Law letter
NGOs in preventing marginalisation of sex workers
ACCORDING to different sources there are around 150,000 women in Bangladesh who are involved in the profession of sex work. These sex workers are considered one of the most marginalised groups in the country and NGOs are providing different types of services for prevention of their marginalisation.
There are four types of sex workers in Bangladesh, which are categorized based on their work place. They are brothel based, street based, hotel based and residence based. However, they often change their work place and migrate to other work places. It means, brothel based sex workers sometimes change brothels, street based sex workers sometimes enter into brothels, hotel and residence based sex workers change hotels and residences. Sometimes, they do the job in both hotels and residences.
Normally sex workers do not take the job as a profession. Different causes force them to enter this profession. The main cause is 'poverty'. Other causes include trafficking, exploitation, unemployment, drug addiction etc. In most cases, the women are abused or exploited or trafficked by their family members or by persons close to their families. Once someone enters this profession, she cannot return to normal life. Society, even their family members, becomes reluctant to accept them in their families.
Our legal system does not expressly prohibit women to take sex work as a profession. They come to this profession by making an affidavit. However, it does not ensure their rights as a human being. Sex workers are denied of the rights of food, clothing, shelter, health, education etc. They do not have the rights of free movement, their access to health services are also limited. Their children face problems in getting admission to schools. They are not even allowed to go through the appropriate burial process. If the persons involved in burial process are informed about the profession of sex workers, they, in most cases, do not cooperate.
NGOs are providing different types of rights based services to prevent marginalisation of sex workers. These services are provided with the objective to increase awareness of community people on the issue of rights of sex workers to develop their capacity to initiate and participate in community development activities and also to increase their access to health, education and other basic services.
The efforts of NGOs to prevent sex workers from being marginalised achieved success in some cases. These successes include formation of a number of self-help groups and organizations which can prepare own work plan for their sustainable development, alternative livelihood and job placement, participation of sex workers in dialogues and meetings to demand their rights, their ability to communicate with people in the local administration and to raise voice against violation of their rights, their participation in community development activities and organization of rallies and other programs on different occasions etc. Now there are committees in many places which involve people from different walks of society to prevent the violation of rights of sex workers.
However, there are some challenges too in the works of NGOs, which are -
* Government officials do not recognize the profession of sex workers.
* Managers involved in sex work businesses i.e. hotel or residence managers, sardarnis, gharwalis etc. sometimes do not cooperate NGOs due to fear of losing their hidden interest.
* Pressure from political persons and religious groups or leaders etc. at local levels.
* The employers still do not have a positive attitude towards employment of sex workers in their work places.
* Father's name is necessary for admission of children in schools. But Sex Workers can not easily give the name of the father of their children.
* Unstable political situation is not in favour of raising the issue of sex workers.
* Frequent change of people in the local administration in places where project activities are being implemented.
* There are self-help groups and organizations of sex workers but those organizations or groups do not have sufficient funds for implementation of their organizational activities.
* Lack of monitoring of activities of sex workers after rehabilitation. After rehabilitation through job placement, they often frequently change their jobs and it is very difficult to monitor as they do not provide their new address.
As the NGOs have been working for a long time on the issue and have created a ground for themselves, there are already many advantages for NGOs in their work for prevention of marginalisation of sex workers. These advantages include infrastructural set up for rights based activities, access to print and electronic media for advocacy, adequate IEC/development communication materials and sensitised officials at local administration.
NGOs now look forward to reduce the gaps in their activities for sex workers. In this work NGOs have some very specific points to look into to overcome the problems of sex workers such as they are considered as citizens, even they are registered as sex workers in the voter list, but they are not getting government facilities like other citizens of the country, police are to protect them but in fact police are using their power to harass them, government shelter homes are to ensure their social and physical safety, but it is reported that in shelter homes they are physically and sexually abused.
Now it is time to take new endeavours such as cross-border initiatives to stop trafficking, district level committees for rehabilitation of sex workers, regular discussion and dialogues, TV Talk Shows and TV spots for sensitisation of community people on the issue of sex workers, network of employers for job placement or alternative livelihood, motivation for law enforcement agencies and police department officials to ensure speedy handling of cases of sex workers, prevention of young generation from spending time with sex workers and creation of family amusement facilities even at district levels, process for easy admission of children of sex workers in schools and introducing the system of recognising mother as children's guardian in school admission etc.
Syed Taposh
Project Coordinator-PHRSDG Project, Centre for Development Services (CDS).
