Post pandemic debt bondage: Sex workers need urgent govt attention

Updated : January 20, 2021 06:37 PM IST

Sex workers were forced to borrow more money as prostitution was halted due to the fear of virus transmission, adding to their overall debt amount.

In post-lockdown times, the surmounting debts are coercive binding force holding the sex workers from leaving the flesh trade.

A couple of months after the pandemic hit, bringing a tectonic shift in the economy and social fabric of the country, I was looking into the issues faced by sex workers as this particular community suffered a severe setback. A majority of sex workers are victims of trafficking, they were forced into prostitution, mostly at a very young age in their life. Their sufferings seem to have no end as now the debt bondage further victimises them. Attempting to document the financial exploitation the community was facing in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, I took up a national study covering the major red-light areas of Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur.

That was when Narmada, a 29-year-old sex worker from Pune, told me that despite not having any income now due to COVID, she still has to pay regular installments to the brothel keeper. “I will die anyway due to harassment and starvation. Hence, I took in a few clients even during the lockdown, risking my life. The debt is in my minds even when I am performing sexual acts with my clients.” Such is the case of not only Narmada’s, but most of the sex workers residing in red-light zones.

Sex workers were forced to borrow more money as prostitution was halted due to the fear of virus transmission, adding to their overall debt amount. The interest rates rose from 12 percent to 25 percent per month. In such a scenario, how does repayment look for these women? First of all, no prostitution so no source of income. They are surviving on the ration and utilities donated by NGOs. Secondly, they are stigmatised and looked down by society. So the factor of stigma stops them from fetching any petty jobs in the neighbourhood. Thirdly, the brothel owners or pimps from whom they have borrowed money show up on their doorstep every month for collection of dues. Having no way to fend for themselves, the women are further harassed.

Fast-forwarding eight months into the pandemic, the lockdown has been lifted, the sex trade has resumed but has slowed down. Financial estimates indicate that till March 2021, these women are likely to incur a loan of Rs 6.9 lakh; in a normal world, this amount could have been repaid in a span of 4.5 years. But with a reduced projection of customers visiting in the coming months, such an amount is non-repayable pushing these women further into despair and misery. Over 95 percent of sex workers from Maharashtra are unable to leave the sex trade due to the non-payment of debts.

However, this should not come as a surprise as the dynamics of red-light areas are structured in a way that sex workers are kept dependent on pimps and brothel managers via debts. It is only in the pandemic the issues have exacerbated and resurfaced in an ugly manner, bringing it to the public’s notice.

System with traps in place

The entire system is designed in a way that sex workers will be held in bondage for long. Fifty percent of their monthly earnings (70 percent if they are in big brothels) are mandatorily paid to the brothel managers. This share covers payment of loan interest, purchase of condoms, rent and other service/facilitation charges. From the remaining portion, the women send money to their families, left with no savings. Hence, even before the lockdown, the sex workers generally had to borrow loans quarterly.

In post-lockdown times, the surmounting debts are coercive binding force holding the sex workers from leaving the flesh trade. Psychological focus on short-term repayment shifts the focus of sex workers away from long-term bondage and exploitation. The loss of control entraps sex workers in the red light area, eliminating their autonomy through an economic system of debt-bondage to the brothel keeper and other red-light area-based workers. The shift in the time frame required to repay loans from a finite period of time to a state of indefinite debt bondage puts these women into a state of inescapable bonded labor.

Designing reinvention models for empowerment

While these women will need immediate earnings to sustain, they will also require intensive skilling, counseling, and soft skills/technical skills and certification to be able to get sustainable jobs in the longer run. Therefore, there is a need for a blended form of training that provides stipend and skill training, that leads to jobs or entrepreneurship. To establish a fully functioning rehabilitation center that has dedicated units for preparation, awareness, knowledge, channeling, monitoring, and evaluation stage programs to prevent these ailing sex workers from getting pushed back to prostitution.

For successful extraction of sex workers from red-light areas, the Central Government should implement the scheme and guidelines of the Central Sector Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourers that provides rehabilitation assistance up to Rs 3 lakh granted by the District Magistrate for sex workers living in sexually exploitative conditions in brothels. Sex workers are entitled to the Centre or state’s assistance for land allotment, development, provision for low-cost dwelling units, wage employment, the supply of essential commodities and education for children.

For freeing sex workers from bondage and slavery, social organisations and philanthropists must look at former or older sex workers as change-makers to share their views in designing effective intervention programs and mentoring newly enrolled commercial sex workers at different stages by sharing their own feelings and thoughts. With an ecosystem where philanthropists, state government experts, social organisations and former sex workers come together to make a reinvention model successful, sex workers can finally reimagine their futures away from the miseries of slavery and think of a dignified, free life ahead.

—The author, Professor Beulah Shekhar, is an Emeritus Professor of Criminology at Karunya Institute of Technology & Sciences, Tamil Nadu. Views are personal

Post pandemic debt bondage: Sex workers need urgent govt attention

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