Citation

Karandikar S, Knight L, Casassa K, España M, Kagotho N. Sex Cult. 2022; 26(3): 853-877.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s12119-021-09921-x

PMID

unavailable

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.

Language: en

Keywords

Economic remittances; Gender roles; Kamathipura; Migration; Sex work