SEX WORK AND THE LAW - HIV/AIDS Data Hub

of sex workers’ mobilization, and the police’s appreciation of sex workers’ bargaining
power. 165
Laws relating to bonded labour and tenancy
India
In West Bengal and Bangladesh, there is a recognized hierarchy within brothels. 166 Women
and girls who are sold by a procurer to a madam are obliged to pay off the amount the
madam paid, plus interest. These women and girls are lowest in the hierarchy and are
referred to as chukris, who are bonded labourers. Many sex workers start as chukris,
whether they are trafficked or not. Legislation against bonded
labour appears to have had little impact on changing this
practice. 167 On the next level of the hierarchy are adhiyas, who
pay the madam 50 percent of their income, in exchange for
accommodation, food and security. It has been observed that
the degree of vulnerability to HIV of chukris and adhiyas is
linked to their status in the hierarchy, and chukris as bonded
workers are the most powerless and are entirely dependent
on madams for access to condoms. 168 Cornish described the
relationship as follows:
The madams enter the sexual relation as intermediaries
between the sex worker and client. A madam’s economic
interest is tied to the sex workers’ earnings, and hence she
is unlikely to encourage refusal of a client on the grounds
of his refusal to use a condom. However, some madams
let sex workers take most of the control over their work. 169
Kotiswaran describes the power dynamics of brothels in West Bengal:
A triangular set of relations form the institution of the brothel. These three relations
are: (1) labor relation between the brothel owner or brothel keeper, on the one hand,
and the sex worker, on the other; (2) tenancy relation between the landlord and either
(a) a lessee with no functional role in the sex industry, (b) a brothel owner or brothel
keeper (where a labor relation exists), or (c) a self-employed sex worker (where no
labor relation exists); and (3) the service relation between sex workers and a brothel
(if any), on the one hand, and customers, on the other. Internal stakeholders in the
brothel setting include the landlord, lessee, brothel owner, brothel keeper, dalal (or
tout), sex worker, and customer. External stakeholders include goondas (local goons),
the DMSC, the police, vendors, and moneylenders. 170
The analysis of a clinician working with sex workers in West Bengal is instructive:
“…PROVIDING AIDS
AWARENESS AND
CONDOMS ISN’T GOING TO
BE SUCCESSFUL BECAUSE
SEX WORKERS HAVE NO
POWER COMPARED TO THE
CLIENTS, THE PIMPS OR
THE MADAMS. WITHOUT
STRENGTHENING THEM,
YOU CANNOT CHANGE
THIS POWER EQUATION.”
…providing AIDS awareness and condoms isn’t going to be successful because sex
workers have no power compared to the clients, the pimps or the madams. Without
strengthening them, you cannot change this power equation. 171
165 Kotiswaran P. (2011), op cit., p.127.
166 Kotiswaran, P. (2008), ‘Born unto Brothels – Toward a Legal Ethnography of Sex Work in an Indian Red-
Light Area’, Law and Social Inquiry, 33, 579-629.
167 Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 (India); Bonded Labour Act 2006 (Bangladesh).
168 Karim R., Selim N., Rashid S (2008) op cit., p.4.
169 Cornish P., Shukla A., Banerji R., (2010), Persuading, protesting and exchanging favours: strategies used
by Indian sex workers to win local support for their HIV prevention programmes, AIDS Care 22 Suppl 2, 1670-8.
170 Kotiswaran P. (2008), op cit.,, p.586.
171 Project Parivartan (2006), op cit. p.27.
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