Author: Carolyn Sleightholme
Indrani Sinha/
Publisher: Stree
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 163
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8185604177
Description
Carolyn Sleightholme and Indrani Sinha write with rare perception and sensitivity about the lives of sex workers in Calcutta who have shared their stories with them. Through interviews and surveys, and case studies, they interrogate the double standards of sexual morality that govern the lucrative sex trade in India, thus making visible the more than twenty thousand mothers, heads of households, and community members whose activities and voices have been silenced so that others may profit from their activities.
Linking the social and economic vulnerability of sex workers to the trade’s supply, the authors reveal the harassment, economic insecurity, health hazard and stigmatization these women face, and they offer recommendations for intervention programmes by government and other organizations so that their needs may be addressed and their exploitation halted.
REVIEWS
Social activists will appreciate this book because its viewpoint is not dry and only research-oriented. Discrimination regarding law, oppression by the police, health problem, economy, everything has been discussed in detail.
-Maitreyi Chattopadhyay, Ananda Bazar Patrika, 1997
The authors make several recommendations for mitigating the harshest impact of prostitution on sex workers and their children. The overall focus of the recommendations is pro-sex workers rights without being pro-sex work.
-Ratna Kapoor, The Book Review
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
MAP: Calcutta and Its Neighbouring Areas
Introduction
A Strategy for Survival
The Business of Trafficking
The Business of Trafficking
The Double Standards of the Law
Health and violence
Financial Issues
Working Mothers: Children and Child-Care
Clients and Babus
Interventions and Initiatives
Ways Forward
APPENDICES
I. Male Commercial Sex-Workers in Calcutta
II. Some Laws and Verdicts Relevant to Sex-Workers
III. Addresses of Selected Organizations
Bibliography
Index