Sex workers are adults who receive money or goods in exchange for consensual sexual services or erotic performances, either regularly or occasionally. Over a decade, the lives of sex workers have not been easy. To remember the struggle due to discrimination of sex workers and their inhumane living and working conditions, June 2 has been marked as International Sex Workers Day.
Sex workers sell sexual services to earn a livelihood. The vast majority of sex workers choose to do sex work because it is the best option they have. Many sex workers struggle with poverty and destitution and have few other options for work. Others find that sex work offers better pay and more flexible working conditions than other jobs. And some pursue sex work to explore and express their sexuality.
Criminalization of sex work compromises sex workers’ health and safety by driving sex work underground. Criminalization includes everything from criminalizing the sale and purchase of sexual services, to blanket prohibitions on the management of sex work. Criminalization makes it harder for sex workers to negotiate terms with clients, work together with other sex workers for safety, and carry condoms without fear that they will be used as evidence of prostitution.
Plight of Sex Workers during the coronavirus pandemic:
As the whole world is under the coronavirus lockdown, the sex workers across the globe are facing a major financial crisis. The plight of these workers is unfathomable during this period.
- Like many countries, France has introduced unprecedented measures to combat the spread of COVID-19 citizens are required to stay indoors and avoid social contact, and all non-essential businesses have either closed or switched to working from home. For people in prostitution, these new rules have led to a significant loss of income as sex workers and their clients isolate at home. In response to the COVID-19 lockdown, the state has agreed to subsidise up to 84% of employees’ wages, and has introduced a €1,500 per month grant for the self-employed. Sex workers who have the right to live and work in France and are registered as self-employed may be able to apply to these schemes.
- Vijayalakshmi, a sex worker in Telangana, India is accustomed to receiving customers round the clock. But due to the crisis, Vijaylakshmi is now left with half-baked promises by local leaders for reimbursement of losses, and hope that is exhausting faster than the essentials she has stocked up to survive. Vijaylakshmi heads a group of 1,500 sex workers, whose lives have now ground to a standstill. This includes 77 HIV positive persons, whose survival is an even bigger challenge.
- According to charities and sex worker organisations, “Sex workers in “dire and desperate” circumstances across the UK are continuing to see clients during the lockdown, potentially exposing themselves and others to coronavirus”. “We are facing a massive crisis,” said Niki Adams from the English Collective of Prostitutes. “No one wants to be flouting the rules and putting themselves and others in danger, but those who are still working have no other choice.”
On April 8, the Global Network of Sex Work Projects and UNAIDS released a statement highlighting the hardship and discrimination faced by sex workers in this time, urging countries to ensure that their human rights be respected and fulfilled.
The statement read: “… Whenever and wherever possible, sex workers are responsibly self-isolating in response to governments’ calls. However, when they are excluded from COVID-19 social protection responses, sex workers are faced with putting their safety, their health, and their lives at increased risk just to survive…”
Sex workers, like most workers, have diverse feelings about their work. Some sex workers dislike their work but find that it is their best or only option to make a living. Some are agnostic about their work but find that it offers flexibility or good pay. And some enjoy the work and find it all around rewarding or fun. Regardless of what sex workers think about their work, they deserve workplace health and safety and human rights.
