Tuesday, December 16, 2008

A collective effort against the flesh trade

The Word talked to B. Baby and Kalaivani, President and Secretary of the Indira Female Peer Educators Collective (IFPEC), respectively. IFPEC is a collective, of former and working female sex workers (FSWs) started in 2003 with 20 members. Today it boasts of 2088 members.

IFPEC has been organised by the Indian Community Welfare Organisation (ICWO), an NGO based in Vallalar Nagar, Anna Nagar West, Chennai. The collective primarily educates FSWs on safe sex and AIDS prevention. It also works as an advocacy group for FSWs, cares for their children, encourages savings schemes among them and even spreads awareness and rescues girls lured into the flesh trade. Pheroze L. Vincent reports…

(Pheroze L. Vincent ) PV: When did you become an FSW?
(B. Baby) BB: When I was 20 years old. I had a love marriage at 13. My husband was a drunkard. I had a friend whom, I didn’t know, was an FSW. One night my friend took me to her house when my husband had beaten me up very badly. She initiated me to the profession.

PV: What problems have you faced as an FSW?
BB: Customers have taken me to unknown locations and have not paid after the night was over. Some have left me off at unknown places. The decent ones give the bus fare for going home. Some get drunk and threaten us with knives. They hold us for more than a night and make us have sex with groups of 5 or 6.

PV: Have you ever been arrested?
BB: I was in a remand home in Bangalore for 6 months. In the home, we were taught Kannada, basket weaving and incense-stick making. The food was bad. We would get kanji (rice soup) and sometimes get eggs. I was bailed out by the owner of the lodge I worked in. Even after my released I faced many raids.

PV: Was there any torture?
BB: Police used to beat up repeated offenders in lock ups. We would pay the fine and get released. After they have been sensitized the torture has stopped for the past two years.

PV: Did you try any other profession after being released?
BB: I remained an FSW. I didn’t know about HIV. Once an FSW, we are stigmatized and we can’t find rented accommodation or jobs. Wherever we went we ended up in the same profession.

PV: When did you leave the profession?
BB: I got in touch with ICWO 12 years ago. We FSWs understand the plight of other FSWs. Another FSW talked me into joining. It has been 5 years since I left the profession.

PV: How do you recruit?
(Kalaivani) K: Our field volunteers distribute condoms to FSWs, free of charge, at soliciting sites, daily. We spread awareness about HIV and even demonstrated how condoms are used. Initially members are enrolled in a thrift society. We even conduct street plays.

BB: We have divided the city into 10 zones for operation. Volunteers and zone leaders need to submit regular reports and are even subject to audits. (She shows this writer, folders of audits and hand written reports.)

PV: What employment is available to former FSWs?
K: We train them in tailoring, driving, flower vending, candle making, running Idli shopsand so on. They also find jobs as domestic helps and security guards.

PV: How many FSWs are there in Chennai?
K: A survey in 2004 listed 6500 FSWs. They are centred mainly around the film production areas of Kodambakkam. When leaders of these zones get information of a procurer bringing girls into the trade, we go rescue them. They victims come here for jobs, especially in the cine field.

PV: Don’t you face opposition from those who run the business?
K: We counsel procurers and pimps too and sensitise them against this trade. We attend public hearings regarding sex workers so we are known to the authorities. We also bail out peer educators, who inevitably get arrested in raids.

PV: Do you face harassment of any sort?
BB: No, we do not operate in the areas we used to practice. The police know we belong to IFPEC. Some of us haven’t revealed our involvement in the trade to even our own children. We tell the landlords that we work for an NGO.

PV: Do you know of any FSW’s children born in prison?
K: No, we do not practice when we are pregnant. But, the atmosphere at home isn’t always good. Most of us, who are in the trade, are there because of irresponsible husbands. When FSWs are arrested we have cluster mothers who take care of them. We also have mentors who see that they get an education. The children often educate their parents.

BB: My daughter is in Class 12 now. She will go to college next year.

PV: What goals have you set for IFPEC?
K: We are now active in Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kanchipuram, Villupuram and Madurai districts. We want to spread our mission all over Tamil Nadu.

ICWO and IFPEC partner with the Tamil Nadu Aids Initiative- Voluntary Health Service (TAI-VHS) and Chennai Corporation AIDS Prevention and Control Society (CAPACS) and have even conducted workshops for the Tamil Nadu Police. The organization is headed by Mr. Hariharan. Information about their activities can be accessed at
www.icwoindia.org.

(With inputs and translation from Devasitham, who is doing a Masters in Social Work- Community Development student at Madras Christian College and interning at ICWO.)

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