'Nothing About Us Without Us'

'Nothing About Us Without Us'

- Partha Prawal

First words Meeting a sex worker, talking to him/her/ze and writing a report or doing news looks easy only in the reel life. In real life even though this is not that impossible, yet it is not as easy as it sounds. And when we come from a conservative society, finding a sex worker and visiting her/his/ze’s place is a matter of prestige and the prestige ambit also covers a larger group of the journalists. In Assam it is difficult to track down a sex worker as apart from a few selected and pointed red light areas, sex working in Assam is carried out mostly under the blanket of secrecy.

Moreover, in most cases a sex worker is involved in the trade only to earn some extra money, and it is not the only way to make a living.Sex working is largely a gender (women) issue as male or transgender sex workers are rare and few. Any sex worker, irrespective of the place of one origin, firstly is a human and they too should enjoy the basic rights. But in most cases it has been observed that these rights are not only violated, but the sex workers are also subjugated.

Sex workers across the world face a constant risk of abuse, which is seldom informed about or highlighted as these makes no news. They being an extremely marginalized group of people, who are frequently forced to live outside the law,make it even harder for their oppression to grab headlines. They are often denied access to the basic health or housing services, which are also rarely reported by the media.

Brief explanation

Sex work is the oldest profession of the world, but sadly the profession is not recognised as a profession per say. Even in the 21st century in most countries, sex working is a sin and sex workers the biggest sinners and the societies have rarely wondered as what ‘forced’ so many in this most hated profession?