100 sex workers to be trained to record problems

Community-based organisation Saheli holds programme to help them note down details of health, harassment issues they encounter

For the past three days, 20 members of Saheli, a community-based organisation (CBO) made up of women sex workers in red light areas of the city that works in the areas of HIV prevention and control, have been attending a programme that will train them to record the problems noticed by them during the awareness programmes they conduct on a regular basis.

“Since it is a community-based organisation, most of the workers working for the organisation are illiterate. As they cannot read or write, they cannot jot down details of the problem. For instance, if they come across a worker with some health problem, they cannot write down her name, the nature of her disease, whether she needs immediate hospitalisation or not or which brothel she stays in. By the time they report a problem or crisis to the office, a lot of time gets wasted,” says Tejaswi Sevekari, who is the director of Saheli.

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Saheli was established in the year 1998 for the support of sex workers through various initiatives, like the creation of a creche for the children of sex workers, initiatives to educate them on HIV/AIDS, contraception and other moves that aim to reach out to the sex workers.

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Under the pilot project, named ‘Bol Saheli’, the workers can report the important cases on the IVR system. Currently, 20 members, including Saheli staff and peer educators, are undergoing basic training for four days. The training commenced on Monday and will conclude on Thursday.

“The record will have details like name of the worker reporting the crisis, brothel name, brothel keeper’s name and specifications of the problem/crisis. Till now, we had no mechanism of maintaining data of the problems reported,” said Sevekari.

The trained members will begin recording the cases on the IVR system from Friday onwards.

“Simultaneously, they will also train other volunteers, para-legal workers and other members of Saheli. By this month’s end, around 100 workers will be trained,” added Sevekari. While the training programme has been funded by United States Institute of Peace, the technical support and training has been provided by Mojolab Foundation.

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The recorded data, says Sevekari, can be accessed by the staff and members, who can take corrective measures for each problem. Besides, the data, she says, will also help them understand the trend of problems, whether they be related to health, hostel admission, harassment issues, police cases and so on. “Once we understand the trend, we can take the required corrective measures,” she says.

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sex workers