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Economic Considerations of Migrant Female Sex Workers in India

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Abstract

Poverty is a major reason given for entry into sex work in India. Sex work is a migratory trade where workers relocate to regions with well-developed sex industries, redistributing income from urban to rural areas. By examining the migration from rural to urban settings, this study seeks to understand how cis-gender female sex workers (FSW) navigate their multiple intersecting identities (mothers, wives, daughters, and financial providers), given the social and economic costs and benefits of sex work. In-depth qualitative data (N = 12) was collected from Kamathipura, once considered Asia’s largest red-light area, in Mumbai, India. Data analysis was conducted by three coders using an iterative process of developing codes, categories, and themes using Nvivo12 software. Four themes emerged: (1) engaging in sex work to realize individual and family economic goals, (2) a discussion on the factors that support economic sex-migration, (3) the personal costs of economic migration, and (4) the precarity at the intersection of gender, migration, and sex work. The rural–urban migration of sex workers needs to be understood in the context of the gendered roles that affect their economic stability, as well as how they earn and deploy their financial assets. Human service providers need to acknowledge the strategies women have developed to fulfill their multiple roles of caregiver, wife, and wealth creators. By acknowledging these tactics, service providers become better situated to build interventions that capitalize on women’s agency, that is, programs that make the most of women’s aspirations to pursue their economic goals.

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The data contained in this manuscript are not openly available due to privacy restrictions.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the women who shared their lived experiences with us during the data collection phase. We would also like to thank Ravi who has worked and continues to work in this community, elevating the lives of the women engaged in the sex-industry in this section of Mumbai.

Funding

Funding for this research was provided by the Ohio State University, College of Social Work Research Development Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Social Work, The Ohio State University, Stillman Hall, 1947 N College Road, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    Sharvari Karandikar, Logan Knight, Kaitlin Casassa, Megan España & Njeri Kagotho

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  1. Sharvari Karandikar
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  2. Logan Knight
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  3. Kaitlin Casassa
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  4. Megan España
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  5. Njeri Kagotho
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Correspondence to Njeri Kagotho.

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All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the Ohio State University. The authors certify that the study was performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.

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Verbal informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Karandikar, S., Knight, L., Casassa, K. et al. Economic Considerations of Migrant Female Sex Workers in India. Sexuality & Culture 26, 853–877 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-021-09921-x

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