A day at RSS-linked NGO’s Delhi clinic for sex workers — tackling issues from STDs to drug abuse
India

A day at RSS-linked NGO’s Delhi clinic for sex workers — tackling issues from STDs to drug abuse

NGO Sewa Bharti opened Delhi’s first clinic for sex workers in ‘red light area’ GB Road this month to provide stigma-free healthcare at no cost.

   

The Utkarsh clinic in GB Road is a joint project of NGO Sewa Bharti and the Naional Medicos Organisation, both of which are linked to the RSS | Photo: Falguni Sharma | ThePrint

New Delhi: The young woman wearing black leggings and bold purple lipstick looks terrified. As a sex worker, she sees up to 10 clients a day and sometimes uses drugs to take the edge off. Keeping track of her periods can be difficult.

Do mahine se khoon nahin nikla (I haven’t had a period for two months) Doctor Sahib,” she said, perched on a plastic chair in a schoolroom-turned-clinic in Old Delhi’s Shradhanand Marg, better known as GB Road, the capital’s red-light district.

The 28-year-old woman’s worries came true when ThePrint met her this Sunday. She was found to be eight weeks pregnant. But this time she was glad she could have an abortion with proper medical guidance, and without judgement, at the clinic, located just 50 metres from her brothel.

The facility, which opened on 1 January this year, provides free healthcare to sex workers under an initiative called Utkarsh, a joint project of Sewa Bharti, a social welfare organisation, and the National Medicos Organisation (NMO). Both organisations are linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Every Sunday, seven doctors from the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital, Lady Hardinge Medical College, and other hospitals come to offer their services at the clinic, situated in a primary school building near the women’s police station on GB Road.

Sewa Bharti general secretary Sushil Gupta told ThePrint that the seeds for the initiative were sown when the NGO’s workers had come to GB Road to distribute gas cylinders during the pandemic. While they were doing so, they got to know that the biggest need in the area was healthcare.

Health professionals at the Utkarsh clinic | Photo: Falguni Sharma | ThePrint

Gupta said that his NGO first started a weekly clinic for sex workers in 2020 on the first floor of the women’s police station in collaboration with the then joint commissioner of police Alok Kumar (Crime). “After this, we approached the municipal corporation to set up the clinic in the vacant land of the school, and they agreed,” he said.

There were several reasons for starting the initiative. One was to address occupational stigma against sex workers, including in healthcare systems, which prevents them from accessing medical services.

“Sex workers generally feel reluctant to talk to doctors, and some doctors also shy away from treating sex workers. This clinic has been started so that sex workers can speak comfortably to the doctors,” said Dr Sunil Kumar, a forensic medicine specialist at Lady Hardinge, and one of the doctors to come to the GB Road clinic every Sunday.

Gupta added: “In general government hospitals, long queues start from eight o’clock in the morning. For this reason, many women take medicines without any prescription and develop complications.”

At present, apart from problems related to women’s health, arrangements have been made to check blood sugar and blood pressure levels and to take ultrasound scans in the clinic. Specialist camps related to eyes or teeth are also organised every week.


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MTP kits, condom woes, drug abuse

Sex workers can be seen openly soliciting customers from windows and rooftops on GB Road. But when it comes to seeking medical help, many are reticent.

Sex workers that ThePrint spoke to said “normal people” tended to recoil from them and doctors “scolded” them for health problems arising from their work, like sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), unplanned pregnancies and complications arising from unsafe abortions.

One of the main functions of the Utkarsh clinic is to take the taboo out of occupational hazards and encourage safer health practices among sex workers on GB Road.

According to Delhi Police data from 2020, there are 2,830 sex workers working in the red-light area stretching from Ajmeri Gate in Shahjahanabad to the Red Fort’s Lahori Gate.

Dr Kumar said many of these sex workers face a slew of health issues but often try to treat themselves with over-the-counter medications, including medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) kits, which can lead to even greater problems.

Various medications stocked at the Utkarsh clinic | Photo: Falguni Sharma | ThePrint

“After getting pregnant, sex workers themselves take MTP kits (abortion pills to end pregnancies up to nine weeks), which leads to various diseases. If the abortion is not completed, there is an increased risk of death,” he said.

While the sale of MTP kits is banned without a prescription, Kumar said that in practice these pills were “being sold like sweets” in the market. Many sex workers procure and consume these medicines, unaware that repeated use can lead to hormonal imbalances, irregularities in periods, and other issues.

Doctors at the clinic said an ultrasound is necessary before prescribing any course of action in a pregnancy. Only an ultrasound can reveal life-threatening complications like an ectopic pregnancy, where the embryo attaches outside the uterus.

“The baby does not stay in the uterus every time. Sometimes it gets stuck in the fallopian tube. Taking an MTP can lead to a rupture in this tube,” Kumar said.

Sometimes, even safe sex practices can have unintended consequences.

A sex worker in her late 40s or early 50s (she was not willing to share her age) told ThePrint that she trains women in her brothel and neighbourhood to take birth control pills and use condoms, but that customers sometimes go overboard.

“There are some customers who wear two condoms out of fear of one of them bursting. Due to this, the pressure and pain increase for the woman and cause a burning sensation,” she said.

Doctors at the clinic added that many women use “substandard” government-distributed condoms, which can cause itching, vaginal discharge, and may even trigger urinary tract infections (UTIs).

Then there are drugs. The 28-year-old sex worker, for instance, said she needed recreational drugs to relax and sleep “after breaking my body night and day”. According to doctors at the clinic, this is not an uncommon issue on GB Road.

A health worker in the clinic | Photo: Falguni Sharma | ThePrint

“To stay in this profession, women often take drugs,” Kumar said, noting that it frequently leads to psychological problems, hypertension, and high-risk pregnancies.

“High amounts of drugs in the blood of the mother affects the child as well. Due to this, the height of the child may not be increased properly, and it also has an adverse effect on the brain as well as on memory,” he said.

While the doctors at the clinic try to treat the conditions they can, they also encourage sex workers to seek specialised healthcare at hospitals.

“The clinic cannot replace a tertiary hospital,” said Lalita Kumari, a gynaecologist at the Palika Maternity Hospital (NMHRC) on Lodhi Road. She added that one of the main tasks of the clinic was to impart correct advice to sex workers on conducting pregnancy tests from time to time and to follow safe sex practices.

“They are given the right advice so that they do not play with their health,” she said.

New customers don’t come’

Sex workers ThePrint spoke to said that they were relieved that the clinic had opened near them since it offered free services. Money is tight for many here, especially older sex workers.

The sex worker in her late 40s, quoted earlier, has been living in Kotha No. 55 for at least three decades, she said. She claimed that the women working in Kotha No. 64 were better off because they were younger.

When ThePrint visited the area, several men were seen entering the latter building. The rickshaw driver said the “goods there are better”.

The older sex worker said she relied on loyal clients to make ends meet since “new customers don’t come”. Her rate for 15 minutes is Rs 132. Laughing, she added: “Jisse hota nahi wo 5-6 minute me bhag jata hai (Those who can’t perform run off in five or six minutes).”

As a mother and grandmother, she hopes to be able to leave sex work soon. She is waiting for her son to get a job, she said. Her daughter, she added proudly, is pursuing a master’s degree in Bengaluru.

Kothas (brothels) No. 60-64 on GB Road | Photo: Falguni Sharma | ThePrint

The 28-year-old sex worker charges higher rates since she is younger — upwards of Rs 500 for half an hour. But she, too, will likely need to adjust her price as she grows older.

Apart from their age, both sex workers have a lot in common. Both said they came to Delhi from Bengaluru in their late teens and worked in clothing showrooms until they were lured into sex work and did not have the means to look for other options.

Another sex worker told ThePrint that she was frightened her daughter would end up like her. “I myself live here in fear… who knows, maybe my daughter will also be made to sit inside a brothel,” she said.

Sewa Bharti’s Gupta said that no one has the right to judge sex workers.

“Not a single sex worker here wants to do this. She is stuck here because of the fear of assault, because of us as a society,” he said.

Savita Narang, who works in the Canadian High Commission but manages the clinic on Sundays as a volunteer, said the facility was a positive step towards improving sex workers’ quality of life.

“Many sex workers are happy with this clinic and they say it should be made bigger,” she said.

(Edited by Asavari Singh)


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