The Issues

An increasingly diverse city of migrants, as Mumbai’s economy booms, the demand for sexual services has risen and continues to rise. In bars, brothels, homes and streets, women and men earn their living as sex workers and suffer the many challenges inherent in their trade including:

  • Lack of economic stability
  • Low literacy
  • Violence
  • Harassment
  • Police conflicts
  • Stigmatization
  • Lack of healthcare and health awareness

Though the various types of sex workers share many of the same challenges, the community is very diverse and there has been a historic lack of solidarity due to identity differences and competition. From the beginning, Aastha Parivaar has sought to emphasize the common needs and goals of the sex workers, while addressing the unique concerns of each distinct sex worker community through community-based organizations (CBOs).

Because we understand that accountability and self-reliance are key to HIV interventions, our model empowers the community itself to lead the community-based organizations as well as Aastha Parivaar on the whole. From the peer leaders (paid community members who help implement programmes in the field) to the President of the entire Aastha Parivaar federation (a post by election of the Aastha Parivaar General Body), the community is responsible for addressing its own needs and accountable to itself for the same.

Click here to read more about our model.