Research Log #4

India: The Sex Workers. PBS Frontline , 2004. Frontline World. Web. 12 Oct.
2010. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/
generic.html?s=frow03p359>.

The documentary I watched, India: Sex Workers, was a document with young women who had escaped the life of sex trafficking and also interviewed women who were choosing to be prostitutes. Mumbai, India has over 60,000 sex workers which makes then number one in their country. They have AIDS and HIV crisis all throughout their city which threatens the lives of many. The young girls are the most valuable commodity. Many customers will pay a lot more to pimps if they get a younger girl. In interviews with some young girls who had escaped the life of a sex trafficker, many had mentioned that they were sold by a family member to a pimp. One girl had said it wasn’t her dad’s fault that he sold her because he was on drugs and he didn’t know what he was doing. Many of the young girls at the rescue shelter, where they are all living now because families don’t take back their kids after they’ve been in prostitution, had no clue what AIDS and HIV were and had never even heard of them. Many pimps try to keep their workers from not knowing of such things because the customers hate to wear condoms and pay more not to wear them. The pimps certainly do not care about the health of these girls they just care about the money. Prostitution is illegal in Mumbai but the victims said that the police only make situations worse for them because they arrest them, keep them for their sexual pleasure, and don’t let them leave until they can pay them off. One girl had said she once tried to escape in the beginning but her pimp caught her and then chained her up tight to where she bled. Another said that when she was captured along with six other girls, the ones who almost escaped were found and had their ears cut off and then were brutally killed.

It’s hard to hear these stories and to think what would you do if you were in their shoes. When they see others who try and escape being brutally tortured then murdered, I can see why it is hard for many to think escaping is even an option. When many know so little about these diseases, it puts the country at risk because people go to other cities and spread the diseases without knowing or no caring. I don’t get why pimps would let this happen when the easy prevention is to just use condoms. Especially when they may know someone or a family member with the disease. It is crazy to think that these women have no one to turn to for example they can’t even trust their own policemen to do the right thing. It would more likely make them accept the life they live as a sex worker because they can’t be saved or can’t escape.

This documentary seemed very reliable was very nice to be able to listen to the victims that had escaped the life of a sex worker. To listen and hear their own point of view and not from another persons. It made it sadder having to look at the victims and listen to the things they explained but it was a good resource.