Seema Poddar (name changed), says the pandemic has changed her life completely. “Earlier I used to get 12-15 customers every day. But, because of Covid-19, it has come down to only 3-4 customers per day,” said the 28-year-old, who was trafficked to Delhi from Kolkata when she was a teenager. “We’re hearing there could be another lockdown. I’m very scared. I don’t know how I will survive.”
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on the night of March 24 a weeks-long nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19, among other things, sex work came to a halt. The lives of thousands of sex workers living in the brothels on Delhi’s GB Road changed overnight. The lockdown measures imposed by the government meant no work for these women who survive on a daily income. It was a crisis like no other.
A year later, the red-light district has resumed business. But the debilitating impact of the lockdown is still very visible.
It was only in September last year that customers started trickling back in. However, with strict Covid-19 restrictions in place, the women found themselves sitting idle for most of the day. “There are days when I go without work. This means no money and no food to feed my children,” said Seema, appealing to the Delhi government to not impose another lockdown.
Sex workers are among the most severely impacted by the pandemic. They are marginalised, stigmatised, criminalised and often excluded from government relief and protection programmes, including health services. “If another lockdown is announced, I hope the Delhi government is prepared to provide us all the essentials. We don’t want to go through the same life-and-death situation again,” said another sex worker at GB Road.
Throughout the nationwide lockdown in March last year, NGOs such as Kat-Katha conducted regular drives on GB Road to ensure that sex workers don’t go without food and medical supplies. However, due to a lack of funds, they haven’t been able to carry out relief work like earlier. “A year after the nationwide lockdown, sex workers are still not able to make their ends meet. Since there isn’t an official lockdown in Delhi yet, we haven’t been receiving funds and that’s hampered our welfare drives,” said Geetanjali Babbar, founder of Kat-Katha. The Delhi Police also came forward to help these vulnerable women. “It’s a tough life for women in sex work. The mental-health toll that the pandemic has on them is unimaginable for you and me. We’ve been conducting regular yoga and meditation sessions for them,” said sub-inspector Kiran Sethi, incharge of GB Road police station.
Prostitution is not illegal in India. It is not a recognised occupation either. “Many sex workers have been deprived of relief packages or cash transfers from the government that other poor people have benefited from more easily. This is because they don’t have any proof of identity. This has less to do with the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act or other prostitution laws and more to do with the nature of vulnerability and exploitation that sex workers suffer at the hands of brothel owners or managers,” said Roop Sen, a researcher at Sanjog India, a non-profit organisation working towards empowering vulnerable communities.
Delhi is seeing a surge in Covid-19 cases once again. Over 1,500 daily cases were reported on Thursday, the highest in the past three months. Sex workers fear a second lockdown will throw them into a deeper crisis. “I have many complaints from politicians. They take our votes but do nothing for our welfare. Another lockdown will kill us if we don’t get help from the government,” said a 45-year-old woman, who was trafficked from Andhra Pradesh at the age of 13. When asked if she had an alternative to her profession so she could continue earning if there was a lockdown, she said she is incapable of doing anything else at this age. Another 48-year-old sex worker says she wants to leave the profession entirely. “I can’t stand the thought of living through another lockdown. My heart races the moment I think about it. I want to quit so I don’t have to go through that ordeal again,” she said. With Covid-19 cases showing no signs of abating in Delhi, the livelihood of sex workers which depends on physical contact continues to be in peril.