Clients dictate usage of condoms: Docs
Doctors working with sex workers in Andhra Pradesh report that even though HIV prevalence has come down from 1.63 in 2004 to 0.75 in 2011, clients continue to dictate usage of condoms with sex workers.
Hyderabad-based Dr. P. Prabhakar, director of HIV/AIDS Alliance in India, points out that 30 per cent of all clients continue to demand anal sex from sex workers.
“Female sex workers, including the elderly women, prefer providing anal and oral sex because they feel this is safer than vaginal sex. We recommend they use water-based lubricants but they prefer to use oil.’’
“Risk from anal sex is much more difficult to identify,” Mr Prabhakar warned.
Demand for group sex with sex workers is also on the rise and presently 5 per cent of sex workers are willing to participate in this trend, he added.
Dr Anasua Bagchi, heading the technical services of Hindustan Latex Family Planning Promotion Trust, admits that “while condom use has gone up 70 per cent between 2000-2009, they continue to face a problem in identifying sex workers across communities. “Only 30 per cent of sex workers today operate out of brothels while 70 per cent are home based. Identifying the latter category of sex workers poses a huge problem. Many of the clients who visit their homes are dead drunk and are in no position to use condoms,’’ Bagchi adds.
The Targeted Intervention Programme in Andhra Pradesh is also working with men having sex with men (MSM) and other groups who fall in the category of most-at-risk-populations (MARPS).
K. Dolly, a team leader, who works with Swagati, warns that though the number of younger sex workers may have declined, the rate of infection amongst them remains high.
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