Reflection Paper: Weeks 1 & 2
When creating With Bare Love, it was my hope to share what I've learned in and outside of the classroom with everyone back home while in India. Below is my first written assignment for our class titled: Social Work 772: Postcolonial Social Work Practice: International Social Work Welfare in India.
Andreana Barefield
University of Pennsylvania
Toorjo Ghose, MSW, Ph.D.
June 4, 2017
It is commonly known that my passions lie with anti-trafficking initiatives, and I aspire to help eradicate the circumstances in which one person could forcibly make another work against their will. In coming to Kolkata, I thought this class would add to my understanding of international social work, but in actuality it has only blurred the meaning of what it would mean to be a foreign social worker in the anti-trafficking field. My previous knowledge of the subject was based upon the findings and testimonies of some of the most well-known names in the field – Nicholas Kristof, Sheryl Wu Dunn, Rachel Lloyd, Kelly Master. Since my time working with Durbar Mahila Samanway Committee (DMSC), I have come to realize something curious – none of the advocates I aspired to work with, were from the places they advocated for. How does a foreign-born author change the narration of sex work and trafficking?
The western world has been fed the narrative of the “sex worker-in-distress”. Rachel Lloyd (2012) describes sex work and trafficking to be “two sides to the same coin” (Half the Sky Movement, n.p.). In Half the Sky, language such as “rescue”, “pressures of her circumstance”, “caste”, and “escape” are used to paint a picture of destitution for sex workers. Ruchita Gupta (2012) illustrates the concept that the lack of finances, education, and economic opportunity means “prostitution is the absence of choice” (Half the Sky Movement, n.p.). These perspectives promote an abolitionist mentality for those who seek to end sex work. “They perceive sex workers to be victims rather than criminals arguing that most are compelled to join the industry…they argue for the criminalization of clients of sex workers and the rescue and rehabilitation of sex workers themselves” (Sukthankar, 2012, p. 308). While I do not completely negate these accounts as inaccurate or false, questions are raised when you read opposing narratives.
One example is a response by a DMSC member on how her affiliating with the agency has transformed her livelihood and well-being:
Now after becoming DMSC members, we are more financially secure. Durbar workers now verify that madams do not take more than what is owed to them. Through Durbar we pool our money to be able to buy shops, property, save funds in the Usha Cooperative and take out loans…I could not arrange two square meals for the family before now I can do that. My dress, my appearance, everything has changed after coming to Durbar (T. Ghose et al., 2008, p. 315).
The abolitionist movement carries heavily on the notion that women in sex work profession have been forced into the trade due to economic necessity, a lack of employment options, addiction, and coercion by other violent stakeholders. In contrast, DMSC provides these amenities, and their members still chose sex work as their means of employment. They challenge the Western-feminist heroine mentality, that there is simply no way someone would actively choose and want a life in sex work. DMSC’s anti-abolitionist philosophy argues that the criminalization of sex work would further harm workers by pushing the industry into an illegal market where they are more exposed to violence and maltreatment (Sukthankar, 2012). What does this mean for the anti-trafficking field?
It is clear that these perpetuated Western ideologies of choice and consent greatly shape the conversation on sex work and trafficking. As seen in Half of Sky (2012), abolitionists argue that no matter how a girl enters prostitution – “whether she is responding to the pressures of her circumstances or is actually coerced” (Half the Sky Movement, n.p.) – her choice is forced upon her, therefore, she has not meaningfully consented to sex work. These ideas skyrocket policies, like USAID’s “prostitution pledge”, India’s Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, and the Swedish model, that prevent organizations like DMSC from receiving funding, access, and support for initiatives that have already proven successful in their communities.
Furthermore, the Western abolitionist movement vilifies other stakeholders that organize and participate in the sex work industry (i.e. pimps, madams, parents). In doing so, it simplifies the problem to “a bad mother” or a “treacherous man” when in reality all stakeholders, including the sex workers, are victims to much larger evils: poverty, political corruption, stringent cultural norms, societal expectations, discrimination, and stigma. Rather than treating the issue by arresting customers and clientele, countries like India could instill more preventative measures – offering more formal sector employment opportunities, providing pensions to unionized informal workers, and ensuring free education up to grade 12.
David Cox and Manohar Pawar suggest several social work strategies for engaging communities – empowerment, capacity building, self-reliance, social-cohesion, income generation, and community development. Empowerment is a common intervention, and is frequently seen in organizational projects like Half the Sky Movement, GEMS, and the Salvation Army. Cox and Pawar (2013) define empowerment as, “a process whereby the social worker engages in a set of activities with the client…that aim to reduce the powerlessness that has been created by negative valuations based on membership in a stigmatized group” (Solomon, cited in Cox & Pawar, p. 107). Although empowerment, and the other suggested interventions, seem like practical options, they place the responsibility of the program onto the social worker rather than the sex worker.
In conversation with Dr. Samrajit Jana, Supervisor to DMSC’s research team, he noted the key to DMSC’s sustainability and progress was community member ownership and control. This takes us back to the original question. “How does the author change the conversation about sex work and trafficking?” I do not believe abolitionists to be completely ignorant in the issues regarding sex work and trafficking, but I do think such initiatives would be much more progressive should the women themselves be the narrators of their own plight. I will be eager to observe first-hand what success the Salvation Army’s anti-trafficking program, an abolitionist approach, yields during my field placement in the upcoming fall.
References
1. Cox, D. & Pawar, M. (2006). International Social Work: Issues, Strategies, and Programs. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
2. Ghose, T. (2008). Mobilizing Collective Identity to Reduce HIV Risk Among Sex Workers in Sonagachi, India: The Boundaries, Consciousness, Negotiation Framework. Social Science and Medicine, 67, 333-20.
3. Loomba, A & Lukose, R. (Eds.). Sukthankar, A. (2012). South Asian Feminisms. Durham: Duke U Press.
4. Kristof, N. & Wu Dunn, S. (2012). Half the Sky Movement: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. http://www.halftheskymovement.org/issues/forced-prostitution.