Laws relating to bonded labour and tenancy
India
of sex workers’ mobilization, and the police’s appreciation of sex workers’ bargaining power.165
In West Bengal and Bangladesh, there is a recognized hierarchy within brothels.166 Women and girls who are sold by a procurer to a madam are obliged to pay off the amount the madam paid, plus interest. These women and girls are lowest in the hierarchy and are referred to as chukris, who are bonded labourers. Many sex workers start as chukris, whether they are trafficked or not. Legislation against bonded labour appears to have had little impact on changing this practice.167 On the next level of the hierarchy are adhiyas, who “…providing AIDS pay the madam 50 percent of their income, in exchange for awareness and accommodation, food and security. It has been observed that condoms isn’t going to the degree of vulnerability to HIV of chukris and adhiyas is be successful because linked to their status in the hierarchy, and chukris as bonded workers are the most powerless and are entirely dependent sex workers have no on madams for access to condoms.168 Cornish described the power compared to the relationship as follows: clients, the pimps or The madams enter the sexual relation as intermediaries between the sex worker and client. A madam’s economic interest is tied to the sex workers’ earnings, and hence she is unlikely to encourage refusal of a client on the grounds of his refusal to use a condom. However, some madams let sex workers take most of the control over their work.169
the madams. Without strengthening them, you cannot change this power equation.”
Kotiswaran describes the power dynamics of brothels in West Bengal: A triangular set of relations form the institution of the brothel. These three relations are: (1) labor relation between the brothel owner or brothel keeper, on the one hand, and the sex worker, on the other; (2) tenancy relation between the landlord and either (a) a lessee with no functional role in the sex industry, (b) a brothel owner or brothel keeper (where a labor relation exists), or (c) a self-employed sex worker (where no labor relation exists); and (3) the service relation between sex workers and a brothel (if any), on the one hand, and customers, on the other. Internal stakeholders in the brothel setting include the landlord, lessee, brothel owner, brothel keeper, dalal (or tout), sex worker, and customer. External stakeholders include goondas (local goons), the DMSC, the police, vendors, and moneylenders.170 The analysis of a clinician working with sex workers in West Bengal is instructive: …providing AIDS awareness and condoms isn’t going to be successful because sex workers have no power compared to the clients, the pimps or the madams. Without strengthening them, you cannot change this power equation.171 165 Kotiswaran P. (2011), op cit., p.127. 166 Kotiswaran, P. (2008), ‘Born unto Brothels – Toward a Legal Ethnography of Sex Work in an Indian RedLight Area’, Law and Social Inquiry, 33, 579-629. 167 Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 (India); Bonded Labour Act 2006 (Bangladesh). 168 Karim R., Selim N., Rashid S (2008) op cit., p.4. 169 Cornish P., Shukla A., Banerji R., (2010), Persuading, protesting and exchanging favours: strategies used by Indian sex workers to win local support for their HIV prevention programmes, AIDS Care 22 Suppl 2, 1670-8. 170 Kotiswaran P. (2008), op cit.,, p.586. 171 Project Parivartan (2006), op cit. p.27.
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