration by the Government. The Conference was widely publicised in the national and interna­ tional media - both print and electronic. The detailed reports in the na­ tional newspapers, accompanied by photographs like that of sex worker leaders seated with the country's Home Minister on the same dais, obviously had an impact on the public psyche and was sure to have given a boost to sex workers' morale. Many people started think­ ing anew about their perception on prostitution, while some expressed their moral outrage at the demands made at the Conference. The most important outcome was that the DMSC demonstrated itself as a force to be reckoned with and as a leader of the movement for the empower­ ment of sex workers in India.

Follow-up Phase of the First National Conference In March 1998, the DMSC organised another conference in Kolkata as a follow-up of the 1997 Conference. About 2,000 sex workers at­ tended it from 48 red-light areas all over India (DMSC, 1998; Jenkins, 2000: 74). The major demands put forth in this conference were: • Recognition of sex work as a profession; • Repealing of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1988; • Right of sex workers to have control over their bodies so that they could insist on safe sex with their clients; • Formation of a Self-Regulatory Board comprising representa­ tives from sex workers and other bodies; • De-criminalisation of the sex trade. Empowering Female Sex Workers for AIDS Prevention... 491

The participants at the conference agreed that as long as there was a demand for sexual services and poverty existed among women, a sec­ tion of them would be in the sex trade, voluntarily or involuntarily. A decision was taken to form a National Network of Sex Workers with four regional offices run by a sex workers' organisations in each re­ gion: the DMSC (East), (ii) Sangam HIV/AIDS Prevention Centre (West); (iii) Jan Shakti Bahini (North), and (iv) Chittor Mahila AIDS Control Society (South).

Millennium Milan Mela As part of the DMSC's on-going agenda to put sex workers' rights on the global agenda in the new millennium, it organised a large gather­ ing, in Kolkata, from March 3-6,2001. It was called a Mela (carnival) rather than a conference because it was intended to inscribe sex work­ ers' identity on the public arena more through music, drama and other performing arts than through panel discussions and debates. Over 1,000 FSWs from all over India and a few Asia-Pacific countries came to attend the Mela and about 1,000 sex workers from Kolkata and its neighbouring places visited the Mela every day. The foreign countries represented at the Mela were Australia, Bangladesh, Cam­ bodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Norway. The largest for­ eign delegation was from Bangladesh, which included representatives of Sanghati, an association of 86 NGOs supporting sex workers' rights in that country. The general mood of the Mela was quite festive with visitors en­ joying various musical and dramatic performances in the evenings. During the day, panel discussions went on at the four pavilions con­ structed on the Mela ground. The panel discussions addressed seri­ ous issues like legality of prostitution, right of sex workers to form trade unions, morality/immorality of prostitution, and rehabilitation of sex workers. Distinguished intellectuals, writers, poets, drama­ tists, feminists, journalists, politicians and activists participated in the panel discussions, which were mostly initiated by articulate rep­ resentatives of sex workers. The music, dance and dramatic perfor­ mances in the evenings were mostly by professional artists, though some were also put up by the sex workers. Music and dance perfor­ mances by a few professional baijis or nautch women, well-versed in classical music/dance, from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were the most popular attractions among the sex workers and were daily eve­ ning features. 492 Moni Nag

The Mela started amidst a controversy raised by a few well-known women's rights groups in Delhi and Kolkata. These groups had ex­ pressed their strong opposition in the past several years to the DMSC's demands like de-criminalisation of the sex trade and rights of sex workers to form trade unions. As they did on the occasion of the First National Conference of Sex Workers in 1997, they started lob­ bying with the government against holding of the Millennium Mela. A few days prior to the inauguration of the Mela, they also sent a peti­ tion to the Governor of West Bengal to prevent the event from taking place. A delegation met the Governor and the Health Minister of West Bengal for the same purpose. But the West Bengal Government al­ lowed the Mela to be held as planned earlier. The Health Minister also came to the Mela one day and addressed the sex workers. Like other conferences of the sex workers, the Mela also got wide exposure in the media and contributed towards the sex workers' march for em­ powerment.

Publications by SHIP and DMSC Unlike many HIV/AIDS intervention projects in India, the Sonagachi Project has to its credit a good amount of published materials in the form of newsletters, occasional reports and papers, brochures, book­ lets, training modules, and leaflets. The Project has also helped the DMSC to produce and publish similar materials. All these publica­ tions - some of them priced - are distributed and exhibited at confer­ ences, seminars and workshops organised by SHIP and the DMSC or those in which their members participate, as well as at the annual Kolkata Book Fairs. These are also available at the SHIP/DMSC of­ fice located in Sonagachi. Publications are mailed to institutions/ in­ dividuals, on request. The contents of many of the publications, authored by the Project staff and DMSC members, relate to the activi­ ties and achievements of SHIP and the DMSC. Many sex workers have written their own life story in their own simple style. All these writings have helped the readers of SHIP/DMSC publications to have a better understanding of the lives of the sex workers, their problems and their struggle to improve the quality of their life. The most effective and regular publication by SHIP in both Ben­ gali and English is the newsletter titled Namaskar. Published every year since 1996, the issues contain a variety of articles and reports - some related to the activities of SHIP/DMSC and others relevant to prostitution or important aspects of the sex worker's life. For example, Empowering Female Sex Workers for AIDS Prevention... 493 the contents of January 1999 issue (English) included short life stories of three FSWs as narrated by them; an article entitled 'Empowering sex workers to combat HIV/AIDS' and authored by a lawyer; an arti­ cle entitled 'STD: An outline', authored by a physician; an interview with Usha Ganguly, the distinguished actress-cum-director, on her views about the sex trade and sex workers; a report on recent police raids in a few red-light areas in Kolkata; and an editorial entitled 'The winds of change are whispering at your door'. The March 2000 Ben­ gali issue includes the life story of a leading sex worker who died a few months ago; report on the inauguration of a HIV/AIDS counsel­ ling telephone hotline; an article on trafficking of girls in South Asia; a five-page list of Project/DMSC activities from September 1999 to March 2000; and an editorial on 'Risk behaviour and politics related to risk behaviour'. Coloured photographs in each issue make the newsletter an interesting publication even to illiterate FSWs and also a source of motivation to become literate. Three published books reporting the SHIP/DMSC activities and achievements at the end of three, five and seven years since its incep­ tion are well written and informative. The third one entitled, Seven Years' Stint at Sonagachi, is the most comprehensive one (Jana and Banerjee, 1999). The list of 21 items in its contents include 'Base line survey', 'Description of the programme' and 'Lessons learnt from the programme'. A few reports published on the occasions of major con­ ferences contain interesting articles of varied nature authored by SHIP staff and DMSC members, as well as by outsiders.

Positive Hotline A telephone counselling and ancillary services for the prevention of HIV/AIDS and for promoting a positive attitude towards care for peo­ ple living with HIV/AIDS was opened by the DMSC in November 1998 (Banerjee and others, no date; Jana and Banerjee, 1999: 26). The initiative of opening the telephone services called Positive Hotline was taken by a few PEs when they came to know about the extremely miserable situation of a HIV-infected poor woman (not a sex worker), who had no one to take care of her. The first Positive Hotline was in­ stalled at a Sonagachi SHIP field office and was staffed by trained sex workers under the guidance of a staff physician. A few adult children of FSWs with a few years of school education were trained so that they could answer the telephone calls at night when their mothers were at work. The wide publicity given to the Positive Hotline in 494 Moni Nag newspapers, as well as in radio and television broadcasts, resulted in a rapid increase of the number of telephone calls to such an extent that another Positive Hotline was opened within an year in another SHIP office located in the Chetla red-light area of Kolkata. When a HIV-positive person contacts any Positive Hotline, a DMSC team including a physician visits him/her to extend moral and material support as much as possible and tries to sensitise his/her fam­ ily and the local community. The DMSC opened a HIV/AIDS coun­ selling centre in 2000 and named it the City Counselling Centre. It has another Positive Hotline and is operated by a team, which includes a physician and a senior Peer Educator as Counsellor. The DMSC is in the process of building up a network of HIV-positive people that will provide mutual support to each other and will do advocacy for their own rights. The Positive Hotline services provided by the DMSC members to the general public has contributed to the recognition of the DMSC by the public and to the lessening of the social stigma against sex workers. Another important outcome of these services has been the recent formation of a HIV-positive people's network.

Literacy Programme A few months after the Sonagachi Project was initiated, the PEs ap­ proached the Project staff with a proposal for running a literacy programme for sex workers in the project area. A baseline survey con­ ducted among sex workers in the area, prior to the beginning of the Project, found that over 84 per cent of them were illiterate (Singh, 1995). The PEs sought literacy because they believed it would help the sex workers to become more effective in their job as well as to overcome the many handicaps they suffer from in their daily life. They also saw education as a means for possible improvement in their bargaining power with their clients. The Project staff, too, realised the importance of running a literacy programme, but it took them some time to work out the best possible educational model for sex workers and the logistics needed for running a programme in the context of sex workers' lives. The standard educational format accepted by society is imbued with the sexual-moral discourse, which deny the existence of sex- workers, let alone acknowledge their demand for a better quality of life with basic human rights (Nath and Jana, 1998). The challenge was to devise an educational model, which would enable sex workers to claim a space for themselves and would also guard against the teachers' tendency to impose their own values on the learners. The Empowering Female Sex Workers for AIDS Prevention... 495 daily work schedule of the PEs, who would be the initial learners, would not allow them the luxury of retaining what they learnt in class. If they attended the class in the afternoons, carried out their duties in the Project during the morning hours, and worked for their livelihood from early evening to late night, they would hardly have any time for recollecting what they learnt in class. A few supervisors who showed interest in the literacy programme, started by the end of 1992 meeting for a few hours in the afternoon at an open space in front of the clinic set up by the Project in Sonagachi. It soon became apparent that illiterate sex workers with their special life experiences would learn better if their literacy lessons grew out of their own discourses (Jenkins, 2000:72). So, instead of concentrating on routine reading, writing, and arithmetic during the first few weeks, the trainers initiated dialogues on topics familiar with the learners so that the former could explore the latter's areas of interest and inhibi­ tions. The learners appreciated that the literacy primer to be designed for them would relate to their own experiences, but they also made it clear that they would not like their lessons to be confined to their world only (Bandyopadhyay, 1998). That reaction is a reflection of a sex worker's dilemma between two conflicting mental states. On the one hand, she wants to get out of the situation which makes her a 'fallen woman' in the eyes of the society, and on the other, she gets stuck with it and her thought processes revolve around her profes­ sional world. After a long period of interaction between the trainers and (sex worker) learners and also after a considerable amount of ex­ perimenting with various alternative contents and styles of teaching, a primer in Bengali including some appropriate illustrations was pre­ pared and published in 1996 with the title Aamader AW AA KAW KHAW (Our A B C D). No quantitative data are available regarding the impact of the literacy programme, but an increasing trend in PEs' interest in browsing the Bengali issues of the newsletter, Namaskar, as well as other Bengali publications by and about SHIP/DMSC has been observed during the past years.

Asia-Pacific Network of Sex Workers Some delegations of sex workers' organisations in the countries of Asia-Pacific region have been attending the bi-annual International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific since 1993, when it was held at Yokohama. At that Congress and the next Congress held at Chieng Mai in 1995, the delegates from these countries met 496 Moni Nag informally to discuss about the common issues faced by their organi­ sations. In a similar meeting held on the occasion of the Congress held in November 1997 at Manila, 16 representatives of sex workers' or­ ganisations met together and took a decision to form the Asia-Pacific Network of Sex Workers (Choudhury, 1999; Scharf and Bakshi, 1993). Dr. Smarajit Jana, Director of SHIP at the time, and Ms. Sadhana Mukherjee, Secretary of the DMSC at the time, took a lead­ ing role in the formation of the Network. The issues discussed in the meeting included the following: • objectives of the Network; • formation of a Steering Committee of the Network and formula­ tion of its work plan; • location of Steering Committee's Secretariat; • modes of communication and sharing of resources among Net­ work members; and • problems relating to the recent abolishment of the licensing of sex workers in Taipei. It was unanimously decided in the meeting that the Steering Com­ mittee Secretariat would be run by the DMSC in Kolkata and Ms. Sadhana Mukherjee would function as its Secretary. The first meeting of the Steering Committee was held at Kolkata in March 2000. The par­ ticipants included delegates from Australia, Bangladesh, India, Malay­ sia, Taiwan and Thailand. Some representatives of NGOs carrying out HIV/AIDS Intervention Projects among sex workers in these countries also participated (Choudhury, 1998). The purpose of the three-day meeting was 'to further strengthen the structure of the Network by es­ tablishing an effective strategy among the partner organizations, both at regional and global levels'. Emphasis was given to discussing which strategies were suitable for combatting violation of the human rights of sex workers in different countries. The meeting advocated formulation of regional and global level guidelines for the purpose, but no further reports about the guidelines are available. It adopted a specific set of guidelines for protecting the rights of HIV-positive sex workers. The DMSC's leadership role in the Asia-Pacific Network of Sex Workers is a source of increasing self-confidence among its members.

CONCLUDING REMARKS: SHIFT FROM BCC MODEL TO EMPOWERMENT MODEL When the Sonagachi Project started in 1992, its structure and func­ tions were based on the behavioural change communication (BCC) Empowering Female Sex Workers for AIDS Prevention... 497 model. The first shift away from the usual BCC model was the deci­ sion to recruit sex workers as PEs as the principal agents for changing the sexual behaviour of sex workers in the community in order to en­ sure their protection from various diseases. The Project staff realised quite early that their main objective - that of controlling STDs and HIV/AIDS among sex workers by educating sex workers about the basics of these diseases and motivating them to use condoms for safe sex - could be achieved much more effectively by their trained peers, whom they trusted, more than any outsider who did not share their ex­ perience nor their social milieu (Jana and Banerjee, 1999: 14-15). The staff also realised gradually that in order to make the Project success­ ful, their approach had to be broadened enough to address the struc­ tural issues of class, gender and sexuality in the sex trade, so that an enabling environment for sex workers was created. At a strategic level, it was considered essential that sex workers' participation in the Project should not be limited only to its implementation level. Instead, as far as possible, it should include their active involvement in the Project's on-going decision-making process. Application of this strat­ egy had long-range effects on the Project's outcome and also on sex workers' own lives. As expected, the process of shifting the Project's approach towards empowering one of the most deprived and stigmatised sections of the society, encountered various types of obstacles, both from within the sex trade and, more seriously, from outside it (Jana and Banerjee, 1999: 31). Some conservative as well as liberal but anti-prostitution groups of the society felt threatened by the Project's objective to change the existing social and political power equation and argued that it would encourage prostitution which, according to them, was to­ tally demeaning for women and threatened the very core of 'respect­ able society'. These groups agreed that many sex workers were in a pitiable situation and also that they should be 'rescued', but disagreed with any attempt to empower them so that they could take control of their own bodies and health. Several women's groups in India, includ­ ing the National Commission for Women, hold such a view and are very critical of the DMSC's demand for sex workers' rights. The Pro­ ject, as well as the DMSC, have already accomplished some gains in favour of sex workers but still have a long way to go in the fight against the dominant ideology of sexual morality in Indian society. The power brokers of the sex trade - pimps, madams, brothel own­ ers, brokers, traffickers, police and the like - were another source of 498 Moni Nag opposition to the Project as a whole and, particularly, to the growing influence of PEs on the community of sex workers in making them aware of their rights. Initially, the local power brokers perceived the Project as a threat to their livelihood on the suspicion that it would try to get the sex workers out of prostitution and rehabilitate them in some way or the other. In order to allay such suspicions, the Project staff, in cooperation with some leading PEs gradually made it clear to everybody involved in the sex trade in the Project area that the Project did not have any plans to eradicate the trade or to rehabilitate the sex workers in other occupations. Moreover, through strategic negotia­ tions emphasising the common interest of keeping sex workers healthy and protecting them from STDs, including AIDS , the Project staff and PEs were successful in getting the cooperation of some power brokers in specific Project activities. One important step the Project took at its initial stage was to cre­ ate a good rapport with members of the male youth clubs located in the Project area. The existence of such clubs in red-light areas is per­ haps a phenomenon unique to Kolkata. These clubs are usually formed and patronised by the adult sons of sex workers who may function as pimps, shopkeepers, or small traders in the area. Some of them have petty jobs or petty businesses outside the red-light areas. Members of the clubs play cards, carrom and other indoor games in the clubs in their leisure hours. Some of the clubs function in one or two small rooms on the ground floor of brothels and some have their own huts. The clubs organise various religious and social festivals, particularly those with special significance to sex workers like the worship of the God Kartik, the symbol of eternal male youth. The first medical clinic of the Sonagachi Project could be started only af­ ter the members of Palatak Club, situated in the central area of Sonagachi with an open compound in its front, could be persuaded to rent its space in the morning hours to be used for the clinic and its compound to be used during the daytime as a meeting place for PEs. Gradually, the Project could manage to get the cooperation of 12 such clubs in Kolkata. Their members became sometimes involved in organising DMSC-sponsored events like sports and sit-and-draw competitions for sex workers' children. They also helped the sex workers by protecting them from the harassment of police and local hoodlums. Nine years' experience of the Sonagachi Project has demon­ strated that the success of any STD/HIV/AIDS intervention project Empowering Female Sex Workers for AIDS Prevention... 499

among any poor, powerless and stigmatised group like the sex work­ ers depends heavily on how far its members actively participate in its activities and what roles they play in the Project's structure. That the sex workers themselves could ever carry out the Project was at one time a fond dream - but a very distant one - of some of the Pro­ ject staff. But, today, it is no longer such a distant dream. A signifi­ cant step towards the fulfilment of that dream is the transfer of the Project's administration in April 1999 from the Government of In­ dia's All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health to an NGO, the Society for Human Development and Social Action (SHDSA) with the funding of the Project coming directly to the UMCSL. The SHDSA is mainly constituted by representatives of the DMSC, the Sonagachi Project, relevant Departments of the State and Central Governments, and a few NGOs' supporting Project activities (Bandyopadhyay 2001; Jana and Banerjee, 1999). Another simulta­ neous step of important symbolic value is the appointment of a member of the local community of sex workers, who had been work­ ing as a Project staff since its beginning, as the Project Director. Cur­ rently, the majority of about 400 workers of the Project are sex workers. Most of them work as PEs, but a few of them are holding supervisory positions - a significant development in terms of the em­ powerment of sex workers and also in terms of the sustainability of the Project. The advent of HIV/AIDS in India and its quick spread to nearly 4 million cases by the end of 2000 has created an unprecedented pub­ lic health problem in the country. Sex workers constitute one of the worst groups affected by the epidemic. It is an irony of fact, how­ ever, that AIDS, which poses the greatest threat sex workers have ever been faced with, is also responsible for an unanticipated oppor­ tunity for at least a minute section of them covered by the Sonagachi Project, because the initial official efforts to prevent the spread of the disease started a chain reaction which led to their being empow­ ered and mobilised to fight against the many injustices they suffer from. Jenkins (2000: 88) has justifiably remarked in her UNAIDS publication that India and the rest of the world will have to reckon with the awakened women of Sonagachi as they move towards greater outreach to other sex workers in their region and from the world... .The Sonagachi pro­ ject has begun to wed prevention and cure in the best traditions of pub­ lic health activism. 500 Moni Nag

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I acknowledge my thanks to Dr. Smarajit Jana, who was the Director of the Sonagachi Project from its beginning in 1992 until 1999, for his useful comments and sugges­ tions.

NOTES 1. The sub-title of this paper has been borrowed from the title of the section 'Sonagachi Shows the Way' in Dube's book on Sex, Lies, and AIDS (2000), which ascribes the success of the Sonagachi Project to the movement for self-determination of sex workers started by the DMSC. 2. This paper was presented at the seminar on 'AIDS Prevention and Care for People Affected by AIDS in India: A Transnational Perspective' sponsored by IDPAD, Amsterdam, and held in Amsterdam from June 27-29, 2001.

REFERENCES

Bandyopadhyay, N. Effective Control of HIV/AIDS and Provision of Care 2001 and Support to those Affected through Empowerment and Self-Determination of Marginalized Groups: A Case Study of the Sonagachi Project. Paper presented at the seminar on 'AIDS Prevention and Care for People Af­ fected by AIDS in India: A Transnational Perspective', Amsterdam, June 27-29, 2001. Bandyopadhyay, S. The 'Fallen' Learn to Rise: The Social Impact of 1997 STD/HIV Intervention Programme, Calcutta: Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee. 1998 They Speak Their Word: A Note on the Education Programme for the Calcutta Sex Workers, Calcutta: All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health. Banerjee, B. Usha Multi-purpose Co-operative Society Ltd.: The 2001 Flag-bearer of Sex Workers' Co-operative Movement. In A. Dutta and others (Eds.), Millennium Mela, Calcutta: Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee. Banerjee, D. Telephone Hotline: A Managed Care Revolution by the no date Sex Workers and their Companion (unpublished), Cal­ cutta: STD/HIV Intervention Project. Choudhury, R.S. Asia-Pacific Network of Sex Workers, Namaskar, 3(1), 1998 11-12. Dasgupta, B. Indubala, Calcutta: Mousumie Prakasani. 1984 Empowering Female Sex Workers for AIDS Prevention... 501

Durbar Mahila Sex Workers' Right to Self-Determination. In Proceed­ Samanwaya Committee ings of West Bengal State Conference, April 29-30, Cal­ 1996 cutta. 1998 Second Phase of Sex Workers' Struggle for Unification, Namaskar, 3(1), 24-26. Dube, S. Sex, Lies, and AIDS, New Delhi-. Harper Collins Pub­ 2000 lishers. Dutta, A. Millennium Milan Mela, Calcutta: Durbar Mahila and others (Eds.) Samanwaya Committee. 2001 National AIDS Control Status and Trend of HIV/AIDS Epidemic in India up to Organisation 1999, http://www.naco/trend.htm, June 14, 2001. 2001 Jana, S. And Learning to Change: Seven Years' Stint at Sonagachi, Banerjee, B. (Eds.) Calcutta: Society for Human Development and Social 1999 Action. Jenkins, C. Female Sex Worker: HIV Prevention Projects — 2000 UNAIDS Case Study, Geneva: UNAIDS. Mukherjee, D. Third Babu Meet, Namaskar, 3(1), 16-17. 1998 Namaskar Self Regulatory Board, 4(1), 13-15. 1999 Nath, K.J. and Foreword. In S. Bandyopadhyay (Ed.), They Speak Their Jana, S. Word: A Note on the Education Programme for the Cal­ 1998 cutta Sex Workers, Calcutta: All India Institute of Hy­ giene and Public Health. Singh, S. Three Years Stint at Sonagachi, Calcutta: All India Insti­ 1995 tute of Hygiene and Public Health. Scharf, E. and Love is Labour, APSNET: Bulletin of the Asia-Pacific Bakshi, P. (Eds.) Network of Sex Workers, 1. 1999 UNAIDS Report on the Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic, Geneva. 2000

THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK, volume 63, issue A, October 2002