Research paperIntimate partner violence is as important as client violence in increasing street-based female sex workers’ vulnerability to HIV in India
Section snippets
Background
Globally, sex work been recognized as an important factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS, 2006). Women around the world have resorted to sex work as an income generating activity for centuries (Mulia, 2001) in the face of scarce resources to cope with crises and provide for their families. Financial dependence on men, inequitable power relationships and often violent intimate relationships for women around the world heightens their vulnerability to infection due to constraints in condom
Sample and data collection
This study was nested within a five-country NIMH Collaborative HIV/STD Prevention Trial study that seeks to test the efficacy of HIV prevention messages delivered through community popular opinion leaders (CPOLs). Briefly, CPOLs are individuals whose friends and close associates look to for advice, affirmation and counsel (Kelly, 2004). The considerable formative research that accompanied identifying and recruiting study participants in this trial found that male wine shop patrons and female
Sample profile, marriage, and intimate relationship and entry into sex work
The mean age of women was 35.13 years (S.D. = 4.34, range: 25–42). Years of schooling ranged from none to ten years. All women, except one had been born and raised in Chennai city. All respondents identified themselves as ‘currently married,’ and in most cases, their families had arranged their marriage. Male partners of FSWs in our sample could be classified into 3 types: (1) ‘paying sexual partners’ (one-time clients) with whom women did not have an ongoing relationship, (2) ‘paying regular
Discussion
This is one of the first studies in India to document street-based female sex workers’ multi-faceted vulnerability to HIV that stems from not only their work environment, but also from their intimate relationships. Co-occurring phenomena of violence, sexual coercion and alcohol use posed serious challenges for sex workers to remain safe with clients as well as intimate partners. Findings related to women's entry into sex work precipitated as a result of financial crises and being forced by
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to all the respondents who generously shared their experiences with us. We wish to thank the anonymous reviewers and Dr. Susan Sherman for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript.
Funding support acknowledgment: National Institute for Mental Health Grant U10 681543-01 to the last author.
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