HIV Transmission and Peer Influence on Female Sex Workers in India

This initial project was designed to become acquainted with the lifestyles, issues, and concerns of female sex workers in Vadapalani, Anna Nagar, Saidapet and Thyagaraya Nagar regions of the city of Chennai, India in order to determine whether or not peer influence is a central reason that women enter the sex work industry. It is known that many women enter the commercial sex business to support their families, and provide for their children’s needs, but the extent to which the female sex workers are influenced by oth ers to enter this field of work is unknown. The study contains 20 personal interviews with women from these areas ranging in age from 26 to 52 focusing on how female sex workers come to enter this field, the influence that women in sex work have on each other to enter the field, the pressures that are produced by certain groups in society to enter this field, and from whom these pressures arise. Results indicated that the highest influential factors on these women to enter the sex work do in fact come from the pressure and influence of others including friends, family members, and neighbors. The study also assessed how different women respond to stigma, and how women from different backgrounds feel about their work. Additionally, I asked questions regarding HIV/AIDS to gauge concerns about HIV and the ease with which women can access HIV tests. Overall, I found that meeting family economic needs are the biggest reason women enter this field, and 95 percent of the women claimed that they discussed, were pressured, or influenced to enter the sex work field by another person.