NGOs and sex workers
Syed Taposh, UNDP Assisted Project, Jessore
NGOs working for the benefit of sex workers and their children employ a large number of young men and women to work with the sex workers inside or outside brothel areas. These young men and women are hard-working people and they are dealing with people from the high-risk group with whom not many people in our society want to work. They face problems in work, which doesn't match the problems of others who work in our NGO community. People don't have a positive attitude towards sex workers or those who work for them. Reflection of their negative attitude is observed in their treatment of those who work for the sex workers i.e. the NGO workers. To work for this vulnerable group, these NGO workers need to sacrifice a lot and show courage. But many of us don't know much about their sufferings or sacrifice. Let's have a look at the problems faced by NGO workers who work for the sex workers.Workers belonging to active NGOs visit brothel areas on a regular basis for their work. Not only community people, sometimes members from their own families oppose their working with sex workers. The women workers face more problems than men. The problem is acute if the worker is a woman and unmarried. They face problems while getting married. There are examples which show that some women were not able to marry in time or never married only because of working with sex workers. Most of the brothels in our country are situated in the middle of the business places where other members of their family or the people of the society they belong to can watch them. Because of their familiarity with different people they are not provided with house for rent. Sometimes people pass negative remarks about their work. The issue of sex workers is still considered sensitive and people in general don't want to be open in talking about it. Not many people want to be employed in work with the sex workers though unemployment is a big problem in our country. Because of the shortage of people NGOs have problems finding good and committed field level staff to work for the sex workers. Sometimes the brothel areas are situated in isolated places like Doulatdia or Baniashanta. In such cases the NGOs find it more difficult to find staff to work and stay there. The situation is worse for those NGOs, which have rehabilitation centres in which full time women staff are needed to look after children or girls. In Jessore, an NGO working with a project of for rehabilitation of sex workers faced problems several times as its female staff members left job after marriage, as their families didn't allow them to work for this community. The NGO workers deal with the leaders of sex workers. It is pointless to say that though all those people who work for development of sex workers play a significant role in making their lives better. The NGO workers target young girls for rehabilitation, which is not supported by the leaders as they are highly benefited from the business. The general inmates welcome rehabilitation efforts in most cases while the leaders always oppose such activities. They create problems for workers. They don't allow young girls to go outside brothel areas to take part in other activities. Some of the NGOs in recent times have established centres for health check-up, education, counselling etc. inside brothel areas so that the girls don't need to go out of brothels. These leaders have a good link with local influentials, sometimes even with people in the local administration. For rehabilitation of sex workers, coordinated efforts are needed. Finally, it has to be admitted that not only the sex workers but also the people who work for them are the victims of attitudinal problem of our community people. Their work should not be considered a simple one, neither should they be classified as similar to other service providers because they are dealing with a specific group of people with whom not many people of our society want to be involved.
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