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workers, gay, hijras, hermaphrodites, professional blood donors, heroin
smokers, hotel, brothel, street based commercial sex workers, casual sex
workers, so called sex workers, violence, exploitation, Rainbow Nari O
Shishu Kallyan Foundation, Mohammad Khairul Alam
Mohammad Khairul
Alam
Executive Director
Rainbow Nari O
Shishu Kallyan Foundation
24/3 M.C. Roy Lane
Dhaka-122
Bangladesh
rainbowngo@gmail.com
www.newsletter.com.bd
Tell: 880-2-8628908
Mobile: 01711344997
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Street
Sex Workers are Vulnerable HIV/AIDS in
Bangladesh
Sexually transmitted
diseases/ infections — also known as STDs/STIs and once called venereal
diseases — are infectious diseases that spread from person to person through
intimate/ sexual contact. There are different kinds of STDs, Some kinds of
STDs are very dangerous for human health. It can cause permanent damage,
such as infertility (the inability to have a baby) and even death. HIV/AIDS
is one of the STDs/STIs that are on the rise in sex workers and Injection
Drug Users.
Sex work is central to
an epidemic that is primarily spread by unprotected heterosexual
intercourse. It is also a feature of all countries and cultures,
encompassing a wide range of people and behaviours. Sex work can involve men
and transgender people, as well as women. People who are engaged in selling
sex obviously have multiple sex partners and are therefore highly vulnerable
to several Sexual Transmission Diseases (STDs/STI) and HIV/AIDS infection.
Because they have many sexual partners, they are also more likely to
transmit the virus to other people unless condoms are always used. As
mentioned by AIDS researcher Mr. Anirudha Alam, “Street Sex Workers
contracting HIV/AIDS through unprotected sex with HIV infected men and
sexual abuse has become a persistent problem, especially in
South Asia”.
Bangladesh is still a
low prevalence country (HIV-infection rate is less than 1%), but there is a
potential for expanding HIV/AIDS epidemic in the future, because the country
is very receptive to HIV infection. Sex work exists at significant levels in
Bangladesh, and condom use is low. In Bangladesh, sex workers in brothels as
well as on the streets reported rather high client turnover, by Asian
standards. Women working in brothels nationwide averaged 19 clients a week,
and street workers reported between 12 and 16 in different cities.
Consistent condom use is among the lowest in the region.
Street Sex Workers (SSWs)
in Bangladesh
would play a critical role of HIV/AIDS infections. Due to the types of their
work, the lack of sexually transmitted infections (STI/STDs) knowledge and
low acceptance of condom use, SSWs represent a highly vulnerable group in
Bangladesh. The sharp rise in others sexually transmitted infections (STIs)
in Bangladesh contributes to the spread of HIV and may lead to a extensive
epidemic, as the heterosexual mode of others STI transmission accounts for
an increasing percentage of HIV transmission. Studies of street beggars
conducted by Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation & L.R.B Foundation in
mid-2006s at Kamrangir Char, Lalbagh and Polashi in Dhaka city in Bangladesh
surveyors confirm the 40-45 per cent of homeless beggars (adult male)
indulge in multi-partner sex with less than 10 per cent of them reporting
condom use. Street Sex Workers are the main sexual partners of them.
Street Sex Workers are
closely associated with the tourism and transport industries where they find
a large supply of potential clients. They get their clients by waiting on
the streets. Most of them run on their work separately, though some rely on
brokers for help in getting clients. The favored method of work is to wait
on busy streets, which make available custom as well as relative
confidentiality to the contract, as opposed to the less frequented
localities. Bus stops, railway stations, cinema halls and river-bank are the
usual locations where the contract is negotiated, from where they go to
cheap hotels, under constriction building, darkness park-place and lodges
with their clients.
Day by day, Sex work
is increase in
Bangladesh. However Ms. Roushan Ara Rekha, Executive Director of GHARONI, an
expert in the field, she said, ‘On a regional basis, infected men probably
outnumber infected women by a factor of 3 to 1 or more, since commercial sex
clients, injecting drug users and men having sex with men have contributed
most strongly to the rapid initial growth of the epidemic. This male/female
ratio is expected to drop as the epidemic spreads into the general
population through spread of HIV from clients of sex workers to their
regular partners and spouses.’
M. C. M. Lokman
Hossain, Executive Director of Association for Social Advancement & Rural
Rehabilitation (ASARR) said, if we want to reduce sex trade we have to
clarify our vision on sex work first. Traditional perspectives on
prostitution have been repressive, moralising and controlling, perceiving
sex workers and their customers to be objects rather than active subjects,
excluding them from discussions and decisions around policy and legislation.
Reference: GHARONI
report, ASARR report, Sex work network
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