Abstract
This chapter examines how dominant discourses in policymaking in the realm of commercial sex work and international aid affect health communication practices in HIV/STI intervention among commercial sex workers. The policy documents of global HIV/STI research and aid organizations often actively conflate commercial sex work and trafficking. The choice of the profession of sex work is depicted as an outcome of coercion facilitated by trafficking. Sex workers are portrayed as victims of abuse as well as sexual servitude. Volition on part of sex workers in executing their profession is not acknowledged by many US and global donor organizations. Delegitimization and eradication of sex work, and rescue and rehabilitation of the sex workers, are propositions supported by some of the international donor organizations. The conflation of trafficking and sex work can problematize health promotion among sex workers and jeopardize HIV/STI intervention projects. The chapter explores how the delegitimization of sex work, rescue, and rehabilitation propositions offered to sex workers and conflating trafficking with sex work affect HIV/AIDS intervention programs among commercial sex workers. The chapter also looks at a case study conducted among commercial female sex workers in a red light district in India and takes into account the voices of commercial female sex workers on the proposed equation of trafficking and sex work and how it affects HIV/STI intervention project in that population.
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Dasgupta, S. (2018). Impact of the Dominant Discourses in Global Policymaking on Commercial Sex Work on HIV/STI Intervention Projects Among Commercial Sex Workers. In: Servaes, J. (eds) Handbook of Communication for Development and Social Change. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7035-8_107-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7035-8_107-1
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