Sexworker
Sexworker a new label under which prostitution continues to survive in the western cultures. In the wake of freedom of choice of one's profession, prostitutes in Bangladesh are no longer formally referred to as patita or nati (literally, prostitute) but are identified as 'commercial sexworker' (CSW). CSWs were present in ancient India and the Hindu attitudes to CSW is found in the Arthasastra by Kautilya, living around 300 BC. The book has a chapter on how commercial sex work should be regulated. According to this source, a recognised CSW had an annual salary of 1,000 panas and a rival CSW received half of that. The daughters, sisters or mothers of these CSWs were required to replace them, if they were absent for any reason or in the event of death. Though the profession of CSW was officially recognised it was not an honorable profession. mahabharata noted that a whore must be good to qualify to be reborn to a higher life. buddhism held the same view regarding the profession of CSWs.
In olden days, sexual services by women were combined with dancing and natini, the Bengali feminine of nati means 'a dancing girl', 'a prostitute', 'a whore'. Certain castes and tribes of India traditionally followed the profession of CSWs. bedey women became whores and therefore, the men of this group had to look for wives beyond their own group. However, in modern Bangladesh bedeys are not labeled as such. Many of them in the country are followers of islam. The kolhatis and nomadic acrobats from Bombay allowed their women either to marry or to work as CSW. The harni and mang garuda criminal castes of India were associated with the profession of commercial sex and they had a reputation of regularly robbing their clients.
Vatsayana's Kama Sutra states that the profession of CSW was a highly developed art in India and it remains a well-established trade in most Indian cities. It dates from about 200-400 AD, contains the precepts of pleasure and is even considered a revelation of the gods. Institutions of marriage and family control female sexuality at the community level. The state controls the sexuality of CSWs in the brothels by registering their names and putting them in designated houses of a red light area commonly known as natipada or besshya pada.
The registration of a sexworker is preceded by procurement of a license through an affidavit from a first class magistrate with the help of a notary public. In this affidavit she declares that she has chosen this profession after finding no other source of maintaining herself and there is no one to help her. The affidavit also confirms that she has chosen this profession without any pressure and influence from any quarters. The floating CSWs remain unregistered and are beyond the formal control of the government. Their movements are not contained in a regulated place.
All over the world including Bangladesh, young women especially of the age of 13-35 years have high demand in this profession. In Bangladesh as well as in India CSWs are usually widowed, divorced and separated women, some with small children, who sleep on foot-path and the verandas of public buildings. Vast majority of them serves lower middle class people and workers like the rickshaw-pullers or factory workers. CSWs move around residential areas. They are available in locations like the railway stations, bus terminals and ferry ghats.
The profession of CSW is more evident in urban areas than in the rural areas. There had been a very considerable level of commercial sex in the nineteenth century East Bengal especially, in the riverside towns of Dhaka and Narayanganj. The number of CSWs in Bangladesh is approximately 100,000. They live in brothel, rented houses in affluent areas, hotels, guesthouses and mess. Many also live independently and serve as floating CSWs. The licensed CSWs living in the brothel are designated as professional ones. The floating CSWs do have a chance to return to their homes, which however, is not so easy while the brothel based CSWs can not return back home once they get registered as professional. Often organised groups of people illegally traffic women and children abroad, especially to India, Pakistan and some countries of the Middle-East, where they work as house-maids and sex-slaves.
CSWs are prone to sexually transmitted diseases. Recent studies suggest that about one-fourth of the CSWs of Bangladesh suffer from either gonorrhea or chlamydia. Also, in keeping with the Bangladesh patterns, syphilis levels are still higher. The 1997 strategic AIDS plan of the government of Bangladesh reported that 54% of the 980 surveyed CSWs had present or past syphilis. In 1989, 39% of the institutionalised CSWs and 56% of the floating ones were found to have the disease.
The quran strictly prohibits and condemns the profession of commercial sex. It rules that sexworkers have to be punished and the followers of Islam cannot marry them. For lewdness the Quran prescribes a hundred stripes and it clearly states that persons who commit zina (sexual intercourse between man and woman not married to each other) must be punished with stripes executed publicly. In Bangladesh an illegitimate pregnancy may be a destructive event in the life of a Muslim or Hindu girl and when a baby is born to a CSW in the brothel it grows there to be a CSW.
An illegitimate child has no place in the community. Such a child has no identity with regard to his father and does not get good parental care. In this respect the Constitution of Bangladesh has clearly disapproved the profession of CSWs, who also do not have social recognition in the country. Instead, their profession is the most hated one. For example, at death only a CSW's co-workers will touch her body and she cannot be buried in an ordinary public graveyard. In spite of these restrictions the number of CSWs in the country is increasing day by day. The main reasons behind the taking up of this profession include illiteracy, poverty, unemployment, increasing migration in cities by unmarried young girls for low-wage employment and family disruption. Almost two-thirds of CSWs come from the families of rural agricultural labourers, small farmers or fishermen and the low-income families of the rickshaw pullers or cartpullers and boatmen.
A worldwide movement for the eradication of CSWs developed in the nineteenth century and in 1869, a campaign was started in England to launch an international movement to abolish state-regulated commercial sex. Since the mid-twentieth century, the Islamists with only limited success initiated occasional efforts for the eradication of CSWs. At present, some women's organisations in Bangladesh put efforts to evict brothel based CSWs and they plead for their rehabilitation before eviction. [KMA Aziz]
