XAVIER UNIVERSITY, BHUBANESWAR

SOCIAL RESEARCH
METHODS
GROUP 4

Submitted by:
Amrita Das UR14046
Rohit Rathi UR14071
Satyabrata Nayak UR14075
Dangi Hembram UR14090

WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN RED LIGHT AREAS

Introduction:
Sex work is widespread in India, and occurs on a much larger scale than in many
other countries (NACO, 2006). It has been estimated that India has more than a
million female sex workers (FSWs) (NIMS & NACO, 2006), which is about 1% of
the adult women in India (Dandona et al., 2006). In India, the presence of large
number of FSWs has given rise to a myriad of interventions with various strategies
(Blanchard et al., 2005). These strategies include individual/cognitive interventions
through peer outreach and education and the use of structural/environmental
interventions (Jana & Singh, 1995; Ngugi et al., 1996; Parker et al., 2000; Kerrigan et
al., 2003; Jana et al., 2004; Blankenship et al., 2008; Reza-Paul et al., 2008). Despite
these interventions, recent evidence suggests high rates of HIV among sub-groups of
FSWs such as illiterates,widows, divorcees and mobile FSWs (Brahme et al., 2006;
Ramesh et al., 2008).
The reasons for women entering into and continuing in sex work are lack of economic
development in rural areas (Wawer et al., 1996), economic necessities within the
household and survival sex (Whelehan, 2001; Rao et al., 2003;Bucardo et al., 2004;
Hong & Li, 2008) and coercion or deception, which forces them into sex work against
their will (Basu et al., 2004; Busza, 2004; Silverman et al., 2006).A few Indian studies
have analysed the reasons for entry into sex work and identified male dominance,
trafficking, destitution of women (Blanchard et al., 2005; Dandona et al., 2006;
NACO, 2006) and industrialization (UNESCO, 2002; Blanchard et al.,2005).
Increasing evidence around profiles of the FSWs suggests that a majority of them are
illiterate, or belong to lower caste groups, or face poor economic conditions back at
home (Chattopadhyay et al., 1994; Salunke et al., 1998; Chattopadhyay & McKaig,
2004; Dandona et al., 2006; Ramesh et al., 2008;Reza-Paul et al., 2008) indicating
that women from poor socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to be in sex work.
While these studies have provided valuable information on little known areas of sex
work, the extent to which their findings can be extrapolated to inform programme
design is limited because they are based on either small sample sizes or did not
explore the major reasons for entry into sex work.

One important question that has frequently dominated the discourse on FSWs in India
is Can economic empowerment in red light areas dissuade women from entering into
& continuing sex work?
Hypothesis:
Economic empowerment has dissuaded women from entering into & continuing sex
work.
Methodology:
Details of prostitution in three big cities of India:
Kolkata
Sonagachi is reputedly Asias second-largest red-light area. Sonagachi is
located in Kolkata, India. Its area contains several hundred multi-stoty brothels
and an estimated 11000 sex workers in 2012. They earn collectively around
Sonagachi sex workers have a cooperative that insists sex workers to use
condoms and stand up against abuse.
The Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC) runs this cooperative.
5.17 % among 11000 prostitutes are HIV positive.

Delhi

G.B. Road is a road from Ajmer Gate to Lahori Gate in Delhi, India.
It is the Asias largest and Worlds second largest red-light area.
G.B. Road area has around 12000 sex workers.

Mumbai

Kamathipura

Kamathipura is situated in Mumbai

Kamathipura is Mumbais oldest and Asias largest red-light area.
According to BMC in 1990 number of sex workers were 50000
And in 2009 number of sex worker are 16000
Reason of reducing in number of sex workers is real estate developers
taking high-priced on real estate.
Due to increase in AIDS in late 90s government redeveloped the
policy that helped sex workers to move out of the profession and
subsequently out of Kamathipura.

Some reasons of getting into prostitution activity are as follows:

Neighbour in connivance with parents
Neighbours as pimps (guardians not knowing)
Aged sex workers from same village or locality
Unknown person/accidental meeting with pimp
Mother/sister/near relative in the professsion
Lover giving false hope of marriage or job and selling to brothel
Close acquaintance giving false hope of marriage or job
"Husband" (not legally married)
Husband (legally married)
Young college student selling to brothel and visiting free of cost
Method:

Our research design is Survey one with cross-sectional data collection. The data
collected would be done using Multi Stage Cluster Sampling from the different cities
of India. In the Multi stage cluster sampling systematic random sampling will be
done.
Data Collection:
A data collection form was designed to ensure consistent data capture across the
samples. Table below shows the form of this data table, together with example returns
to be generated. Where no key discussion points were raised, Interviewers were
instructed to leave the key discussion points column blank. The co-operator here
can be the NGOs worker/Govt. worker or any other authority.
Table:
FSW
Number

1.

City Name

Co-operator Agreement
/
Disagreement
on
Hypothesis for this
particular FSW

Key Discussion Points

Kolkata
Yes

2.

Delhi
No

Trafficking is the main cause for

this particular FSW entering into
& continuing sex work not
poverty.

3.

Mumbai
Yes

4.

Bhubaneswar
Yes

Data Analysis:
The data captured by the interviewers would be divided into groups according to
various cities. The data would be analyzed and the results would be cross checked
with the discussions with the co-operators.
Pilot Survey:
The instrument (Questionnaire) was being circulated among our 10 friends and they
were asked to fill the same assuming themselves as the FSWs of various cities.
Through this pilot study the validity of the questionnaire was tested and the following
changes were done:
Instrument Testing:
It was found that they dont want to disclose how much they earn per client.
Thats why this type of question was removed from questionnaire.
At the time of sex are they using condoms? Again most of the FSWs are
aware about it, so this question was also removed.
Have they got any desire to go home by leaving this profession? Again this
type of question was removed because everyone has a desire to comeback to
home.

Sampling:
One of main reasons of women entering into this profession is poverty. A test has
already been performed in Mumbai in two Red Light Area in 2000, a sample of 501
workers was selected and in-depth interview of 20 workers were conducted.
Results:

83% of the sex workers were illiterate.

Do not possess any skills that would enable them to obtain any alternate
occupation.
Almost one-third of them have entered this profession due to poverty and most
of them are barely able to make both ends meet only 17% of women are able
to save a little.
Due to the fear of being infected by HIV the no of clients have reduced
without any decrease in the no of sex workers, due to this there even more

competition among the workers and that leads to core poverty for the workers
as many workers receive only one or none clients at all in some days.
There are much high-risk behaviour related to their economic situation that
has been observed among them such as using alcohol, tobacco. Unaware about
AIDs, going for regular health check-up etc.
Getting even one client a day has become of so much paramount importance
that even if some clients refuse to use condoms, they are not in position to
pressurise them.
Another important issue is the age factor, the older sex workers (aged above
30 years) are worst affected a large population among them dont even get a
single client a day.

One of the key suggestions received after the pilot survey was to do the longitudinal
experimental research design instead of the Cross-sectional survey design so as to
understand the situation clearly but due to time constraints the design was not
changed. If possible in future the design could be changed to longitudinal
experimental design so as to capture best results.
Conclusion:
The results show that economic empowerment and prevention of sexual harassment
are two important requirements to reduce the no. of women entering this profession
and those who are already in this profession would require imparting of skills to start
a new life.

Instrument (Questionnaire):

Name of the FSW:

Age:
City Name:
Education Qualification:

Under 16
years

16-17 years

18-21 years

22-29 years

30-45 years

Over 45
years

2. What education
have you had?

No Education

Primary
school

Secondary

Graduation

Dont know

Didnt Answer

3. How long in total

0-1 years

1-3 years

3-8 years

More than 8 years

1. Within
what age
range are
you now?

have you been

working in the
prostitution industry?

school

4. Have you been

working in the
prostitution industry
continuously since
you started?

Yes

No

Dont Know

Didnt Answer

5. When you last

stopped working or
had a break from the
prostitution industry,
how long did you stop
for?

Less than one

month

1-6 months

7-12 months

13-24 months

More than 2
years

Don't know

6. Why did you come

back to work in the
industry?

Monetary
Source

Forcefully
done by
others

Unemployed

Others(specify)

7. What would make it

easier to leave the
industry?

(Specify)

8. How long do you

think that you will stay
in prostituion?

Less than 1
year

1-2 years

3-5 years

More than 5
years

Don't know

Didnt
Answer

9. At present, are you

doing any of the
following activities
outside of the
industry?

No other work

Studying

Paid work parttime

Paid work fulltime

Training
courses

Caregiving
(parents,
children,
other family)

10. Do you have any

children?

Yes

No

Dont Know

Didnt Answer

11. Do you tell any of

the following people
that you work in the

Any family
member

Any close
friend

Partner

Health workers

Youth workers

12. What are the

MAIN reasons you
entered the
prostitution?

Saving up

To support
my
kids/family

Unable to get
benefit or
parental
suppor

No other income

Friend was
doing it

Others

13. For what reasons

do you stay working in
the sex industry?

Saving up

To support
my
kids/family

14. How many

children at the
moment depend on
you financially?

15. Would you like to

move out of this
profession , if given a
chance?

Yes

No

Dont know

Didnt Answer

prostitution industry?

References :
1. http://books.google.com/?id=v4QVzOyWICMC&pg=PA61&dq=Kamathipura
#v=onepage&q=Kamathipura&f=false
2. http://www.ahuramazda.com/mumbaift.htm
3. ( http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/empower-india-s-trafficked-girlsthrough-education/
4. (http://wbsc.gov.in/ngo/4e.htm )
5. (http://www.ashanet.org/projects-new/documents/331/Guria%20%20Additional%20Information.doc. )
6. (http://medind.nic.in/iaj/t12/i3/iajt12i3p197.htm )
7. (http://www.fairobserver.com/region/central_south_asia/kranti-mumbaiempowering-girls-red-light-district-part-2/
8. http://www.sanjogindia.org/kaarya.html
9. http://chipts.ucla.edu/projects/india-hiv-prevention-with-commercial-sexworkers-in-three-communities-in-india/
10. http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2014/04/ngo-empowering-girls-mumbais-redlight-areas-evicted-can-help-find-place/
11. http://www.aawc.in/
12. http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/aawc-empower-girls-mumbai-asialargest-red-light-area/
13. http://www.giveindia.org/iGive-aawc