Experiencing Sex ‘Work’
‘EXPERIENCING SEX ‘WORK’
A study of migrant female sex workers in Goa
BARKHA SHARDA
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
For the Degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies
School of Development Studies
Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Mumbai
2014
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 2
DECLARATION
I, Barkha Sharda, hereby declare that this dissertation entitled ‘Experiencing Sex ‘Work’: A study
of migrant female sex workers in Goa’ is the outcome of my own study undertaken under the
guidance of Dr. Meena Gopal, Associate Professor, Advanced Centre for Women’s Studies, School
of Development Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. It has not previously formed
the basis for the award of any degree, diploma or certificate of this or any other university. I have
duly acknowledged all the sources used by me in the preparation of this dissertation.
Date: Barkha Sharda
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 3
CERTIFICATE
This to certify that the dissertation entitled ‘Experiencing Sex ‘Work’: A Study of migrant female
sex workers in Goa.’ is the record of original work done by Ms. Barkha Sharda, under my guidance
and supervision. The results of the research presented in this dissertation have not previously
formed the basis for the award of any degree, diploma, or certificate of this institute or any other
institute or university.
Dr. Meena Gopal
Associate Professor
Advanced Centre for Women’s Studies
School of Development Studies
Date: Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 4
CONTENTS
List of Tables i
List of Maps ii
Acknowledgement iii-iv
Abstract v-vi
Introduction viii-xiii
Chapter 1: Review of Literature 1-20
Chapter 2: Research Methodology 21-25
Chapter 3: The Experience of migration and sex ‘work’ in Goa 27-53
Chapter 4: Negotiating sex ‘work’ 54-75
References 76-84
Annexure 01: Questionnaire 85-90
Turnitin Originality Report 91
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ ii
LIST OF MAPS
MAP 1.1: MAP OF GOA SHOWING ANTHROPOGENIC ACTIVITIES ALONG THE
COASTS: Pg vii
MAP 1.2: A MAP OF INDIA SHOWING THE GEOGRAPHICAL REGIONS FROM
WHERE THE WOMEN HAVE MIGRATED TO GOA: Pg 26
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I am grateful to Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai for allowing me to conduct this
study. I am extremely grateful to my advisor, Dr. Meena Gopal, Associate Professor,
Advanced Centre for Women’s Studies, School of Development Studies, Tata Institute of
Social Sciences for guiding me through these two years. I would also like to thank Dr.
Ritambhara Hebbar, Professor, School of Development Studies, Tata Institute of Social
Sciences for all her support. I am indebted to SDPI (Sustainable Development Policy
Institute), Islamabad and IDRC (International Development Research Centre), Canada for
providing me with a fellowship during the course of this research.
I am grateful to Dr. Lekha Nair, Associate Professor, Department of Physics, Jamia Milia
Islamia and Mr. Tolentino T. Furtado, Statistical Officer at Goa State Aids Control
Society (GSACS) for introducing me to Lifeline Foundation, Sankhali and Positive
People, Madgaon and making the initial meetings possible in Goa. This study would have
been incomplete without the participation and support of the women from both these
NGOs who have given me time in spite of the terrible monsoon and the long distances
they had to travel to meet me sometimes.
I am indebted to the fellow members at FAOW (Forum against Oppression of Women)
for the learning from the rich discussions through these years. I want to thank my mother,
my mother-in-law, my family and my close friends (Reva, Anjali, Saie, Arunima) for
their important inputs and Ketaki and Amit for being so supportive. Finally, I want to
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ iv thank Vishal for being a constant support, both through the fieldwork and the writing and
also agreeing to read my drafts a million times over.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ v
ABSTRACT
Women, within the gendered organization of sex work, are situated as passive subjects
under the construction of a dominant sexuality. The act of selling sexual services relies
upon patriarchal, socially constructed notions of gender/sexuality and heteronormativity
(Rubin 1992) where only the female body can be prostituted to a male one. The purchase
of women’s bodies for the purpose/act of sex by men becomes an exercise of male
dominance supported by patriarchal notions of unlimited access to female bodies.
Women choose to stay on in sex work to survive, especially in developing cities and the
recognition of this choice as a form of labour is essential to securing health and safety
standards for women in an industry that otherwise remains unregulated and unprotected,
not to forget the questionable notions of morality and a gendered double standard of the
sexual labour involved. At the same time, the enumeration of a woman as a non-worker
generally does not mean that she is not contributing to economy. Even if the majority of
women can be described as those engaged in household tasks, the category `household' is
very much an extended one for poor women. There is often a pull felt by migrants
particularly by women whose gendered labour is required in care work, domestic work
and sex work.
Therefore, the need to trace women’s narratives of citizenship as practitioners of an
illegal trade in third world cities, often essentialised and almost routinely forgotten. This
study brings out the experiences of women who have migrated to Goa as a result of
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ vi inadequate work opportunities for survival and are currently doing sex work to provide
for their families.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ vii
MAP 1.1: MAP OF GOA SHOWING ANTHROPOGENIC ACTIVITIES (HUMAN
IMPACT) ALONG THE COASTS AFFECTING THE LAND AND ENVIRONMENT IN
AND AROUND GOA.
Source: Mascarenhas, A., (1999) The Coastal Regulation Zone of Goa: Oceanographic, environmental and societal perspectives, retrieved from
http://www.iisc.ernet.in/currsci/dec251999/articles16.htm on February 12, 2014
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ viii
INTRODUCTION
This research study attempts to explore the experiences of migrant women in Goa as they
negotiate sex work within the informal work economy of the state. Goa, located in the western
part of India in the Konkan belt, used to be a Portuguese colony for over 450 years till it was
finally freed in 1961 and gained the status of an independent state only in 1987 (Desai, 1997). It
is important to trace the history of the state of Goa in order to understand the spatial politics
present in the state (Routledge, 2000). Couto (2005) speaks of the division the Goa of the past
into two parts. The first being Goa Dourada, which is the European image of Goa created as a
result of the Portuguese colonial rule. The other image, of Goa Indica, sees the state as an
influence of the Indian State in its element of anti-colonialism. To this, Desai (1977) has added a
third image of Goa; one that has grown out of the ‘need’ of tourists and the increase in
infrastructure in the state today. This Goa of migrants from neighbouring states like Karnataka
and Maharashtra (Desouza, 2005) is very different from that of the previous two. The trend in
increased migration from neighbouring states is visible in the census data of 2011. Of the total
population of Goa, 1/3rd has migrated from Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Goa had its own red light area based at Baina Beach in Vasco-da-Gama till 2004. In the absence
of an accepted definition of ‘red light area’ in India, the red light area has been understood here
as a demarcated city space inhabited by women and men in a hierarchical set up, doing sex work
in the same place to both solicit and cater to customers. Within India, such a space would involve
narrow lanes lined with several building-like structures which may or may not be marked or
numbered. The women usually wait outside the buildings while middle men fix the ‘rate’ with
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ ix the customers. There are also local thekas (bars selling local and cheap liquor) or bars along the
kothas or brothels. (Kotiswaran 2011) (Shah 2006)
Although, the present study has looked at lodge-based sex workers in Goa, the role and use of
public space is equally important in understanding the experiences of these women. In the
context of street based sex work, the analysis of Mumbai’s naka workers is significant. Research
has looked at the use of the naka by migrant women to solicit customers for generating income
through both construction work and sex work (Shah 2006). Naka has been described as either toll
booth or cross roads within the physical space but most importantly as a temporary labour
market which enhances the visibility of lower-caste migrants.
Vasco, as it is commonly called by the local people in Goa, is located towards South Goa which
is very close to the airport. It is also not too far from the railway station and bus stand at
Madgaon making it accessible to tourists. The area of 0.09 sq. km was home to about 4000
migrant sex workers according to a study conducted in 1997. According to the fact-finding
report1, after the demolition was carried out citing health issues and criminal activities the then
state government, the Baina Residents’ Association and the local Member of Legislative
Assembly (MLA) John Emanuel Vaz cited three specific reasons for the demolition. These
included, first, the need to stop the growing Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection
from spreading from Baina to other parts; the second was the increasing need to clean the area of
anti-social elements and criminals, especially sex workers and the need to recover the beach
from the red light area and making it accessible to other residents of Baina, especially children.
1 Evictions in Goa: Case study of Baina-A fact finding team’s report by Bailancho Saad, Goa, November 1997.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ x Sex work has been a known practice across India in ‘red light areas, like those in Sonagachhi
(Kolkata), G.B. Road (Delhi), the crumbling Kamathipura (Bombay) or those which were
demolished by the government i.e. Baina (Goa). The organization of sex work in Delhi, Mumbai,
Hyderabad and Kolkata is brothel based (Kotiswaran 2011). The women both live in the brothels
and cater to customers.
Studies have shown that women move into sex work for economic reasons. For those who move
to sex work over other economic options, for example, ‘search of better incomes to prevent
poverty of incomes’ is the primary reason (Sahni and Shankar 2011). Further, limited education
and poverty have been important factors in bringing women to the labour market and many have
moved to sex work though other work options have also been explored by most of the women
before deciding to do sex work. Also, sex work has been used by the women to supplement
existing incomes coming from other kinds of work. The study suggests from its findings that
most of the women in sex work have witnessed similar harsh conditions at work along with poor
working conditions and highly labour intensive work.
The findings of World Migration Report of 2013 carried out by the International Organization
for Migration has found that human inspiration is the main reason behind migration. The study
has looked at migration across 150 countries, and states that the search of better opportunities for
future living is the primary reason for migration. The other reasons include to join one’s family,
forced migration due to displacement and natural disasters among others. Although the study
looks at patterns from one country to another, it can also be used to validate the migration
patterns within India.
Further, the UNICEF/UNESCO policy brief states that internal migration within India is
estimated at 307 million of which 70.7% are women (UNICEF/UNESCO 2013). This internally
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ xi migrated population takes up cheap labour which normally goes unrecognized. This labour is
characterized as ‘dirty, dangerous and degrading’ (UNESCO 2013).
It is important to point out from the above mentioned reports that the category of a migrant
woman within India is therefore more susceptible to such work and working conditions. Within
this context, the experience of migrant women within India is extremely important; especially the
experiences of women doing sex work within Goa in the light of an overbearing Tourism
Industry after a decade of demolition of the Baina beach red light area in the state. These
experiences can contribute significantly to existing literature and future research.
The red light area in Mormugao Port in Vasco located at Baina Beach was demolished in June
2004 by the then Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government claiming it was harbouring
“prostitutes” who were spreading the HIV infection and making it difficult for the locals to use
the beach. Bailancho Saad, a women’s group in Goa in November 1997, much before the actual
demolition conducted a study following the constant raids in Baina earlier the same year.
Bailancho Saad was born in 1986-87 when Goa was going through a difficult phase and the issue
of identity had become of utmost importance to the people residing in Goa2. The group
maintained that these women were victims and should be prevented from any further
victimization resulting from the raids or the talks regarding the demolition of the area. The
ideological differences among feminists is highlighted while making distinctions that say women
were victims and should be prevented from any further victimization resulting from the raids or
the talks regarding the demolition of the area or in making distinctions between a sex worker and
a prostitute. The feminists who adopt a ‘sex workers’ rights approach’ respect and emphasize
2 DeSouza, S. (2009) Organising Women for Empowerment: a study of an Experiment in Goa, Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ xii agency and subjectivity of women in sex work and recognize the right of a woman to engage in
sexual labour within the given circumstances. Feminists who embrace an abolitionist perspective
often view the women who sell sex as exploited, abject victims and urge the abolition of
prostitution. (Barry 1984, 1995).
The Baina demolitions were carried out on 14th June 2004 through the order of a judgment of
the Goa Bench of Bombay High Court that ordered deportation (applicable only to foreigners) of
commercial sex workers from Baina beach and directed the state administration to identify and
demolish 250 cubicles. The state neither bothered to identify the 250 cubicles nor did anyone
challenge deportation order of the court. Instead on 14th June 2004 ten bulldozers surrounded
locality in ten different directions and brutally went on demolishing houses3.
The Goa State Aids Control Society (GSACS) has recorded over 3000 sex workers in the state4
in 2013. This data is only an estimated number. The exact numbers are not clear. This is because
sex workers are not a visible population. Since the demolition of Baina, the women now solicit
on the streets or in the lodges. It is difficult for an outsider to meet these women on their own.
Since then there have not been any signs that indicate the development of a new red light area
within Goa. There are currently either street based or lodge based sex workers in Goa. Street
based women frequent the tourist areas like the beaches, churches and casino areas whereas the
lodge based women make contact with the clients on the phone often with the help of lodge
owners who also work as middle men. The customers seek the help of lodge owners to find sex
workers and vice versa. All of this is discussed on the phone. Owing to the questions of morality
around sex work it is mostly the migrants who cater to clients for sexual services. The local
3 Evictions in Goa: Case study of Baina-A fact finding team’s report by Bailancho Saad, Goa, November 1997. 4 Goa State Aids Control Society (GSACS), retrieved from http://www.goasacs.nic.in/TI_FSW.pdf
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ xiii women are afraid that their families might find out if they decide to do sex work in their home
towns. As a result migrants are more inclined towards taking up sex work.
The present study has been conducted with the support of NGOs (Non-governmental
Organizations) running the GSACS projects in Goa. Although, GSACS has been working
towards the welfare of these women and provides free medical aid and care facilities there is still
little known about their personal lives. This study aims to bring out the stories of these women
who have migrated from different parts of the country.
It will document their experiences of migration, their preference of livelihood over other options
and the effect of the Baina demolition on their own options of work and their experiences with
rehabilitation.
The impacts of development are felt in the lives of the migrant women. Low literacy rates,
inaccessibility to schools, unemployment, a skewed sex ratio, poverty, etc. are instrumental
conditions in their migration from their home states. The fact that the economic exchange that
goes on in sex work is hidden, results in the experiences being absent from most research.
The first chapter traces the historical trajectory leading to the Baina demolition. The chapter
further discusses the research methodology; the research questions, geographical location,
method and the limitations of the study.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 1
CHAPTER ONE: REVIEW OF LITERATURE
This chapter traces the influences on the lives of these migrant women in Goa from secondary
data sources. These include the influence of development, forced rehabilitation, tourism, land
grab, popular notions of sex work, morality and the anti-trafficking movement.
Land Grab, Baina Beach and Rehabilitation
In 1995, the notorious Goa Land (Prohibition on Construction) Act was passed. According to the
Act, the local authority may remove any unauthorised temporary buildings work.— (1) The local
authority of the area or such authority as specified by the Government in this behalf, may remove
or cause to be removed any construction done in contravention of section 4. Section 4 reads
Restriction on construction on certain lands. No person shall on and from the date of
commencement of this Act, undertake any work of construction of any structure, building, hut or
other structure or any part thereof on any land belonging to the Government, a local authority
except under the authority of written permission granted by the concerned authority. This act
allowed the government to ‘legally’ carry out the demolition in 2004.
The government has not provided any one specific reason for the demolition, though it has
pointed towards several causes for the sudden act of demolition. When there is some sort of an
encroachment on a government land the government is bound to respect the fundamental rights
of the citizen and its policy must ensure that a) that the citizens, both men and women have an
adequate means of livelihood b) that the ownership and control of the material resources
including land are so distributed as best to subserve the common good and c) that the operation
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 2 of the economic system does not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production of
the common detriment. These are obligations set out in Article 39 of the DPSP (Directive
Principles of State Policy) of the Indian Constitution. However, the eviction notices were sent
under Section 405 read with section 416 and 1847 of the Goa, Daman and Diu Land Revenue
Code, 1968.
5 40. Summary eviction of person unauthorisedly occupying land vesting in Central Government.— (1) If in the
opinion of the Collector any person is unauthorisedly occupying or wrongfully in possession of any land— (a)
vesting in the Central Government; or (b) to the use or occupation of which he is not entitled or has ceased to be
entitled by reason of— (i) any of the provisions of this code, or (ii) the expiry of the period of lease or termination of
the lease for breach of any of the conditions annexed to the tenure, or (iii) it being not transferable without the
previous permission under sub-section (2) of section 24 or by virtue of any condition lawfully annexed to the tenure
under the provision of sections 20, 25 or 32, it shall be lawful for the Collector to summarily evict such person in the
manner provided in sub-section (2). (2) The Collector shall serve a notice on such person requiring him within such
time as may appear reasonable after receipt of the said notice to vacate the land, and if such notice is not obeyed, the
Collector may remove him from such land. (3) A person unauthorisedly occupying or wrongfully in possession of land after he
has ceased to be entitled to continue the use, occupation or possession by virtue of any of the reasons specified in sub-section (1),
shall also be liable at the discretion of the Collector to pay a penalty not exceeding two times the assessment or rent
for the land for the period of such unauthorised use or occupation.
6 41. Forfeiture and removal of property left over after summary eviction.— (1) After summary eviction of any
person under section 40, any building or other construction erected on the land or any crop raised in the land shall, if
not removed by such person after such written notice as the Collector may deem reasonable, be liable to forfeiture or
to summary removal. (2) Forfeitures under this section shall be adjudged by the Collector and any property so
forfeited shall be disposed of as the Collector may direct; and the cost of the removal of any property under this
section shall be recoverable as an arrear of land revenue.
7 184. Collector how to proceed in order to evict any person wrongfully in possession of land.— Whenever it is
provided by this Code or by any other law for the time being in force that the Collector may or shall evict any person
wrongfully in possession of land, such eviction shall be made in the following manner, that is to say:— (a) by
serving a notice on the person or persons in possession requiring them (within such time as may appear reasonable
after receipt of the said notice) to vacate the land, and (b) if such notice is not obeyed, by removing, or deputing a
subordinate to remove, any person who may refuse to vacate the same, and
(c) if the officer removing any such person be resisted or obstructed by any person, the Collector shall hold a
summary inquiry into the facts of the case, and if satisfied that the resistance or obstruction was without any just
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 3 The use of the above mentioned clauses indicated the desperation of the State to get the land
back. The area of 0.09 sq. km. of land overlooking the beach had somehow become the top
priority for the government.
Robert S. Newman in 1984 wrote about the visible changes in Goa at the time.8 He refers to the
focus on expanding Mormugao Port so as to facilitate the export of iron ore to further the
economy. He also discusses the fact that Goa has been a tourist destination for many years, but
only in the 1980s had it begun to suffer from mass tourism. He calls these visitors as people who
want little or nothing to do with Goan life - visitors cocooned in luxury hotels built on former
village land, staffed by former fishermen, toddy-tappers, and farmers, and supplied by the "more
reliable" sources outside the territory (Newman, R., 1984, Transformation of an Indian Region,
Pacific Affairs , Vol. 57, No. 3 , pp. 448).
Immediately, following the demolition of Baina in 2004, the governemnt announced a
rehabilitation scheme for the ‘victims’, the ‘prostituted’ women of Baina.9. The article said that
the then Chief Secretary had announced that the women would receive compensation of Rs. 1
lakh and shelter at Bal Niketan, a home for destitute women at Ribandar where the alternative
accommodation was being provided. The home earlier functioned as a mental asylum. The then
cause, and that such resistance and obstruction still continue, may, without prejudice to any proceedings to which
such person may be liable under any law for the time being in force for the punishment of such resistance or
obstruction, issue a warrant for the arrest of the said person, and on his appearance send him with a warrant, in the
prescribed form for imprisonment in the civil jail of the district for such period not exceeding thirty days as may be
necessary to prevent the continuance of such obstruction or resistance.
8 Newman, R. (1984) Transformation of an Indian Region, Pacific Affairs , Vol. 57, No. 3, pp. 429-449
9 NCW discusses Baina beach oustees' plight, The Hindu, Tuesday, Jun 15, 2004, accessed on November 23, 2013
retrieved from http://www.hindu.com/2004/06/15/stories/2004061501491200.htm
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 4 NCW Chairperson was quoted as saying that, “the atmosphere at Ribandar was hostile and that
the women did not want to go there for obvious reasons.”
De Souza, alleged the government claimed this demolition drive was only against the '250'
cubicles of commercial sex workers residing in 'illegal' structures in the Baina beach area as per
directions of the Bombay High Court Order (Goa bench).10 When the local press and the NGOs
pointed out that the demolition drive was conducted on an area where only a small number were
involved in commercial sex trade, the state administration responded that all these structures
were 'illegal' and in any case the evicted people were 'non-Goans', 'Kannadigas' and 'Andhraites'
It was evident on June 14, 2004, when the demolition took place that the state had no
rehabilitation plan either short term or long term. There were no relief supplies of food, water or
shelter that had been arranged. Some of the evicted people took shelter in a sports complex,
which had only two functional toilets for a thousand people. The government had announced that
there would be a rehabilitation plan by October the same year. The article enquired what people
were expected to do from June to October, the entire duration of the monsoons.
The Herald, one of Goa’s English dailies in June 200911 reported a study conducted by ARZ-
Anyay Rahat Zindagi12, a social work organization fighting against sex trafficking and towards
the rehabilitation of the women directly affected by the demolition, which concluded that sex
work in Baina continues even today due to a strong nexus between bar owners, pimps, brothel
keepers and room owners. It goes on to say that since the government has not been able to
10 Desouza, S. Razing Baina, Goa: In whose Interest? Economic and Political Weekly; Vol. XXXIX, No. 30; 3341-
3343
115 yrs on, prostitution still alive in Baina: Study , The Herald, June 14, 2009, retrieved from
http://oheraldo.in/news/main%20page%20news/5-yrs-on-prostitution-still-alive-in-Baina-Study/23118.html
12 ARZ-Anyay Rahat Zindagi, retrieved from http://www.arzindia.org/
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 5 provide the declared compensation to the women, sex work continues. In the absence of a
soliciting space the women had started frequenting lodges in Vasco and traveling to Panaji and
other parts of Goa also.
The Times of India in a report in June 200913 on the expanding red light area following the
demolition talked about the increased use of massage parlours for sex work. It said that Baina's
dingy rooms had now given way to fancy cubicles in massage parlours and air-conditioned
rooms in starred hotels. Taxi drivers and motorcycle pilots of Baina had now been replaced by
waiters, chai boys and beach hawkers. The modus operandi of the trade too it seems now has
adapted to the needs of the solicitors and the solicited, it said.
In 2011, The Herald carried a report on the current condition of the rehabilitation of the women
affected by the Baina demolition. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which handled the
government that was responsible for the demolition was in the opposition at this time. The
leader, Mr. Parrikar said that within seven months of the demolition his party lost the majority
vote so the rehabilitation was not carried out, and so it was now the responsibility of the present
government to do the same. The piece also contrary to the officially released number of 250
cubicles, presented 1200 cubicles and shacks as destroyed of which only 400 were involved in
sex work. It further mentioned there being ten bulldozers to raze the area clean. “The State
government is yet to provide compensation to the affected people, besides denying rehabilitation
package due to disputes about the actual number of affected people and technical problems in
13 The expanding red light district, The Times of India, June 10, 2009, retrieved from
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-06-10/goa/28155710_1_massage-parlours-baina-state-protective-
home
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 6 identifying victims after demolition of the cubicles at Baina,” claimed NGO ARZ chief Arun
Pandey.
Ezilda Sapeco, the Goa State Commission for Women Chairperson in 2011 was quoted as saying
that there had not been any Goan woman involved in sex work till date and these were mostly
women from other states. The same report also says that according to studies each year, at least
1% to 3% of the rescued victims are of Goan origin, either born to Goan parents or domiciles of
Goa," said police sources.14
The Bombay High Court Goa Bench had directed the Goa State government in January 2013 to
start the process of providing compensation to those who suffered in the demolition both sex
workers and residents following a writ petition by Mr. Arun Pandey. There is still no sign of any
rehabilitation or support being released by the State.
The Baina Rehabilitation Board in a report in June 201315 has said that there have been no
applications so far by the sex workers claiming compensation. The Department of Women and
Child Development has disagreed claiming a list of the applicants was sent long ago. ARZ has
been fighting for the releasing of compensation. In fact, the government survey showed a list of
900 women who should be compensated but the Board has not done anything to initiate this
process.
14 No Goan woman involved in flesh trade: Sapeco, The Times of India, April 30, 2011, retrieved from
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-04-30/goa/29490446_1_state-protective-home-combat-human-
trafficking-goan
15 No applications received, says Baina Rehabilitation Board, Goacom, June 20, 2013, retrieved from
http://www.goacom.com/goa-news-highlights/10265-no-applications-received-says-baina-rehabilitation-board
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 7 In early August 2013 the Times of India16 carried news following an interview with Michael
Lobo, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator from Calangute17 where several dance bars
have been illegally operating for years, who said the very concept of "dance bars" should be
identified and barred from licencing. He added that the directorate of panchayats and municipal
administration should be issued notices against giving licences to dance bars. The report also
mentioned that Lobo had in the past defied the BJP government's Tourism Minister Dilip
Parulekar over the issue of licences to a Playboy club in Goa. Contradictorily the legislator's
constituency has been in the news after several raids by the police exposed several dance bars.
Over the last few months in 2013 the newspapers have been filled with instances of trafficked
victims being found in police raids. It has been suggested that the anti-sex work stand of the
MLA results in all instances of sex work being registered as trafficking.
Development and Tourism
The 2012 budget of the Goa State Government by Mr. Manohar Parrikar (the Chief Minister in
2012 as well as at the time of the demolition) allocated an amount to construct ‘Rabindra
Bhavan’ to be used for the promotion of the arts and culture. The building stands overlooking the
beach today waiting to be inaugurated.
Tourism is the biggest industry in Goa today. In fact, for the 2014 Surajkund Mela which is an
annual cultural festival held in Haryana attracts a huge number of national and international
16 I will oppose dance bars: Lobo, The Times of India, August 13, 2013, retrieved from
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-08-13/goa/41372351_1_dance-bars-shacks-operators
17 A popular beach in North Goa
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 8 tourists, has chosen Goa as the theme state. This will bring more tourists to Goa than ever before.
India has also started the visa on arrival18 scheme for about forty countries to attract more
tourists. These include US, UK, Brazil, Italy, France and Germany. Among the airports within
India where this facility will be available Goa is a top priority.
Goa tourism has recently launched a ‘Goa app’19 for smart phones. It has a multi-lingual feature
to cater to non-English speaking tourists, providing information on demography, boarding and
lodging, travel fairs, must-see places, etc. It also provides information in Hindi, Russian and
German. It also helps users acquaint themselves with various Konkani phrases and terms.
Bacchetta20 has illustrated the image of a ‘sensual brown erotic whore’ (1988 pp. 12) to better
the tourism market along with an inexpensive vacation complete with five start hotels and the
tropical beaches. According to the article, the clients of sex-tourism are white, middle- class,
heterosexual men; the prostitutes are women from the poorest local sectors who are increasingly
being forced to take up sex work for survival. She concludes that the entire economy of the sex-
tourism area is becoming oriented towards engaging the women in sex work, the land and its
resources.
Routledge in 200021, criticizing the New Economic Policy of 1991 has talked about the intensive
tourist development that led to the marginalization of the needs of the local population. This
would result in the host communities losing control over their land and sea which would get
18 India to give visa on arrival to 40 countries, (2013) , October 08, 2013, Arabian Business.com,
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/india-give-visa-on-arrival-40-countries-522184.html accessed on October 13, 2013
19http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Now-Goa-app-available-on-your-
smartphone/articleshow/29226058.cms
20 Bachhetta P., (1988) Indian Women Fight Sex-Tourism, Off Our Backs, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 12
21 Routledge, P. (2000), Consuming Goa, Economic and Political Weekly, Volume XXXV (No. 30)
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 9 increasingly exploited for tourist consumption. Also, their share in the profits derived from
tourist trade would be minimal. He points out that tourism often brings increased levels of crime,
prostitution and drug use into local communities and manipulates their cultural traditions. In
short, the construction of tourist sites such as Goa is predicated upon a development ideology
that defines local people's space as dispensable to the needs of both national and transnational
capital. This has affected both the human and coastal ecology of Goa. It is a form of
development that is deaf to the voices of local people, unless it is confronted by direct and
organised resistance.
Further Routledge discusses the phenomenon of a ‘gendered Goa.’ “In a majority of tourist
literatures, Goa has been characterized as female, and is sold to an imaginary male consumer”
(2000, pp. 2650). The article points out that the Tourism Department and hotel chains promote
sex tourism by presenting bikini clad Indian women in their advertisements. He goes to the
extent of suggesting that the hotel chains organize prostitutes for the male customer and explains
the concept of ‘beach boys’ unique to Goa. Beach boys are young men who independently enter
into sexual relations with female/male tourists in exchange for money.
The other important aspect of Goa’s economy is the mining industry although it has been banned
since 2012.22 The mining belt is believed to cover almost 700 sq. km spread over both the North
and South Districts covering four talukas in all. The state of Goa has been a major iron ore
exporter and over 60% of the country's iron ore export came from Goa. According to Ministry of
Environment and Forests, Government of India, the foreign exchange earnings amounted to
22 The Justice M.B. Shah Commission of Enquiry into Illegal mining in Goa (No.435/2012) led to the Supreme
Court passing its famous order of 5th October 2012 disallowing the re-start of any mining activities in Goa and
injuncting anyone in the State trading or transporting mineral ores.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 10 nearly Rs.1000 crore per annum. It has been the first time since the Portuguese leased out the
land in Goa, that the mining has been discontinued. The report mentions the ecological
degradation owing to the waste accumulated by the use of opencast mining. This method has
resulted in deforestation, land degradation and groundwater pollution among others. Also, the
report has found trends of illegal mining within the state. The report found a Rs. 35,000 crore
illegal mining scam. Both the state and the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF)
have been accused of being involved. The illegalities include mining without licenses, mining
outside lease area and transporting minerals illegally. The FIR has named over 50 people
including bureaucrats, politicians and government employees.
Goa boasts of a Rs. 150 crore Casino sub-industry. According to media reports23 the local
population is not happy with the industry and wants to close down the casinos. They believe it is
ruining the cultural fabric of Goa. The government agrees with the people that it brings with it
drugs, prostitution and liquor but is not willing to close it down.
The literature on the demolition suggests that the women of Baina spreading HIV (also
speculative in the reports on the HIV status of women) had anything to do with the demolition. It
suggests the staging of the threat for a much desired land grab.
According to a study reported by the Navhind Times in 1997,24 25% of the sex workers in Baina
were HIV positive. However, according to Bailancho Saad, these statistics are questionable since
at that time only sex workers were singled out and forced to give blood samples for testing. The
actual number may not be known. Another point made in the study was made by the Mormugao
Port Trust Officers. Baina is located in the Mormugao Port. The officers said that red light areas
23http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Casinos-in-Goa-The-disaster-factor/articleshow/24956050.cms
24 Evictions in Goa: Case study of Baina-A fact finding team’s report by Bailancho Saad, Goa, November 1997.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 11 are an inevitable part of every port in the world whether it was Amsterdam, Antwerp or
Hamburg. The only difference was that, in Europe, prostitution was legalized and so there was
greater medical regulation whereas in India, the health of the women was not looked after by the
Government.
In a study25 by Shahmanesh, Wayal and others it has been concluded, sociopolitical events that
destabilize the context and force sex workers into unorganized, fragmented, and clandestine
working conditions create barriers to effective HIV prevention and community mobilization.
The Deccan Herald in a news report26 on the Goa government’s eviction of sex workers quoting
the then chairperson of the National Commission for Women, Mrs Mohini Giri, saying the Goa
government was forcibly evicting sex workers and other residents from the Baina red-light
locality and that amounted to a violation of human rights and would accordingly be challenged in
the Supreme Court by the commission. The report charged that under the guise of controlling
AIDS, cleaning up the area of criminals and particularly prostitutes and making the beach
accessible to the people of Baina, the government was actually removing the 'encroachers' so as
to facilitate the development and expansion of Mormugao port. The port trust has already
appointed international consultants, M/s Frederic and Harris, to work out a master plan to meet
the needs of growing traffic.
25 A Study Comparing Sexually Transmitted Infections and HIV Among Ex-Red-Light District and Non-Red-Light
District Sex Workers After the Demolition of Baina Red-Light District. Journal of acquired immune deficiency
syndromes (1999) (11 June 2009), doi:10.1097/qai.0b013e3181ab6d75
by Maryam Shahmanesh, Sonali Wayal, Andrew Copas, Vikram Patel, David Mabey, Frances Cowan
26 Goa government's eviction of sex workers to be challenged in SC, Deccan Herald on November 25, 1997,
retrieved from http://www.walnet.org/csis/news/world_97/dhnews-971125.html
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 12 Migration, Sex Trafficking, Protectionism and Palermo Protocol
Agustin has pointed out a relevant though disappointing truth about migrants, sex work and
morality in her article on the category of disappearing migrants.27 She observes that migrants
‘selling sex’ (Agustin 2007) often mention that they also do domestic labour, either as a second
job or as part of the first. Research on domestic workers seldom asks them about whether they
engage in sex work to supplement their monthly income, only covering the abuses they
experience. Nevertheless, some researchers do acknowledge that sexual labour often forms part
of the expected work, though always not explicitly. “Taboos are very strong here; though far
from ‘protecting’ women from stigmatisation, they act to maintain the oppressive dichotomy of
‘still virtuous’ versus ‘bad’ or ‘fallen’ women”(Agustin 2007).
In the same article, she has suggested that migrant women who are sex workers are made to
disappear from the discussions and the numbers in migration studies and diaspora studies.
According to the analysis in the book this is so because of the use of the term ‘prostitution’
(which is often considered to be a stigmatized term) in discussing migrant women who engage in
sex work which is problematic in itself. She problematizes the area of groups who work to ‘help’
and ‘save’ these women and place them ‘in need’. One of the main ideas emerging from her
writings points towards the importance of the voice of these women.
Jeffreys28 however criticizes those who wish to ‘normalise’ this exploitation of women. She is
fearful of the global sex trade and the harmful cultural practices being initiated by it.
27 Agustin, L(2006): The Disappearing of a Migration Category: Migrants Who Sell Sex, Journal of Ethnic and
Migration Studies, 32:1, 29-47
28 Jeffreys, S. (2008) The Industrial Vagina: The Political Economy of the Global Sex Trade-The Political Economy
of the Golbal Sex Trade, Taylor and Francis
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 13 In the larger debates around trafficking, sex work is invariably used as a synonym for all human
trafficking. Denying the migrant sex workers both agency and the ability to make one’s own
decisions results in ‘the treatment of all movement of women as coerced and reinforcing
assumptions of third world women as victims, as infantile and as incapable of decision-
making’.29 This ‘genders’ the concepts of victimisation and consent – women are victims, men
inherently consent to the women being victimized. Bindman30 has described trafficking as
migration assisted by a third party whereas Hague31 describes it as an ‘anti-social and morally
degrading, heinous event’ that differs from migration based on the victims’ increased exposure to
harm. Bindman understands trafficking purely in terms of postcolonial power dynamics and
xenophobia that institutes immigration barriers, forcing one to use trafficking as a means to
migrate.
Kempadoo sees the trafficking paradigm in a slightly different light when she points out that the
state looks at women as victims who must be protected from trafficking, and such protection
often becomes a tool for the violation of women’s rights by restricting their right to move.
Moreover the focus on prostitution as the main site of trafficking has diverted the debate from
one of rights and vulnerabilities to issues of morality (Kempadoo 2005). Further she explains the
importance and rationale of using the term ‘sex work.’ She says it indicates an income-
29 Agnes, F. (2008): The Bar Dancer and the Trafficked Migrant: Globalisation and Subaltern Existence. In:
G.Letherby, et. al. (eds) Sex as Crime. Devon, UK; Portland, USA: Willan Publishing, pp. 99- 117.
30 Bindman, J. (1997) Redefining Prostitution as Sex Work on the International Agenda
http://www.walnet.org/csis/papers/redefining.html
31 Hague, M. S. (2006) Ambiguities and Confusions in Migration-Trafficking Nexus. In: K. Beeks
and D. Amir (eds) Trafficking and the global sex industry. Oxford: Lexington Books, pp. 3-20.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 14 generating activity/form of labour for women and men, as opposed to prostitution which is often
looked at as a social/psychological characteristic of women, often indicated by the term ‘whore.’
Transnational migration has been described as the main reason for an increase in sex trafficking.
Sassen32 has written about how the globalised economy is creating a strong pull on migrants
from poorer countries to fill up jobs which are in the lower rungs of the Western economies. This
pull is felt most by those women whose ‘gendered labour’ is needed in care work, sex work and
domestic work. Moreover, this pull will only increase as the population of the West grows older.
In case of migration within the same country which is a common feature in India at any given
time, the same analogy is used. The victimisation remains consistent in spite of the absence of
illegality in the present context.
There is no denying that human trafficking is a big concern today. At the same time we are still
struggling to recognise the existence of sex ‘work’. Goa in particular is struggling with a large
number of migrants such that the state government has claimed that if the same trends continue,
by 2021 the migrant population will outnumber that of the local population.33 Child trafficking,
sex trafficking, forced migration have to all be seen as distinctly different from women opting to
engage in sex work from among a range of work options available to them.
The Coalition against Trafficking in Women (CATW) - Asia Pacific is of the opinion that
‘Prostitution has to be recognized not only as part but as a basis of the larger system of
32 Sassen, S. Global Cities: New York, London, Tokyo (1991) Princeton University Press
33Unbridled migration may reduce ethnic Goans to minority: Govt., The Hindu Business Line, June 13, 2013,
retrieved from http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/states/unbridled-migration-may-reduce-ethnic-goans-to-
minority-govt/article4810735.ece
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 15 patriarchal subordination of women. There is a need to urgently restructure gender relations so
that sexuality ceases to be used as a commodity to be bought or sold’.34
In 2000, the United Nations (UN) has reached an agreement over a definition that identifies the
three critical components to human trafficking: these are the act, the means and the purpose. An
act would include “recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons”. The
means would include the use of “threat or use of force, coercion, abduction, abuse of power or
vulnerability, or giving payments or fraud, deception, or benefits”. The purpose is usually one
involving some sort of exploitation including “prostitution of others, sexual exploitation, forced
labour, slavery or similar practices, removal of organs or other types of exploitation”.
The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime was signed in Palermo,
Italy. The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women
and Children and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air
convention supplemented the protocol. The first of these protocols is often referred to as the
Trafficking Protocol and more commonly as the Palermo Protocol.35
Doezema in an article on the Palermo Protocol36, discusses how varied experiences of migrant
sex workers do not fit into the stereotypical portrayal of a young and naïve innocent lured or
deceived by evil traffickers into a life of sordid horror from which escape is nearly impossible.
Further, the representation of this woman both in policy making and media continues to be that
34http://action.web.ca/home/catw/readingroom.shtml?x=16287&AA_EX_Session=7e190573d59b6bd4005647e8d2a50f48 35 The Palermo Protocol retrieved from http://www.palermoprotocol.com/
36 Jo Doezema (2005) ‘Now You See Her, Now You Don't: Sex Workers at the UN Trafficking Protocol
Negotiation’ Social & Legal Studies Vol. 14 no. 1 61-89
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 16 of a sorry woman. ‘In the myth of trafficking in women, structured around the figure of the
passive and unknowing innocent, the active, aware ‘sex worker’ disappears’. (2005, pp. 22)
Ilse van Liempt37, in her research on irregular migration talks about two aspects integral to this
research. She differentiates between the concepts of ‘human smuggling’ and of ‘human
trafficking’, framing them around the concepts of agency as well as exploitation. The definition
of trafficking according to her emphasizes upon the fact that people are transferred forcefully and
against their will and end up in exploitative situations; while the definition of smuggling stresses
upon the idea of an ‘illegal’ entry, to which the migrant agrees. However, the differences
between forced and assisted migration are still not clear. There may be all sorts of different
degrees of force and exploitation in migration processes where there has been ‘assistance’. She
has criticized the usage of terms like smuggling and trafficking calling them a reflection of other
people’s opinions on the topic than grounded in migrants’ real-life experiences. There is then
also the question of whether trafficking is always a non-consensual mode of recruitment into sex
work or whether it was a form of migration taken under extreme conditions with constrained
consent. She goes on to explain how gendered perceptions of assisted migration often result in
the fear that trafficked women would be exploited. The generalization that women are more
often trafficked than men has led to an assumption that all migrant women are at risk which is
responsible for the protective policy measures in the form of the ‘rescue industry’38 and ‘anti-
trafficking drives’ that often restrict women in the decisions they take.
37Liempt, I (2009) Illegal Migration and Gender in a Global and Historical Perspective, Chicago University Press
38 A term used by Laura Maria Agustin in her book ‘Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue
Industry,’ in 2007
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 17 Sex ‘Work’, Morality and Rehabilitation Weizner in ‘The Sociology of Sex work39’ discusses the terminology designed in a way so as to
make the women feel victimized. ‘Prostituted’ implies an action, something that may be done to
a person unlike a condition the person may opt for. The author elaborates on the various kinds of
prostitution that are taken up by the women including as street walkers, at massage parlours,
escorts and call girls. He discusses further three paradigms in prostitution. These are the
oppression paradigm which holds that sex work is a quintessential expression of patriarchal
gender relations; the empowerment paradigm, which focuses on the ways in which sexual
commerce qualifies as work, involves human agency, and may be potentially empowering for
workers; and third, the polymorphous paradigm which holds that there is a constellation of
occupational arrangements, power relations, and worker experiences. Both the oppression and
empowerment paradigms are one-dimensional which is why the author focuses on the need for
the third paradigm.
In ‘Choices Women Make,’ Showden40 takes the stand that dividing sex work into legal
(pornography) and illegal (prostitution), as is the case in United States of America, does not help
women. She elaborates by emphasizing on women’s limited ‘choices’ considering several
constraints in gaining a good salary through satisfying work plus the normative construction of
women’s sexuality help explain women’s decision to engage in sex work. She insists on the need
to de-victimise the woman and make it less exploitative in order to decrease harm to the women
and increase their life ‘choices’.
39 Weizner, R. (2009) Annual Review of Sociology
40 Showden C., Choices Women Make: Agency in Domestic Violence, Assisted Reproduction, and Sex Work.
University of Minnesota Press, 2011 Project MUSE Web 11 Feb. 2014.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 18 Sahni 41 brings forth that within economic consciousness, sexual labour is a relatively less
explored area and remains marginalised within the gamut of informal livelihoods often
understood as an economic alternative for many women. The study suggests that it is a problem
of contested identities. Using the example of a woman selling socks or handkerchiefs in a local
train or working as a vegetable vendor, it has been illustrated how the identity of this woman
then as a worker participating in the informal economy is not disputed despite the fact that she
may be ‘working’ for an insignificant income. She is still considered to be performing some sort
of ‘legitimate’ labour and therefore is part of the informal economy. Alternately when she
decides to practice sex work, all the other identities cease to exist and she also loses the
recognition of ‘work’ that goes with it.
Karandikar and Gezinski 42 show in their study on the clients of sex workers that the perceptions
of sex work as a profession were strikingly similar among the respondents, all of whom were
male clients. Most of them viewed sex workers’ entrance into the profession as a result of
poverty. They differentiated the position of those women doing sex work from the general
population of women, claiming that sex workers were ‘soiled’ women who would be unable to
transcend the stigma associated with the profession. They attributed sex purchase to biological
needs and claimed that ‘good’ women would be raped if sex workers were not available. Many
respondents discussed women’s entry into sex work, displaying their knowledge of the many
catalytic factors that coerced them into sex work, including brute force. Poverty and deprived
41 Sex Work and its Linkages with Informal Labour Markets in India: Findings from the First Pan-India Survey of
Female Sex Workers, Rohini Sahni and V. Kalyan Shankar, February 2013,IDS Working Paper, Volume 2013,
no.416
42 Karandikar S. and Gezinski L.,(2012) 'Without Us, Sex Workers will Die Like Weeds': Sex Work and Client
Violence in Kamathipura.’ Indian Journal of Gender Studies Vol. 19 no. 3 351-371
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 19 familial background were cited as push factors. Interestingly, they supported the need to legalize
sex work despite the earlier discussions on ‘good’ and ‘bad’ women.
Shukla43 talks about how the term sex work was being used extensively by organizations of
women in prostitution provoking an outrage from the conservative to the progressive and
feminists alike. He suggests that sex work/prostitution can be considered to be an interesting
intersection of sex, marriage, sexuality, patriarchy interplaying and having a mentionable impact
on notions of morality, women's autonomy and feminism. From being looked upon as an
outcome of capitalism by Marxists or as an ultimate degradation of women by radical and
socialist feminists to being asserted as a right to work is a long journey.
Moni Nag44 in ‘Sex Workers in Sonagachhi: Pioneers of a Revolution’ written from his
experience in Sonagachhi, the red light district in Calcutta in early 2000 suggests that any
attempts to rehabilitate sex workers by government and non-government agencies during the past
decades have failed miserably mainly because of the widespread social stigma against them and
lack of adequate resources necessary to carry out a successful rehabilitation plan. It is therefore
more effective to empower these women so that they can lead their own lives and prevent forced
second generation prostitution.
In 2012, a report by the Global Commission on HIV and the Law was delivered to the United
Nations45, recommending the decriminalisation of sex work, homosexual adult activity, and
45 Shukla, R., (2007) Women with Multiple Sex Partners in Commercial Context, Economic and Political Weekly ,
Vol. 42, No. 1, pp. 18-21
44 Nag, M. Sex Workers in Sonagachhi, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol - XL No. 49, December 03, 2005
45 UNAIDS (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS), July 2012, retrieved from
http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2012/july/20120711lawcommission/
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 20 individual drug use. The report suggested that it was the criminalisation of homosexual activity,
voluntary sex work, and injecting drug use that was keeping affected people away from
accessing treatment services and thus exacerbating the disease's spread. Even in cases where the
threat of punitive action was less direct, legal environments overseas was capable of creating
barriers which prevented the most vulnerable groups from receiving the services needed to put a
dent in overall infection numbers.
Phil Hubbard in ‘Cleansing the Metropolis46’ explores the debates concerning low tolerance
levels towards sex workers. He discusses how sex workers stand at the intersection of a host of
public fears about criminality, exploitation and disorder, and hence make convenient targets for
policy-makers wishing to demonstrate their dedication to matters of law and order. He also
explains the critics stand on it. He suggests that this will amount to a policy of victim bashing
that does not do much to tackle the underlying causes of urban crime and poverty.
46 Hubbard, P., (2004) Cleansing the Metropolis: Sex Work and the Politics of Zero Tolerance, Urban Study August
vol. 41 no. 9 1687-1702
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 21
CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Following from the review of literature, the focus of the study revolves around the following
research question and four specific objectives.
Research Question
The study will document the experiences of migrant women in sex work in Goa after the
demolition of the Baina beach red light area in 2004. This will bring out an understanding of sex
work and sexual labour within sex work in the informal sector in Goa. This research question is
broken down into the following objectives.
Objectives
The main research question explored in the research is the experience of migrant women who are
currently doing sex work in Goa. This can be further broken down into four objectives. These are
as follows-
1. What led these women to migrate to Goa?
2. How did these women decide to take up sex work? What was their experience of sex
work?
3. How has the Baina demolition impacted the livelihood options of the women?
4. How do the women negotiate for more control over their livelihood options?
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 22 Rationale for Geographical Location
Goa’s geographical area is of 3,702 sq. km. The Arabian Sea on the West has helped the state
develop into one of the most prominent beach tourist destinations today. It attracts local, national
and international tourists. It is also the venue of the IFFI (International Film Festival of India),
held end of each year. In 2014, Goa also witnessed the Lusofonia Games, held every four years
among the Portuguese speaking nations only. These include Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique,
Angola and Sri Lanka47. In all there are eleven Portuguese speaking nations across the world
today.
Goa boasts of hosting the Sunburn Dance and Music Festival which recorded 1.5 lakh visitors in
2012.48 The event is spread over three days with a lineup of artists from all over the world.
A recent newspaper report in The Times of India says that the tourist population to Goa in 2013
crossed the three million mark. It indicates a 12% rise in tourist population since the previous
year. A total of 31.21 lakh tourists have visited Goa in 2013.49
This study has been conducted in Goa, partly in Madgaon city and partly in the rural part
Sankhali. According to the Census data of 201150, more than 60% of Goans live in Urban Goa.
47 Lusofonia Games 2014, Government of Goa, Press Release retrieved from
http://lusofoniagames2014.gov.in/sites/all/themes/universiade/files/Press%20release%20launch%20of%20web%20p
ortal%2004-10-13.pdf
48 Sunburn Goa Music Festival, The Times of India, January 01, 2013, retrieved from
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-01-01/music-events/36093861_1_sunburn-goa-music-festival-
edm/2
49 Tourist arrivals crossed 3 million mark in 2013, The Times of India, January 23, 2014, retrieved from
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2014-01-23/goa/46513392_1_goa-tourism-gtdc-chairman-nilesh-cabral-
tourism-minister-dilip-parulekar
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 23 Also, the literacy rate has seen upward trend since 2001. The rate was 88.70% as per 2011
population census. Of that, male literacy stands at 92.65%while female literacy is at 82.16%. The
report says that urbanization has been rapid in Goa especially because of tourism. The high level
of literacy and the prosperity of the Goan state have resulted in an almost invisible labour class.
Both mining and tourism industries, as well as the smaller ones like ship building bring in labour
from other states. There is a high percentage of non-Goans in Goa currently. According to a
statement given by the Chief Minister, Manohar Parrikar, less than 51% of the population is
Konkani speaking.
The majority of women were either from Maharashtra or Karnataka. Of the ten women
interviewed five were from Karnataka while two were from Maharashtra. One woman had
migrated from West Bengal, while another was a Rajput and another had been trafficked as a
child from Bangladesh.
Method
The study is qualitative in nature attempting to capture narratives from the lives of migrant sex
workers. The study uses interviews and Focus Group discussion (FGD). Two NGOs, Lifeline
Foundation and Positive People helped identify sex workers and set up meetings in their offices
to interact with them. Five women each from both the NGOs agreed to be a part of the study.
The women have provided narratives from their lives as migrants practicing sex in Goa helping
me to understand their lives both before the demolition of Baina and the current situation in Goa.
50 Census India, Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, retrieved from
http://www.census2011.co.in/census/state/goa.html on January 19, 2014
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 24 The method of data collection was individual in-depth interview with the help of a questionnaire
with both survey type and open ended questions of 16 sections and an FGD around the same
themes with the interviewed women.
There were two interview sittings held at the office with each of the women. Three women from
Sankhali allowed the researcher to visit them at their homes apart from the office meetings. The
FGD was held at the Sankhali with the five women who had been interviewed along with another
peer educator who was at the office on the given date. The FGD has helped in exploring the
relationship that the sex workers have with other co-sex workers, absence and relevance of a red
light area, migration, rehabilitation, physical danger and role of the police. The discussions
revolved around the topics that also came up during the individual interviews.
Taking from Reinharz (Reinharz 1992)51, it can be said that feminist research will help fulfill the
following required goals of research-
1. To be able to document the lives and activities of women-a feminist orientation allows
the viewing of women as equal members of their political, social and economic worlds;
2. To be able to view the experience of women from their place(standpoint)-corrects the
bias of non-feminist participation that sees the activities of women from the point of view
of the male researcher, and
3. To be able to understand women’s behavior as an expression of their own social contexts-
an interpretation of the women’s behavior as based on her social context rather than in
isolation rooted in anonymity.
51 Reinharz S., Davidman, L. (1992), Feminist Methods in Social Research, New York: Oxford U P.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 25 Limitations
The distances from the homes of the women to the NGO office was over 10 km for nine out of
the ten women making the travel to the office both difficult and a long journey. The nature of the
work of the women did not allow for many meetings with each of the women both individually
and in a group, limiting the opportunity to gradually allow the women to express themselves in
the interviews. The biggest challenge was the fact that the migrant women had different mother
tongues. While some would speak Kannada, some spoke Marathi. All the women spoke only
broken Hindi as a common language amongst them and the researcher making the process of
interviewing slow.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 26
MAP 1.2: A MAP OF INDIA SHOWING THE GEOGRAPHICAL REGIONS FROM
WHERE THE WOMEN HAVE MIGRATED TO GOA
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 27 CHAPTER THREE: THE EXPERIENCE OF MIGRATION AND SEX ‘WORK’ IN GOA
This chapter tries to bring out the findings of the first two research objectives based on the
interviews and interactions with the women. It explains how and why the women moved to Goa
and how they decided to do sex work. It also brings out the women’s experience of doing sex
work.
The themes that have emerged in the study include employment opportunities and marriage as an
important factor for migration to Goa. It also includes the conscious decisions around livelihood
options including the entry into sex work and continuing with it as well as the multi-layered
exploitation of women in a patriarchal society.
The following two tables explain the social background and the work history and migration
pattern of the women.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 28
Participant Age State of
birth
Religion &
Caste
Marital
status
Living with/
if with
family no. of
members
Dependents in
Goa/elsewhere
No. of
earning
members
(including
self)
Education Languages
known
ID proof
Pooja 32 Karnataka Islam,
belonging
to Sayyed
caste
Married Family,
husband, four
children and
brother-in-
law, his wife
and two
children
Children and
parents
3 no
education
Konkani,
Kannada,
Hindi, Little
knowledge of
English
Voter I-
card,
Aadhar
Card,
Ration Card
Pallavi 25 Karnataka Islam,
belonging
to
Makkandar
caste
Married Family,
husband, and
two children
Children and
husband(has
erratic pay)
2 Upto Class
4
Hindi,
Kannada,
Urdu, a little
Konkani
Adhar card,
Voter I-card
Jaya 37 West Bengal Schedule
Caste
Widowed Daughter and
grand
daughter
Daughter and
grand daughter
1 Upto Class
5
Bengali, Hindi Voter I-
card,
Aadhar
Card, Pan
Card,
Ration Card
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 29
Lalita 34 Karnataka Hindu Widowed Living with
three
children
None 4 no
education
Hindi,
Kannada,
Telugu, a little
Konkani
Adhar card
Hema 23 Maharashtra Islam,
belonging
to Sheikh
caste
Widowed living with
boyfriend
Boyfriend 1,
boyfriend
has erratic
pay
Upto class
7
Konkani,
Hindi, Marathi
None
Farzana 19 Karnataka Islam single Alone None 1 no
education
Kannada,
Hindi, Urdu
None
Nimmi 35 Uttarakhand Hindu,
belonging
to Rajput
caste
Married husband and
five children,
the sixth
daughter is
married
Children and
husband
2 no
education
Konkani very
little, Hindi,
Bihari
Voter I-
card, Pan
card, Adhar
card
Rati 18 Karnataka Hindu,
belonging
to Naik
caste
single Alone None 1 no
education
Konkani,
Hindi,
Kannada
None
Rani 24 Maharashtra Hindu Widowed with partner two children 2 no
education
Marathi,
Hindi,
Konkani
Ration card
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 30
Seema 37 Trafficked
from
Bangladesh
as a child
Islam Married Family,
husband and
four children
four children 2 no
education
Telugu,
Kannnada,
Konkani,
Hindi, Bengali
None
TABLE 3.1: SOCIAL BACKGROUND OF THE WOMEN
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 31
Participant Town/city/state lived in Period Nature of work Geographical
area(s) frequented
to meet clients in
Goa
Reasons for
leaving
Duration of
having been
sex work
Pooja Panaji from Karnataka From the
age of seven
with parents
looking for
work
Selling bags in fish market,
when father suffered an
accident earning Rs.12 to Rs.
15 each day. Then moved to
construction. Continued for a
year after marriage. Fourteen
years ago marriage. Started
doing sex work as husband was
not earning enough money
Mapusa, Ponda and
Madgaon
Pregnancy Over a year
Pallavi Taleigao from Karnataka
From the
age of 8 or 9
with parents
as there
were
relatives
there
Selling plastic bottles marriage
last three
years
sex work and subsequently
domestic work to help going
out of the house
Banasthali, Ponda last three years
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 32
Jaya Came to Mumbai from
West Bengal
stayed for
10 years till
the ban on
the dance
bars
bar dancer ban on the dance
bars
Moved to Karwar for two
years
pharmaceutical factory over the
week and traveling with clients
for sex work over weekends
low pay from the
factory
Moved to Goa over five
years
sex work Marcel, Mapusa,
Bicholi
over five years
Lalita Moved to Goa at 13 with
husband
for eight
years since
husband
was not
earning well
domestic work and a vegetable
shop with family; sex work
Marcel, Old Goa,
Banasthali
for over six
years
Hema
Moved to Delhi when 12-
13 after parents' death
stayed for
eight
months
domestic work low pay
Moved to Bombay stayed for a
few days
looked for sex work at
Kamathipura
did not like the
environment
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 33
Moved to Goa For last
eight years
initially domestic work then
full time sex work
Ponda been in sex
work since
five years now
Farzana Moved to Goa for a year sex work Colva, near the
railway station at
Madgaon
been in sex
work for over
a year now
Nimmi Moved to Goa 7 years
ago
for about
three years
laundry work pain in ovaries
for over
three years
sex work Colva, Madgaon,
Ponda
for over three
years
Rati Moved to Bombay when
she was 11, 7 years ago
for about 5
years
domestic work less money and
beaten by
employers
for the last
three years
sex work Colva, near the
railway station at
Madgaon
for over three
years
Rani Moved to Goa as a child
but started working four-
five years ago after death
of husband
for about
eight-nine
months
selling fish in the market less money and
being thrown out
of her husband's
home by in-laws
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 34
for over
three years
sex work Colva, near the
railway station at
Madgaon
for over three
years
Seema Moved to Baina for five
years before demolition
(2004) after thrown out
by husband's family in
Sholapur
for over five
years
sex work After demolition
moved with
husband in Goa
and stopped
working
for over five
years
Started working in Goa
again
sex work Colva, near railway
station at Madgaon
been two
months
TABLE 3.2: THE MIGRATION PATTERN AND WORK HISTORY OF THE WOMEN
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 35
1. Social Background of the Women
All the women were below forty years of age ranging between eighteen and thirty seven years.
Of the ten women, four women were married while four were widowed and the other two were
single. Among the women who were married or widowed, all eight had children while two of the
women also had grandchildren. Six of the women lived with their families while two lived with
their male live-in partners and the other two lived alone. Seven of the ten women had dependents
including children or grandchildren, husband, partner, parents and in-laws. Of the ten women, six
were not the sole earning members in their families. They were supported by their children,
husband, partner and parents. Of these women, five were Muslims while the other five were
Hindus. Although all the women found it difficult to speak in fluent Hindi, the Muslim women
found it easier to converse in Hindi due to their familiarity with Urdu. Of the ten women, seven
had never been to school. The other three had atleast attended school up to class four.
2. Male Authority within families of the Women
Goa produces its own local liquor called feni which is made either from cashew or coconut. It is
categorized as country liquor and the alcohol content is as high as 45%. Feni is easily available
and very cheap. Studies52 have shown the high levels of dependency of men living in Goa on
alcohol. Goa is lined with thekas (local bars) and almost every restaurant sells alcohol. The
1 D’costa and others (2007), Harmful Alcohol use in Goa, India, and its associations with violence: A Study in
Primary Care by Alcohol and Alcoholism, Oxford Journals, 131-137, shows that the prevalence of harmful alcohol
drinking in men attending private primary care clinics is high and that these men are more likely to be perpetrators
of violence on December 15, 2013
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 36 cheap and free flow of alcohol combined with lack of employment opportunities has resulted in
most of these migrant families being run on the money earned by the women.
Despite the men being dependent on the women financially, they are still the decision makers,
whether it is family matters or financial matters, As a result it is most important for them to keep
the men in their families happy. In case that does not happen, the men are likely to forcefully
push the women out of the house. Worse, they might even remarry or desert the women. Fearing
any of these consequences, being sex workers seems like the best livelihood option to the
women. One of the women says she manages the anonymity of the work by confiding in a fellow
sex worker while she travels to meet with the customers. When the husband is at home she tells
him that she is going out with her friend whenever she has to go to meet a customer.
3. The Migration History of the Women
3.1 Push factors contributing to the Migration of the Women from their home states
Among the women, migration had been associated with their situation following marriage or due
to some troubling situations looking for a better future, or for the search of better economic
opportunities which was mostly due to lack of work in their states of origin.
Of the ten women, five were from Karnataka while two were from Maharashtra. Jaya53 had
migrated from West Bengal. She first migrated to Mumbai where she used to be a bar dancer.
She worked as a bar dancer for about ten years till the High Court order to shut the dance bars
53 Names of all women now and henceforth are pseudonyms for the protecting the identity of the women.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 37 came into effect in 2005.54 As a bar dancer, her work demanded that she look attractive.
Therefore apart from supporting her family she would spend a considerable amount of money on
clothes and make up. After the ban she was forced to look for other means of earning money.
She then moved to Karwar in Karnataka in search of a new job. She joined work as a daily wage
earner in a pharmaceutical factory there in Karwar. While in Karwar, she would travel with
customers as a sex worker. This was during the weekends when she was not required to go to the
factory. She was able to meet customers as a result of having befriended other sex workers while
in Karwar.
After two years of struggling with a low income, she moved to Goa in search of better paid work.
Meanwhile, her fourteen year old daughter had left home and married a man who was a few
years older than her. The marriage did not last long and the daughter came back to Jaya the
following year as her husband would beat her up regularly. Her daughter also delivered a child
the same year. She was barely eighteen now and supporting a four year old daughter. Jaya is
currently fighting for the divorce of her daughter. After the divorce, she wants to remarry her
daughter because she thinks her grand-child has to have a father in her life. As she grows older,
the income from her work was bound to come down; therefore she had to make some plans for
her daughter and grandchild.
Nimmi was from Uttarakhand while Seema had been kidnapped by an unknown man when she
was a small child from Dhaka, Bangladesh. She believes that the people she was given to paid
money to the kidnapper. After living in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka she spent some years in
Baina before she ran away with a customer. She was constantly beaten by a lover who also
54 Dance bars outlawed in Mumbai, Scotland on Sunday, April 13, 2005, retrieved from http://www.scotsman.com/news/world/dance-bars-outlawed-in-mumbai-1-707710 on January 23, 2013
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 38 played the role as her pimp while she was at the Baina beach red light area. She then went to live
in Solapur with a man whom she married but who already had a wife and children from a
previous wife and his family for some years. After being thrown out from there in her husband’s
absence she spent five more years at Baina till before the demolition. At this point, she was
reunited with her husband. Till 2013, she was staying with her husband in Goa. Due to old age,
he has been unable to work to support the family which forced Seema to go back to sex work.
Pooja, Pallavi and Rati had moved to Goa from Karnataka as children along with their families,
as their parents were unable to find adequate work opportunities in their village. Their parents
were agricultural labourers who worked on the land owner’s fields. They did not have any
savings. As a result during unfavourable agricultural seasons the families did not get enough
food to eat. Owing to the close proximity of Goa, the families moved here in hope of a better life.
Rani also moved as a child as her parents were unable to find enough work opportunities where
they lived in Sawantwadi, Maharashtra. After an accident, her father was unable to work and
was confined to the bed. The family including the children, then shifted to Goa. They had distant
relatives in Goa who worked in the fish market and suggested the family look for work there.
They started out by working in a local fish market in Goa which provided each member with a
daily earning of Rs.12-Rs.15.
Hema moved to Delhi from her home in Sangli after her parents passed away, when she was
about thirteen years old. She worked there as a domestic worker for eight months. She earned
very little money in spite of working for the whole day. She then went to Kamathipura (the red
light area) in Mumbai where she worked for a week. She said she did not feel comfortable in the
space and decided to move to Goa. She felt she could not make her own decisions in
Kamathipura when she was there and did not want to be pressured by anyone at work or in her
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 39 personal life. She took up sex work as a conscious option of work. Since she had lived in Sangli
which had a prominent community of sex workers, sex work did not seem unacceptable to her.
She started out as a street based sex worker till she was able to create a network of customers for
herself.
Seema and Nimmi had both moved to several other places with their husbands before coming to
Goa. While Seema had worked in Baina, then stayed with her husband in Solapur and then again
came back to Goa, Nimmi had migrated to a small village called Antakali Rajam in Andhra
Pradesh after the first few years of her marriage. Her husband’s earnings as an agricultural
labourer were not enough to support the family and so they migrated to Dehradun (Uttarakhand)
for a few years where her husband worked as a night guard. When that failed to support the
family they moved to Punjab looking for better work opportunities. Her husband did not allow
her to work despite their deteriorating economic condition. They then moved to Sansaram in
Bihar where they opened a grocery shop. They stayed there till 2010. After that her husband was
offered a job as a night guard in a factory in Goa providing a slightly higher salary. The family
moved to Goa with their family the same year.
Nimmi talked about the struggle after her husband failed to get a stable job to support the family.
She said, “Kuch time hum log kirane ki dukan chalaye, phir baad mein woh security guard ka
naukri kiya taki aur paisa aaye ghar mein. Koi bhi batata tha achha naukri, to hum log us jagah
chale jate the. Par kabhi bohot acha naukri nai hota tha uska jisme ghar chal sake.” (We rented
a shop floor to start a general store (selling household items in the neighbourhood); later my
husband took up the job of a security guard to supplement that income. Whenever someone
would tell us about a better job opportunity we would move there. But he never managed to get a
good job with an adequate income to run the house.) (Nimmi, 35, migrated from Uttarakhand)
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 40 3.2 Pull Factors for Migrating to Goa
Goa’s economy is tourism driven55 which would mean that most of the jobs for migrant
women coming to Goa (domestic workers, construction workers, employed as daily wage
labourers in hotels or factories) make them a visible m i g r a n t group. The 2011 Census
data shows that 1/3rd population of Goa today comprise migrants from Karnataka and
Maharashtra. 56 This statistic is visible in Goa where the female working population in
unorganized settings is quite visible. For the migrant populations who are struggling to
survive, the tourism industry looks attractive and promising. The tourism industry offers
numerous opportunities in the informal sector such as domestic workers, construction workers,
employed as daily wage labourers in hotels or factories. Sex work in the present context is part
of the informal economy within the tourism industry catering to all kinds of tourists-
local, national and international. The opportunity to earn money without having any specific
“skills” or qualifications or work experience within the informal econom y in a relatively small
span of time, either per day or in a week’s time, brings several families and individuals to
Goa57. Being tourism driven, the non-tourist season on the other hand, from April to
November brings little traffic and very little income for several months to come.
There are several shacks which are temporary lodging spaces available for tourists both in North
and South Goa. Shacks are temporary beach settlements re-built each year. They are dismantled
55 Reclaiming Goa, Editorial, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol-XLVIII No. 47, November 23, 2013 56 Census India, Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, retrieved from
http://www.census2011.co.in/census/state/goa.html on January 19, 2014
57 The migrants are usually from backward areas in West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh etc. or states closer home like Maharashtra and Karnataka
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 41 due to lack of tourists in the off season. Also, the shacks are licensed by the Department of
Tourism for each calendar year and there is no guarantee that the same shacks will be given the
license the following year, to provide their services again. The shacks comprise of mud or thatch
rooms with both attached and separate washrooms. They also include a restaurant and a beach
view. They are found by the beach in many other beaches of the country such as in Gokarna in
Karnataka and in Daman. The accommodation costs much less than a medium range hotel room
and offer easy access to the sea. This attracts most people to stay in the shacks rather than hotels
or guest houses. Also, the shacks hire people every year on a temporary basis to work on the
shacks although there are very few opportunities for women here. The cooking and the cleaning
in the shacks as well as the errands that require running around are all taken care of by men most
of whom are migrants. As a result, the women who migrate with their families do not get much
employment within the existing jobs available.
Mining sites used to be a big employer for the migrant as well as the local community. However,
after the ban in 2012, it ceased to be a pull factor as far as employment is concerned. There are
huge construction sites that hi re the male migrant population. Again, there are few women
who are being hired owing to the nature of work. The women hired at construction sites are
those whose families are working at the same site. For women who travel on their own to Goa
looking for work or whose husbands have moved to other places for work or abandoned the
women altogether, it is not very easy to find work. Hence, most of these women at some
point have used sex work as an option to earn income especially during emergencies. Goa’s
connectivity via bus and train is also an important pull factor.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 42
4. Limited Employment Opportunities and Exploitative Practices within the Informal
Market in Goa
The relative anonymity of a new place, limited options of employment and the need to survive
makes sex work one of the many livelihood options for migrant women in Goa. Any of the jobs
such as household work, domestic work etc. are remunerated on an hourly basis or they get paid
daily wages and that too very irregularly, which makes it difficult for the women to build their
savings. There are no basic standards for the wages and benefits that domestic workers are
entitled to i.e. equal pay for equal work or a break in between or even regulated working hours
etc. The unorganized sector does not provide any job guarantees; neither does it pay enough for
sustaining a family of three or four people.
The lack of information, in terms of the kinds of work opportunities available and pay scales
provided in a new place makes women vulnerable to being under-paid and exploited. This results
in women looking for supplementary economic support often leading them to sex work. The
Pan India Survey of sex workers has found that 70% of the respondents had tried other jobs
such as agricultural labour, domestic work, and cleaning, sweeping and petty jobs for daily wage
earning before getting into sex work58. Also, the rationale of getting into sex work was from
their own experiences of low-paid jobs and the competitive labour market.
Low wages emerges as the most important factor among the reasons for moving between
different kinds of work to finally doing sex work. The fact that most jobs in the labour market
58 Sahni, R. and Shankar V., Sex Work and its Linkages with Informal Labour Markets in India: Findings from the
First Pan-India Survey of Female Sex Workers, February 2013,IDS Working Paper, Volume 2013, no.416
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 43 are poorly waged and often erratic, women decide to opt for sex work from among the available
options. The other reasons include difficulty after a long break from work as a result of child
birth, or marriage which requires the woman to relocate and start looking for work all over again,
and unpleasant working conditions at the present place of work. Since the jobs taken up by the
women are mostly daily wage work of an inconsistent nature, deciding to bear a child can result
in the loss of livelihood for the entire family if the woman is the only earning member.
5. Doing Sex ‘Work’
The existing options of construction work, domestic work, daily wage labour of a seasonal nature
like working in shacks or etc. are less well-paid than sex work in terms of income. In a single
day, by providing sexual services the women can earn up to five times more of what they might
be able to earn in a fortnight in the other options. As a result women move over to more
financially supportive options like sex work. Among all the options available for work, sex work
has over time proved most reliable in the experience of the women, in terms of the earnings they
are able to get. The women agree that sex work does not require any specialized training or fixed
eight hours of work or more per day. It allows the women to gradually stabilize their economic
conditions and that of their families. The women insist that in order to bring up their children
they have to be self-sufficient. Sex work is a day to day job where each day is different. If one
day the customers are few and the money is less, the next day could always be a better one.
Sex work is thus a calculated option of work for the women. Jaya said, “Hum log ko har
customer ka 1000 rupaya milata hai, ek din mein kabhi 3-4 bhi ho jate hain. Aur koi kaam
karenge to maheene mein 4000 se zyada nahi milega”. (We earn Rs. 1000 for every customer;
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 44 sometimes we are able to find upto 3-4 customers. In any other kind of work, we would not have
earned more than Rs. 4000.) (Jaya, 37, migrated from West Bengal)
These women had tried several odd jobs (cleaning utensils in hotels, household work, daily wage
work like construction) etc. to sustain their families but nothing else has provided an adequate
income for survival of the women and their families. Hence, the women gradually moved
towards sex work.
Pallavi said she had been living with her husband and children in Goa for over ten years. She
talked about her initiation into sex work on a regular basis. She said that she had been sexually
assaulted by a cousin when he was trying to push her to have sex with him. After repeated
attempts to escape from her cousin, she finally managed to move away from him after she was
married and moved to her husband’s house. She bore two children soon after but her husband
was unable to support the family. He was a labourer at a construction site but he was a heavy
drinker. She then decided to take up sex work to support her family. Other women said they were
introduced to sex work by someone who had already tried it before. For example, Jaya said she
was a sex worker over the weekends to customers while still working a full time shift at the
factory over the week. Over the weeks she realized sex work was a better option since she
needed the money to support her family.
Nimmi said that her entry into sex work was through a policeman. She had six children aged
between 6 to 14 years at the time. She moved with her husband and children to Goa to a house
very close to the police station. She would often notice the policemen staring at her from a
distance. Her husband was then struggling to earn enough to make ends meet. On the pretext of
checking on the papers of migrants living in the area the policemen starting frequenting her
house, often harassing her for not having appropriate verification. They also noticed the family
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 45 struggling to feed the children and on an occasion or two, gave her enough money to feed her
children for the day. On some Sundays, they would buy chicken and ask her to cook it for them.
They would pay her for the cooking. Over time, they became familiar with the family and the
husband in particular. They would often visit when he was out. They would also take the family
for picnics, mostly without the husband. On one such outing, the policemen proposed that the
woman provide them sexual services in return for some money. The woman agreed for the first
time out of fear. After the incident, this became a regular affair. Soon the woman had developed
a network of several policemen customers. She said, “Humare ghar mein do jawan betiyan hai,
kum se kum unki taraf buri nazar se to nai dekhte. Hum to ye kaam kar sakte hai par unko kabhi
nahi karne denge” (I have two young girls at home and I am glad they do not look at my
daughters inappropriately, the way they look at me. I can do this to earn but I will never let them
(daughters) do this; referring to sex work.) (Nimmi, 35, migrated from Uttarakhand)
Hema and Rani, both from Maharashtra were between eighteen and twenty three years of age
and had only been in sex work for about two years or so. Both were booked under ITPA
(Immoral Traffic Prevention Act) for their alleged involvement in the trafficking of a minor girl
into sex work. One of the two women is from Sangli, Maharashtra known to have a visible sex
workers’ community. Both the women had decided to drop out of sex work by bringing in a
third, minor girl to earn for them. They were carrying around Rs. 2 lakh with them, and were
accompanied by another man and woman for procuring the girl. They were arrested at Sangli
after some local women alerted the police. Hema, who had been the main accused, said she was
beaten by the police for about a week and had to pay a large sum of money for bail. She said she
had lost all her earnings in the case and as a result, continued to do sex work for survival.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 46 While in Goa, she met someone and fell in love. Soon after they were married, her husband died
in an accident. She however, continued being a sex worker. It was during this time that she was
arrested for the case. After the case, she came back to Goa but changed her location of work. She
moved to a more discreet location and started keeping a low profile.
Several of the women in this network of migrant sex workers in Goa enter into sex work
beginning as street based sex workers. They frequent the bus stops and railway stations in search
of customers. The peer educators at the NGOs have been assigned areas which they visit
regularly and put the condoms in the public toilets and the condom vending machines for street
based sex workers. They also identify these women and bring them to the NGO office for HIV
testing and sexual health counseling. As a result the street based sex workers meet other sex
workers who have been around for a longer time most of whom are now lodge based sex
workers. This interaction helps the women identify potential customers through an already
existing network of lodge based sex workers.
The women have found a means to keep away their engagement as sex workers from their
families or their anonymity would be lost. They take up domestic work which requires them to
follow a work routine in order to conceal the erratic hours of sex work. The women said that if
they were seen going out alone, often the neighbours would become suspicious which in turn
would make their own husbands suspicious as well.
The women are of the opinion that there is a difference between being a sex worker to
supplement inadequate income to support one’s family vis-à-vis purely for a luxurious life. Sex
work is perceived by the Indian society especially the people who are aware of the women
engaging in sex work, as an activity to raise one’s economic status. Rani described her
experience after her family found out that she had chosen to become a sex worker as a means of
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 47 livelihood. She said, “Humko usi din nikal diye aur bole bachho se nai milne ko denge. Humare
kaam se inke ghar ka naam kharab hoga.”(I was thrown out of my in-laws house the same day.
They said they would not let me meet my own children. They also said the nature of my work
would damage their family’s reputation.) (Rani, 24, migrated from Maharashtra). She was
thrown out of her late husband’s house that very day and not allowed to come back or visit her
children. The women say that although this is work based on exchange of service for money,
coming out in the open will bring a bad name to their families. Their children will not be allowed
in school and their daughters will be harassed by their own customers and other men in the
community. Also, their husbands might disown them and no landlord will be willing to rent out a
room to them. They said that most migrant women in Goa are sex workers and it is an open
secret. There is speculation about everyone up to the moment when one is ‘caught’ soliciting or
found with a customer.
There is currently no organized red light area in Goa. Identifying customers and sex workers can
be difficult as the sex workers conceal their identity and are not known or visible to those who
are either sex workers or clients. As a result, while looking for sex workers, the customer
inadvertently views the migrant women in the tourism industry as sex workers too. To those who
are not aware of the networks, women in casual and daily labour are often perceived as sex
workers. Farzana expressed unhappiness over her family’s disregard for her livelihood options.
Her financial independence allowed her to make her own decisions helping her to free herself
from the financial dependence on the family. However, the family felt she would soon realize the
instability of her decisions and go back to the family that continued to struggle to make ends
meet. They believed sex work was an unstable way of survival. Her family used to deseed
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 48 cashew apples to facilitate the making of cashew feni which was a physically taxing and
economically insufficient way of survival.
Women like Rani and Hema took up sex work on their own. They believe that it is important for
them to take control of their lives and be economically independent. Similar to what Seshu and
Pai59 have to say, these women also believe ‘sex work is an adult, monogamous or polygamous
sexual relationship within a commercial context.’ They do not attach any moral values to sex
work. The other women looked at sex work in a very different way. They did not equate the
sexual labour involved in sex work within paid labour. At the same time, they take it up
accepting sexual labour as a supplement to inadequate wages or a more effective means of
becoming economically independent.
The women are happy to be on their own feet but at the same time, they are not able to talk about
it owing to the nature of their work. Nimmi, who is of Rajput caste, said how belonging to a
regal community disallowed the women to be self-sufficient even when the husbands cannot
sustain the family. For a very long time her husband was not aware that she had been working.
He does not know she is a sex worker and she wishes to keep it that way.
The women go through a transition period, which allows them to think over how they would like
to go ahead with their lives. They realize the monetary advantages of being a sex worker vis-à-
vis that of a daily wage labourer or an unskilled worker. They have juggled with different kinds
of work and decided to become sex workers overriding other options. Being able to work without
time restrictions and having an increase in the network of clients can be a big help for the
women. For example, if the women were visiting lodges on a weekly basis and were available
59 Seshu, M. S. and Pai, A. (2014), Sex Work Undresses Patriarchy with Every Trick! IDS Bulletin, 45: 46–52. doi:
10.1111/1759-5436.12067 on February 13, 2014
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 49 for service throughout the week, it ensures more monetary returns. Working every day helps in
making small savings for a bad day. It also allows the women to take time off during their
menstrual cycles. They are very clear that there will be no services provided during that one
week every month. This sometimes can result in a food crisis situation for the families. Since
there are no savings, not getting a customer can mean no money to buy rations. Also, there are
times when the women are unwell or worse, their children may be suffering from fever or
diarrhea. At such times the woman is able to take a break only if she is earning enough to feed
the family for the rest of the months.
Being the only earning member with a young grand-daughter, one of the women talks about the
problems of managing the household. Jaya said when her grandchild is unwell, she holds her
back and does not let her go to work, making it very difficult to provide for the family. Since her
daughter conceived when she was fifteen, she is not able to take care of her child on her own.
The grand-mother plays the role of both mother and grand-mother. She provides for her daughter
and grand-daughter who has just started going to school.
Rani, who was also arrested for her alleged involvement in the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act
1956 (ITPA) case, lost her husband after 7-8 years of marriage. She has two children from her
marriage to him. Her husband’s family discovered her means of livelihood and asked her to leave
the house. She now lives with a partner who also works as a middle man bringing in clients when
he is out of work. She says they live like husband and wife but she does not want to get married
again. Her children from her first marriage however, are staying with her in-laws. She pays for
their fees and provides other financial support which is acceptable to the family. What is not
acceptable to the family is the association of the children with the mother because of the
decisions she has made to support herself. Her only means of livelihood is sex work and she said
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 50 she had come to terms with doing this. She provides for herself and her children. The women
have chosen partners who are aware of what the women do and are fine with it. The men do not
do much but live off the earnings of the women while some also work as middle men in securing
clients for the women. The women have not remarried but give the men in their lives the same
rights as their previous husbands.
Jaya had moved out of her husband’s house in Leningarh, West Bengal with her daughter and
worked for several years without anyone knowing anything about her work profile. Pallavi had
moved when her parents came from a village near Belgaum in Karnataka looking for work in
Goa while she was still young. After working with them in the local market where the family
sold plastic bottles for a few years she was married off to a local construction worker. After
marriage she decided to be a sex worker but talks of a constant fear of getting recognized by
someone familiar while she was soliciting or was with a customer.
Across the women interviewed, their experience suggests similarity with respect to their work
and their bodies. Irrespective of caste and class, the fact that they were women sex workers
brought them similar treatment if their livelihood options were revealed. The nature of work
brings all these migrant women onto a common platform. They do not feel the need for a visible
red light area. They only ask to be either compensated financially in any other work as they
would in sex work, or to be left to do sex work in peace. They do not believe anyone can really
help them in any other way. Lalita said, “Paise kum milte the kar ke ye kaam bhi karte hai.” (We
would earn insufficient money so we decided to also get into this kind of work) (Lalita, 37,
Karnataka) They do not feel they need help or need to be ‘rescued’ from their current situation.
They exercise their right to sell sex in order to earn enough money to support their families.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 51 The women’s experiences seem to suggest that the construction of notions of immorality on the
part of people in Goa is significantly gendered and forced on women. Sex workers are looked
upon by society to be of poor morals; often harassed by the police or other men if and when they
are found soliciting, and harassed while at work. The lack of employment for an increasing
number of unskilled female workers has resulted in women taking up any available means of
livelihood. There are several angles here. First, there are not enough employment opportunities
or options for women making it extremely difficult for them to become self-sufficient. They are
categorically denied entry into the paid work force at all levels, both material and ideological.60
At the same time, by ‘rescuing’ the women and putting them in homes or sending them back to
their home states, the women are forcefully made to feel ‘victimised’. They are denied a right
over their own lives and forced to be dictated by the terms of the state and the society. This is a
means of holding back these women’s right to or autonomy over the final decision making,
which at present is restricted to the men folk.
5.1 A Day in the Lives of the Migrant Women
Sex workers who are lodge-based or hotel-based need to network both with customers and lodge
owners in order to create an effective network. It also requires them to be available on the mobile
phone at all times for the customers’ calls.
60 Housewives treated like prostitutes in Census says Supreme Court, NDTV, July 23, 2010, retrieved from
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/housewives-treated-like-prostitutes-in-census-says-supreme-court-39271 (Here
the women who work within the households are considered as non-workers by the Census. Also, sex works are
categorized under non-workers making them dependents thus not recognizing their labour.) on January 13, 2014
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 52 The women usually have two subscriber identity module (SIM) cards on their cell phones. One
of them is for the customers while the other one is for the family members. The women use the
card meant for customers in the mornings and switch back the one for their family at night, when
their husbands are back at home. Mobile phone calls are still very expensive and usually the
husband does not call on the cellphone if he is out. He waits to get home to discuss anything that
has to be discussed with the wife. Some women also have two cellphones. They do not save
numbers of all the clients. They all have some regular clients. These regular clients frequently
visit them at the lodges. They have become familiar with each other and the women trust them.
They also visit customers who are referred to by clients familiar to them. They thus work
towards building a network for regular contact and exchange with their clientele. Further, the
women have many ways of protecting their identities. Since these women operate on the phone
through a network of known customers, they generally know all their clients. They ask for
identification from the men and how and when they had met previously and do not visit new
clients unless known to a previous client or co-worker. Also, if they are not convinced by what
the man has to say, she would not meet him. If he convinces her, she calls him to a particular
location and watches from a distance. After a few minutes if she is convinced of his identity, she
would approach him.
The women realize that age is an important criterion in sex work. The more contacts they can
make and the sooner they can make them, the better. Owing to the unpredictable nature of
demand, being involved in any other part-time job was not a good idea. The unpredictability
arises from not having a fixed schedule with the clients. Based on the calls either from clients or
the lodge owners, each day is different. Due to the covert nature of their work, women do not
work after sunset. Several customers while returning from their work would prefer to spend time
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 53 with a sex worker which the women are most often unable to cater to. Refusing a client due to
lack to time in the beginning can lead to a terrible financial loss sometimes. A new face in this
business almost always attracts more clients despite the age. Over a few years, as the body ages
from physical labour and new faces emerge, the clientele goes down.
5.2 Hazards in Sex Work
Although comparatively advantageous in terms of the income that women are able to negotiate
and obtain within the labour market for sex work, the work within this informal sector is not
without its occupational hazards and dangers and difficulties. In their daily work life, several
instances of illnesses, discomfort, harassment that women undergo during sex work are to be
noted, including health hazards and the hazards of sexual violence. Nimmi mentioned the
occurrence of urinary tract infections (UTI) and pain in her vagina. She said, “Toilet jaate time
to bohot jalan hota hai par doctor ke paas nai jate. Phir apne aap hi ek do din mein theek ho jata
hai.” (Often, when I go to the toilet to urinate, I feel a burning sensation in my vagina but I do
not go the doctor. Within a day or two the itching subsides.) (Nimmi, 35, migrated from
Uttarakhand).
She also talked about physical discomfort while intercourse which was not of consequence to the
customer. Irrespective of whether the woman’s body was able to take the weight of the
intercourse she could not stop a client. Even if she was visibly in pain during intercourse, the
client would not acknowledge it as it was a paid service.
The women who have been able to tell their families and their significant others often invite
dangers of rape from intending customers, when they are deprived of payment following their
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 54 offer of sexual labour. They complain of being harassed and being labeled ‘easy’ women by both
men and women who are aware of their work. The women say that if it is common knowledge
that they provide sexual services, in times of sexual harassment or rape, the police refuses to
register their case. They are taken advantage of by some men who are aware of their activities
yet do not have money to pay for their services. These men force themselves on the women and
do not at all acknowledge the right of the women to decline.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 55
CHAPTER FOUR: NEGOTIATING SEX ‘WORK’
The ability to negotiate plays a significant role in the lives of the women. These negotiations are
made with the customers, the police, law and the State, the NGOs and the consequences of the
choices they have made. The role of support systems whether in terms of family, co-workers or
customers and the uniqueness of such work and other characteristics of the everyday experiences
in the lives of the women have been elaborated further in this chapter. This chapter also provides
a background of the demolition of the Baina red light area and its impact on the women.
1. The Baina Demolition and the Rehabilitation Efforts by the State and the NGOs
1.1 The Baina Demolition
A discussion on the existence and the demolition of Baina will provide a background to the
manner in which sex work is organized at present in Goa. The red light area in Mormugao Port
in Vasco Da Gama, Goa was located at Baina Beach. Most of the sex work that took place in
Goa was organized in and around Baina. It was demolished in June 2004 by the then Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) government claiming it was harbouring “prostitutes” who were spreading the
HIV infection and making it difficult for the locals to use the beach.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 56 The Baina beach area was subject to raids as early as 1997, much before the actual demolition in
2004. Bailancho Saad61, a women’s group in Goa conducted a study in November 1997
following the constant raids in Baina earlier the same year. Both before and after the raids,
Bailancho Saad maintained that these women were victims and should be prevented from any
further victimization resulting from the raids or the discussions regarding the demolition of the
area.
The red light area of 0.09 sq. km was home to about 4000 migrant sex workers according to the
1997 study of Bailancho Saad. According to the fact-finding report, the constant demolitions and
raids were being carried out following a health panic (that women were carriers of HIV) and the
presence of criminal activities62, wherein the state government at that time, the Baina Residents’
Association and the local Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) John Emanuel Vaz cited
three specific reasons for the demolition of the red light area. These included, first, the need to
stop the increasing incidence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection spreading from
Baina to other parts; the second was the increasing need to rid the area of anti-social elements
and criminals, especially sex workers who are considered criminals and the need to recover the
beach from the red light area and make it accessible to other residents of Baina, especially
children.
61 Bailancho Saad was born in 1986-87 when Goa was going through a difficult phase and the issue of identity had
become of utmost importance to the people residing in Goa, cited in DeSouza, S. (2009) Organising Women for
Empowerment: a study of an Experiment in Goa, Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Tata Institute of Social
Sciences, Mumbai
62 Evictions in Goa: Case study of Baina-A fact finding team’s report by Bailancho Saad, Goa, November 1997.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 57 The Baina demolitions were finally carried out on 14th June 2004 through the order of the Goa
Bench of Bombay High Court that ordered for deportation (applicable only to foreigners) of
commercial sex workers from Baina beach and directed the state administration to identify and
demolish 250 cubicles. The state neither bothered to identify the 250 cubicles nor did anyone
challenge the deportation order of the court. Instead, on 14th June 2004, ten bulldozers
surrounded the locality in ten different directions and brutally went on demolishing houses.63
1.2 The NGOs: Positive People and Lifeline Foundation
Two NGOs, Lifeline Foundation and Positive People had helped in identifying sex workers and
setting up meetings in their offices to interact with them. Five women each from both the NGOs
agreed to be a part of the study. Six of these women were peer educators. According to the
NACP (National AIDS Control Programme) III Guidelines a peer educator (PE) is a person from
the HRG (High risk group) who works with her/his colleagues to influence attitude and
behaviour change. PEs are responsible for providing information on HIV/STIs and harm
reduction, and promoting condom use among colleagues/peers, which ultimately results in
building peer pressure for behaviour change. They can also distribute condoms, lubricants,
needles and syringes. They also provide basic data for monitoring the project. A PE is paid an
honorarium as per NGO/CBO (Community based Organisation) costing guidelines for her/his
contribution to the TI (Targeted Intervention) project. A peer educator (PE) is a person from the
HRG who works with her/his colleagues to influence attitude and behaviour change. PEs are
responsible for providing information on HIV/STIs and harm reduction, and promoting condom
63 Demolition at Baina beach leaves hundreds homeless in Goa, Infochange, accessed on Februrary 13, 2014 at http://infochangeindia.org/human-rights/news/demolition-at-baina-beach-leaves-hundreds-homeless-in-goa.html
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 58 use among colleagues/peers, which ultimately results in building peer pressure for behaviour
change. They can also distribute condoms, lubricants, needles and syringes. They also provide
basic data for monitoring the project. A PE is paid an honorarium as per NGO/CBO costing
guidelines for her/his contribution to the TI project. In both the NGOs the peer educators were
paid Rs 1500 every month and another Rs. 200 fixed travel expense for every month.
Prior to the Baina demolition, there were five NGOs funded through Goa State AIDS Control
Society (GSACS) to provide HIV prevention interventions to sex workers in Goa. Major focus of
this programme, called Targeted Intervention (TI) is BCC (Behaviour Change Communication)
along with strengthening peer network, counselling, distribution of condoms, STI (sexually
transmitted infection) services, legal intervention etc. Both ‘Positive People’ and ‘Lifeline
Foundation’ were part of these NGOs.
‘Positive People’ was founded by Dominic D’Souza, the first HIV positive activist from Goa in
the year 1992. He was quarantined when he was discovered to be positive. This was owing to a
provision in the Goa Public Health Act 1986 mandating isolation for People living with HIV
(PLHIV)s. The organization has been working in and around Madgaon area.
‘Lifeline Foundation’ has two offices and works with both street based and lodge based workers.
There are individual projects for the two groups. While street based sex work is based in the
capital city of Panaji, the lodge workers are based in Sankhali, about 40 km from the capital city
of Panaji.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 59
2. The Women’s’ Response to the Demolition and its Aftermath
The interviewed women agreed that the government’s response towards the women affected by
the Baina demolition had been unfair and that they should have been compensated adequately.
They should have been given both housing and work opportunities along with payment for the
damages to their personal property. These migrant women said that the government had made
empty claims of better rehabilitation to the women who had suffered from the demolition. They
also said if they were ever to avail of any rehabilitation schemes the government would identify
them and would further both harass and stigmatize them for having been sex workers in the past.
They all agreed on carrying out their work activities and their lives irrespective of the
government and all that it ‘claimed’ to offer them. The women are unaware of the laws to do
with prostitution but are able to get out of any situation by seeking the help of the NGOs and if
necessary by paying bribes to the police. Though the police do not bother them on a regular basis
they do get stopped at some public places though the harassment is not that severe. They seldom
go to the police station except in extreme cases.
All the women agreed that the NGOs can be of great help when the women are in difficult
circumstances. If and when the women have been harassed by the police (when the police
suspect them to be soliciting in public), their identity cards as peer educators at the NGO has
helped them. At the same time, the salary from the NGO is extremely less as compared to the
work the women are required to do. In the individual interviews several women confirmed this
although in the FGDs the women denied the dissatisfaction with the salary. The peer educators
agreed that a lot of time they had not been able to meet the required targets for condom
distribution and HIV testing. In such cases, they would look for excuses to skip the testing
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 60 sessions. Also, the meetings and activities at the NGO would often get in the way of their
meeting the clients as these would take the entire day, not allowing the women to pursue their
livelihood.
3. The Organisation of Sex Work in Goa after the Baina Demolition
In the absence of an accepted definition of ‘red light area’ in India, red light areas in this study
has been understood as a demarcated city space inhabited by both women and men in a
hierarchical setup comprising sex workers, middle men and customers. There is a madam,
gharwali or a pimp who is given a huge share from what the customer pays. If there is a auto
rickshaw driver or a paanwala who brings the customer to the sex worker he or she is also given
a small percentage of the earnings. Ideally, the madam is also the owner of the room which is
rented out to the sex worker and is also used by her to provide her services. It would involve
women soliciting customers and doing sex work within the same space. Within India, such a
space would involve narrow lanes lined with several building-like structures which may or may
not be marked or numbered. The women usually wait outside the buildings while middle men fix
the ‘rate’ with the customers. There are also local thekas (bars selling local and cheap liquor)
along the kothas (brothels). In Goa, ‘the area consisted of a single stretch of land along the
coast, surrounded by migrant settlements which were criss-crossed by tiny alleys and closely
clustered houses. Sex work took place in cubicles closer to the seashore.’64
64 (Liamputtong, P., (2008) Doing Cross-Cultural Research: Ethical and Methodological Perspectives, Volume 34, Social Indicators Research Series, 261)
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 61 Although, the present study has looked at lodge-based sex workers in Goa, the role and use of
public space is equally important in understanding the experiences of these women. In the
context of street based sex work, the analysis of Mumbai’s naka workers is significant. Research
has looked at the use of the naka by migrant women to seek work at constructions sites, as well
as to solicit customers for sex work (Shah, 2006).
A prominent difference that exists within the organization of sex work in established red light
areas as in Delhi and Mumbai in comparison to a place like Goa is that the former is in a
hierarchical setup where there is a gharwali above the sex workers who earns from every
customer that the woman is with. As a result, the number of customers a sex worker works with
each day, influences the earnings of the gharwali. Therefore in order to enhance the earnings,
force or violence can be used as a tool for exploitation and victimization of these women. The
absence of a visible red light area sometimes works in the favour of the women as it ensures
anonymity. “Aise kisi ko malum nai chalta hai aur ghar mein paisa bhi aa jata hai.” (In this
way, implying the absence of a red light area, we are able to remain anonymous and earn and
bring some money home for our families.) (Lalita, 37, migrated from Karnataka). In the absence
of such a setup, one retains one’s right to provide sexual services and also in what manner they
would want to do it.
The women are of the opinion that since there is not a fixed space the chances of being identified
are not high. The women are their own arbiters and can decide whether or not they would like to
be with a customer, thus putting to rest fears of coercion or forced prostitution. While discussing
the Baina demolition, Seema, who had also spent some years at Baina said that it did bring good
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 62 business. The flipside however were the several cuts from the pay to the gharwali, middlemen,
auto rickshaw drivers, madams etc.
After being a sex worker for some time, the women are able to make better informed decisions
vis-à-vis their financial transactions. They said they had learnt the art of negotiation with the
customers and were now earning enough money to be self-sufficient. The women play several
roles simultaneously. Shifting from the role of being the stay-at-home mother to being an
independent woman negotiating ‘benefits’ (monetary and otherwise) from the customer each day
comprises conflicting ideas.
4. The Role of the Lodges and the Lodge Owners
After the Baina demolition, sex workers who continue to work in Goa are mostly lodge based.
The lodges are located within and around Sankhali, in Bicholi, Marcel, Old Goa, Ponda or
Banasthali. In Madgaon, they are usually located near the Railway Station or near Colva beach.
Some lodges which are on the main road are locked from the outside and have a back door entry
from where these women and their customers enter. They appear shut but are mostly open only
to the customers, from early in the morning till late afternoon. The women have an
understanding with the lodge owners and are not asked for identity proofs (despite government
regulations issued for every visitor to lodges, guest houses or hotels) since regular visits with
different men make the pattern of returning to the same lodge with different customers visible
in the eyes of the police. The customer is charged for the rooms which are booked on an hourly
basis. The women bring customers and business to the lodges, while in return the lodges let the
sex workers run their business there. The women make regular negotiations regarding the nature
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 63 of sex work, the payment and the services involved with customers, lodge owners and the police
within the labour market. There are also networks of financial sustenance in the form of credit or
monetary support from other sex workers and customers for the women doing sex work. The
needs of all the parties are therefore met with the help of these networks. Also, the women cater
to various types of clients thus strengthening their existing network of customers.
5. Networking and Networks of Support
The women say that Goa being a well-known tourist destination especially during the New Year,
attracts large groups of bachelors or groups of men who come on their own (often looking for
female company). Young boys, right out of college, drive down from Maharashtra and
Karnataka (or even from faraway places like Delhi) to come to Goa to celebrate the coming of
the New Year. The women mentioned that there is an increase in the tourist population coming
to Goa in this period and this helps sex workers. The sex workers know each other and help
each other when there are more customers seeking for women. During this period the sex
workers meet young men in groups of three or four. They contact some other sex workers also
looking for customers. Sometimes, these groups of tourists give the women more customers by
informing other friends or acquaintances who would be visiting Goa in the future. The tourist
season is full of uncertainty that there is no way to tell whether every season will bring
enough tourists so that the women can earn enough money.
The mining industry comprises a large number of employees though the official number is not
available. Most of these people were migrants who had moved to Goa for working in the mining
industry. The mining industry is known to provide better emoluments than most industries. The
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 64 women spoke about the customers they made from those men who had been employed in the
mining industry. As they lived away from home, they had tied up with the women for their
sexual services over the weekends. Although, the women had tie ups with some lodges and lodge
owners, there were also some lodge owners who did not allow the women to do their business in
their lodges. In fact, when such lodges would not allow for the women to solicit without a valid
identity proof, the customers would pay Rs.2000-3000 above the room rent so as to convince the
lodge owner to allow the sex worker to stay. With the regular customers this does not happen
very often. They may or may not have so much money as the people who work in the mining
industry. Jaya also mentioned that when she was short of money she would call a customer who
worked in the mining industry to avail of her services. If he was busy he would often lend her the
money for equivalent services at a later time. The mining industry’s ban affected the monetary
situation of the women. The women had thus created a network of support and a clientele market
to sustain their livelihood options.
6. Negotiating with People and Circumstances
6.1 Negotiating with the Law
For the younger migrant women, sex work in Goa is harder. Without an age proof (of being over
eighteen years of age and having the identity proof of an adult), being found with a customer
makes work difficult and complicated. The police send them off to short stay homes till the
‘apparent’ trafficking can be proved otherwise. Without an age proof, the women are believed to
be ‘victims of trafficking’. The fact that the women are migrants from another state makes it all
the more difficult for the women who are ‘rescued’.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 65 Women’s perceptions of how the law should treat sex workers are still in a formative stage. They
do not yet have an opinion on decriminalization or legalization of sex work and stay away from
these positions. However, in their own understanding of decriminalization they insist they should
not be in a position to be fearful of the police. One of the women narrated an incident with the
police. While she was with a customer for the whole day, she was hurt and was bleeding
profusely. When she went to the government hospital for treatment the doctors insisted on
calling the police because the injury looked very serious. She told them then that it was due to
continuous intercourse with a man who had forced himself upon her. After the treatment she was
sent to a short stay home for destitute women for about three months as she did not have a valid
age proof and did not seem to be above sixteen years, as the police believed she had been
trafficked. Since the police could not make a case without the girl’s statement there was only
speculation on the part of the police. As a result, she was not sent to a remand home. As a
migrant, if she acknowledged the money and sexual services exchange with the customer, she
could have also been arrested for soliciting in public places. She said the man paid the police
some money to stay out of jail.
6.2 Negotiating with the Family and Support Within
None of the women are very comfortable talking about their relationship with their families
especially those who have informed their families of the nature of their work. Since several of
the women’s families are not aware of their work, the women could only imagine how their
families’ reactions would be. At the same time, they all agree that the families would definitely
oppose the idea of sex work by the women. The women face resistance from their families for
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 66 doing sex work. Their struggles with their families and in maintaining anonymity have been
illustrated in the previous chapter. They feel that questions of morality (regarding the nature of
sex work) fall within the personal space and cannot be negotiated with the State. They negotiate
with themselves over their livelihood options. The notions of morality associated with the
sanctity of body contradict their livelihood options. With monogamy being of utmost importance
to the women, multiple sexual partners as a result of sex work often makes women doubt the
ideas of morality they grew up with. They talk about it in hushed tones when there are other
people around. While we were all at the office, the women would not talk about sex work in the
presence of the office staff. They would wait to be alone and would sometimes include me in
their discussions. Often when alone with Jaya, who was widowed and nearing forty, she would
talk about how her age had increased the sexual discomfort from sex. Another woman spoke
about how having intercourse with customers and her husband took a toll on both her body and
mind. She said, “Idhar lagayega, phir baad mein ghar ko jake bhi mera aadmi lagayega to dard
to hoga na.” (I will have intercourse with a customer at the lodge and then when I go home my
husband will also want sex. As a result it will hurt, won’t it?) (Pallavi, Karnataka, 25)
Only when they are all together do the apparently tabooed conversations start. Discussions on
problems with customers and over the nature of what the customers often ask for are openly
analysed by the women. They said some women do agree to have sex without using any sort of
protective mechanism and they were probably also excessively using drugs and alcohol. The
women do not trust anyone; not even their own people. They are not comfortable with the nature
of their work. They do not explain why though. Sometimes it seems the duality in their lives
makes them doubt their own selves while they play the role of the deviant ‘whore.’ The duality
of being both deviant and the pure (wife or mother or daughter) leads the women to often doubt
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 67 themselves. Some of these women are widows while some others are married and live with their
husband, which makes the idea of any sexual activity with anyone apart from the husband or a
socially sanctioned relationship on the part of the woman promiscuous and immoral as seen by
society.
6.3 Negotiating with both Unpredictability and Determination
Lalita talked about her feeling of vulnerability in the last ten years ever since she decided to do
sex work. She lost her husband when her children were very young. Although she was earning, it
was not enough. Eventually all the three children dropped out of school. There are several sex
workers in her neighbourhood. She said it was easy to tell from the erratic working hours so she
has to be extra careful to keep her identity hidden.
She lived in a ‘pukka’ house without a bathroom. It was one room where she had covered a part
to use it like a bathing space. She has been living on rent in the same house for a few years. If
her landlord ever discovers the nature of her work she will lose the room. She speculated that
just as she knows about fellow sex workers in the neighbourhood, maybe they also know about
her. She is afraid someone might find out and alert the landlord. Since she is a widow, she
says she cannot be seen with another man, so she always meets her clients away from her
house. She takes the bus to a common meeting point. Sometimes, the men have a vehicle in
which case she meets them midway. If they are traveling by public transport she meets them
at the deserted spot decided beforehand. She often goes into the nearby jungles with the
customer. There have not been any incidents of violence by the customer on her so far, but
the thought does cross her mind. When she gets a call and decides to meet customer near the
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 68 rail tracks or in a secluded place, she is never sure whether there is only one customer waiting.
Unpredictability makes her vulnerable. She confides in me and tells me a secret. She agrees to
going to the train tracks in extreme cases when she has absolutely no money. She puts all her
confidence and takes the chance of going to meet a customer in such places. She has never been
attacked while she goes to the train tracks or the jungles or other deserted spaces. She believes
her confidence and body language helps her. She says if she looks scared then it allows the other
person to petrify her or force her into situations she may not want to be in. She also says she will
never give in to fear. If she believes she can take care of herself then no one can hurt her. Her
faith in herself is what keep her strong and focused. At the same time, she is determined to be
strong and pursue the life she has opted for in her current circumstances.
6.4 Negotiating with insecurity and NGO Support
Farzana referred to the insecurity on account of being new comers in sex work. She has been in
Goa for only a year. She earns well compared to her older co-workers who are over thirty years
of age. She is nineteen but looks younger. She lives with a partner who is aware of her work and
has decided to continue his romantic relationship with her.
She goes out for work about 4-5 days in the week. Often when she is out with a customer she is
stopped for questioning by the police. Since the police do not have any proof of her soliciting in
public, she feels safe. Getting noticed by the police on a regular basis can mean trouble for her.
She wants to be made a peer educator at the NGO. The identity card will solve a lot of her
problems she says. The women in the NGO who work as peer educators have an identity card.
This helps them out in times of trouble with the police. Peer educators are members of the
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 69 community who work with the NGO to spread sexual health awareness. They distribute
condoms, help the women with pregnancy, Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), UTI and
convince the women to avail of the free HIV testing regularly. Although the women are paid Rs.
1700 every month, the position means having an official identity card. The women can then
easily move around seeking customers. There are raids at lodges from time to time. Having a
card in hand at such times saves the women from having to bribe the police. The women say, in
case of arrests, the NGO people always come forth and support.
6.5 Negotiating with fear and Coping Mechanisms adopted by the Women
Hema accepted that she had been arrested by the Sangli police for attempting to bring a girl to
work for her so she could live off the earnings of the girl. She said the decision to bring in a third
minor girl rather than they themselves continuing as sex workers, was a calculated decision.
While she was a sex worker in Madgaon, she frequented some specific bars with other women.
The modus operandi involved dressing up and sitting outside the bars. The women used the
waiting area to entice and solicit customers. They would regularly visit the bars looking for
work. Over time, the local people and the bar owners had identified them. The police would
come on routine checks to the bars at night. The police also questioned the women. The police
suspected the women were sex workers but did not arrest them each time. The women were
always careful. She says she once told a policeman what she did for a living but he did not arrest
her. She told him if he arrested her she would still go back to being a sex worker. She told him
she was all alone and this was the only way of earning money. Although, the women were never
arrested while they were soliciting at the bar, there was a lingering fear. The woman along with
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 70 three friends decided to bring in a girl so she could rest for some days and still have a means of
survival. She said her experience of being in custody for the next few days was painful. She had
been stripped to her last bit of underclothes and beaten black and blue by the police at the police
station. She then spent four days after that in the hospital. When the judge asked her if she had
been beaten at the police station she denied it. She said the women police officers who beat her
up had asked her to never mention it in court. She was granted bail. She is not clear on how long
the case will go on or what is the situation right now. Every few months she is required to report
at Sangli, as and when the matter appears. She has paid a lawyer all the money she had made
over the years to represent her in the court at Sangli as she is unable to travel for every court
hearing. She is not a peer educator like many of the other women. She moved to Sankhali from
Madgaon recently and is no more a peer educator like she was in the Madgaon office. She
aborted a child after the death of her first husband last year and was expecting another child from
her boyfriend but she complains of tiredness and physical weakness. She says her poor physical
health does not allow her to travel much which is a prerequisite for the peer educators to build a
network of sex workers outside the NGOs. Despite these odds, women like her continue to
struggle to survive doing sex work.
6.6 Negotiating with the spaces of Sex Work
The women unanimously agree that there is no need for a red light area. Visibility of their
livelihood option invariably poses to be an impediment in their lives. The women agree that
traveling alone in search of customers is safer than operating out of a red light area. This way
although the police might suspect them their chances of being identified and arrested is low.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 71 Also, the families have no way of finding out what the women do for a living. Since the
customers are pre-decided the women do not feel the need to dress up provocatively or put a lot
of makeup. This saves them from attracting unnecessary attention.
Sex work is physically and emotionally toiling. It provides sustenance to the families of all these
women. While in Baina or any other hierarchical set up, the sex workers have to pay all those
above them since without the organizational setup, they are able to negotiate with the customers
more effectively. Currently in Goa, the women do not pay bribes either to the police or any sort
of middle men on a regular basis. Only in situations where they are arrested they are required to
pay the police if they want a simpler way out. The women say that in this new situation they can
negotiate between their demands and those of the customer, till they reach a consensus. They feel
they have agency, more options, voice and power. They have the power to negotiate over time,
money and working conditions with clients.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 72
CONCLUSION
The shift from "prostitution" to "sex work" represents an explicit attempt to bring prostitution
into the sphere of labor, to define people selling sexual services as workers who are entitled to
workers' rights within an existing industry. (Shah 2003)
This quote signifies the shifts that have taken place in the discourse around sexual labour of
women, hitherto understood within the gamut of prostitution. This study also reflects on the
location of sex work and sexual labour within the paradigm of work, particularly within the
informal economy. There are several themes that have emerged out of this research.
Options within the informal economy - In the women’s narratives migration has been discussed
as a strong influence on the lives of these women and in their choices of livelihood. Their
experiences of migrating to Goa both on their own to find work or moving with their families
have been traced. Further the experience of being financially independent and self- sufficient
have also emerged from the narratives including the experience of trying different work
options like construction, domestic work and working in hotels before deciding to do sex work.
There are several push factors involved in moving out from home or from a familiar space
and migrating to a new place and ultimately taking up the chosen livelihood options. Among
them poverty and unemployment (resulting from limited opportunities of work back home)
play an important role. The pull factors include the proximity and connectivity to Goa from the
women’s native places or previous place of stay. Thus what emerges is that women migrate and
seek out options within the informal economy, thereby locating sex work as one among several
options within the informal economy of Goa.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 73
Conscious nature of the decisions - However, the narratives also bring out the instability and
unreliability of sex work, yet they also bring out the unending effort of the women to survive
by doing sex work. The fact that the families will get to know about the women doing sex
work, the physical and health issues and the illegality of sex work worry the women. Further in
terms of options outside of sex work, women agree on the fact that rehabilitation without an
equal compensation such as that in sex work is not a solution. In their given circumstances, sex
work seems to be the most viable option. All women’s narratives depict the conscious choices
that they make within their existing circumstances.
The narratives bring out the importance of the tourism and mining industries in Goa in the lives
of the women. They also bring out the effect of the demolition of the Baina beach red light
area, which now ensures them anonymity to a great extent, yet often makes the process of
finding customers long and tedious. There are certain periods when being able to find a
customer is extremely difficult. These include the days of menstruation, the t o u r i s t off
season and d a ys o f strict police vigilance. Despite this inconsistency, the relative anonymity
and the support from the income due to sex work is able to provide the women with some
independence and self-sufficiency in their lives.
The women accept that there is stigma and discrimination in doing sex work. As a result they
refrain from informing and involving families in this decision. They maintain more than one role
in their lives which include that of a domestic worker, peer educator, factory worker etc. along
with being sex workers. The women do not equate sexual labour as central to their economic life.
They choose to take it up as a supplement to inadequate income or a more effective means of
becoming economically independent.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 74 The narratives b r i n g out a distinct understanding of sex work in the context of Goa. The
absence of an acknowledged space for both solicitation and meeting customers is desirable for
these women. At the same time, it requires the women to put in several months of hard work
before they can establish a customer network that allows them economic stability. The women
have not experienced any physical violence and believe that Goa is ‘safe’. Also, since the women
only venture out in the day and avoid meeting customers they do not recognize, the chances of
being attacked, forced or threatened are extremely low.
The NGOs that the women are attached to, help in case the women are caught by the police
soliciting a customer. Ultimately, the women have taken it upon themselves to do sex work to
survive and support their families and are willing to brave the obstacles that come in the way.
Thus despite being not being formally organized, the network of support built around the NGO
stands them in good stead.
The women do not wish to organize themselves in any other formal way. The current
organization of sex work supports them in their choices. There definitely has been more
vigilance since the demolition of Baina but the State has not accepted the presence of sex work
as a voluntary activity within the circumstances faced by the women. The migrant women who
are found by the police soliciting customers are sent back to their home states. As a result, these
women choose to be discreet about their activities. Especially as mothers, the women feel
responsible for their families and are willing to take the required risks. They internalize their
fears to a large extent and learn to devise ways of surviving in the real world. At the same time,
they are aware of the conditions that may come with the way they decide to go forward with their
lives. The women do not feel coerced or taken advantage of. The networks that they have built
around their peers who help them get clients, the network of clients themselves who offer some
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 75 support in dire circumstances, the network of the organization of sex work with the lodges, and
finally the network around the NGO and it’s staff offer the women, a space to seek livelihood
options within the informal sector in Goa, while constantly negotiating these options.
Finally, it is important to recognize these migrant women as sex workers. This in turn will help
in recognizing sex work as paid labour. It will establish the primacy of sex work as the main
economic activity for the women and not just their identity.
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 76
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Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 85 ANNEXURE 01
QUESTIONNAIRE
1. Personal:
a. Name:
b. Age:
c. Caste:
d. Religion:
e. State you were born in:
f. Daughters (with age):
g. Sons (with age):
h. Marital status: single/married/divorced/separated/ widow/other
i. Living with: Alone/Friends/Family
j. If with family, who:
k. Earning members in family (no.) :
l. Who: Three children and me
m. Dependent family members in Goa:
n. Elsewhere:
o. Where and who:
p. Locality where you stay:
q. Areas where you travel to for work:
r. Education:
s. Any skill training:
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 86
t. Languages known:
u. Do you speak /know English: Yes/No/Little
v. ID Proof (Ration card, Adhar card, Voter I-card etc.):
2. Migration history:
Town/city/state lived in Period Reason(s) to leave/move
3. Work history:
Job No.
Age Nature of Work
Where Period Monthly average earnings
Reason(s) to leave/change
4. Working conditions (general):
a. Is work environment safe: Yes/No
b. What improvements possible:
c. Illness due to nature of work:
d. Have you witnessed sexual assault/abuse of any women at work: Yes/No
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 87
e. If yes, by whom: Police/customer/owner/co-worker/outside
f. Describe:
5. Work/Work conditions related: a. Were you practicing sex work before you moved to Goa?
b. If yes, why did you then move to Goa specifically? If no, what were you
doing earlier for sustaining yourself and your family?
c. How did you decide to take up this work? What other work have you done
before you moved to sex work? Were you doing other work simultaneously
or did you move and stick only to sex work in the start? Has it changed since?
d. Does it provide for you and those you are supporting or do you do
other simultaneous jobs?
e. Is the work opportunity during the tourist season (November-March) better?
Do you get more customers?
f. Do you feel burdened financially? If so, how?
g. Do you find it difficult to interact and find customers in the absence of a
known common area/red light area?
h. Do you think the situation for sex work is desirable in Goa currently? Would
you like to see a change? How?
i. How long have you practiced sex work in Goa? Has it changed over the years? 6. Goa related:
a. Why did you move to Goa?
b. Is it difficult to find work because you are not from Goa?
c. Has being a non-goan been a problem for you? How?
d. Do you follow Konkani? If not, is the fact that you do not follow the
language a problem?
e. If given a choice to change location and practice the same kind of work
would you shift to your hometown or somewhere outside of Goa?
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 88
7. Baina:
a. Do you know about the Baina demolition? Have you been here since before
the Baina demolition?
b. Have you ever been there before or after? What was it like? c. Do you think it was fair on the people who lived there?
d. Has the demolition the nature of your work in any way? If so, how?
8. Relationship with State/Government:
a. The Goa government is willing to provide rehabilitation to women practicing
sex work in Goa. Have you heard about that?
b. Would you like to avail of such a scheme?
c. What expectations do you have from the government with regard to your work?
Do you think the government can in any way make the conditions better? 9. State/Law/Police:
a. Do the police bother you in your work? Are they supportive?
b. Is meeting the clients in a public place problematic because of random
police checks?
c. Do you think that sex work should be legalized?
d. Do you think sex work should be decriminalized, at least?
e. Do you know about the laws to do with sex work?
f. Have you faced any sort of discrimination owing to the nature of your work?
If so, how?
g. Have you ever been in trouble with the police for practicing sex work?
h. Do you think you have the right to decide whether or not you want to
continue practicing sex work?
i. Would you let someone else make that decision for you?
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 89 10. Relationship/Support from NGOs:
a. Do you get adequate support from the non-governmental organizations here?
Is there something more you would like from them?
b. What is your engagement with the NGO?
c. Is it a paid role? How much is the pay? d. Does your role in the NGO help you connect with more sex workers? If so, how?
11. Role of other stakeholders(customers):
a. What is your relationship with your clients like?
b. Do you need to reach out or is there a regular clientele?
c. Where do you meet your customers (lodge/guest house/ their house/your
house/others)? 12. Stigma/Discrimination:
a. Does your family know about your practicing sex work? If not, why have you
not told them?
b. Are you worried they will not understand your work and make moral judgments? 13. Relationship with other sex workers:
a. Are you connected with other people practicing sex work?
b. How many other sex workers do you know in Goa? Do you think the network
of the women you know helps all of you together?
c. Do you feel that if there was a sort of organization or support system for
women practicing sex work it would help you? What kind of an organization do
you think there should be?
d. Do you feel threatened by other sex workers? Is there a lot of competition? 14. Future:
Experiencing Sex ‘Work’ 90
a. What work would you do if you were unable to practice sex work:
b. Where?
c. What kind of training would you want:
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