Economic pressures, structural inequality, family circumstances, coercion, social exclusion, and personal agency are some of the factors cited as reasons globally for women entering into sex work.
The Indian context
The same holds true in India, as articulated in a study titled “Circumstances, experiences and processes surrounding women's entry into sex work in India.” However, there are additional nuances that influence this move, making it a complex mix.
Caste system
It has been argued by many researchers that the historically embedded caste system in India creates structural social barriers. These could manifest in the form of landlessness, educational restrictions, concentration of work in specific areas or professions, all of which result in restricted economic opportunities. This leads to inequalities that become a pathway to the adoption of sex work.
Though women from ‘lower’ castes have been found to be over-represented among women in sex work, scholars caution against treating caste as a deterministic explanation since there is a much larger number of women from the same castes who did not enter this trade.
Community/ faith-linked practices
Hereditary community-linked practices that believe in dedicating women of a certain age to a certain type of service, usually linked to faith, had come to be known as pathways to entering into sex work.
The Devadasi or Jogini systems practiced around temple communities in many parts of the Indian South are well known and recognized. According to Vajiram and Ravi, The Devadasi System involves dedicating minor girls to deities through ceremonial rituals, symbolically marrying them to gods. Traditionally, Devadasis performed temple rituals, music, and classical dance forms such as Bharatanatyam and Odissi. Over time, the withdrawal of royal patronage and socio-economic decline pushed many Devadasis into sexual exploitation. Present day manifestations show forced dedication of minors, absence of consent, and systemic abuse, particularly among Dalit and economically vulnerable families.
Understanding the caste system
In order to understand its influence over a woman entering sex work, it is important to understand the caste system itself, which continues to influence social and economic outcomes in modern-day India. But before that, it must be understood that caste discrimination is illegal under the Indian Constitution.
In its earliest known version, the Indian caste system consisted of four largely hereditary varnas (or categories) which influenced occupation, social status, marriage, and relationships. These were the Brahmins (scholars and teachers), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (business and tradespeople), and Shudras (laborers and workers). There was also a large group of people who did not qualify for this four-part society and were limited to tasks considered ‘dirty’ such as manual scavenging, handling the dead, either people or animals, etc. and lived on the fringes. In practice, though, these groups were sub-divided into hundreds of sub-groups which, over time, became solidified.
They came to be known as Dalits. Interestingly, the term Dalit, which means downtrodden, is itself a modern-day term, apparently coined by Dr. B R Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution and the original flag-bearer of the movement against the entrenched caste system.
A profile of Beena Pallical, the General Secretary of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights in India, and born a Dalit, on the website of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights notes, “Stigma follows an individual from birth until death, affecting all aspects of life from education, housing, work, access to justice and political participation. Women and girls are often victims of sexual violence, trafficking and are especially vulnerable to early and forced marriage, bonded labour and harmful cultural practices.”
Dalit women talk differently
Scholars including noted sociologist Sharmila Rege argued that dominant feminist frameworks inadequately accounted for caste realities and that women from historically marginalized communities encounter compounded vulnerability linked to gender, caste, economic exclusion and social stigma. It is not a singular disadvantage but a layered one, which compounds the disadvantage and vulnerability.
In her essay “Dalit women talk differently,” leading feminist scholar Sharmila Rege discussed the higher vulnerability of Dalit women to sexual exploitation and recommends analysis through the intersection of caste, gender, and structural inequality, instead of just one of them.
In her essay “Dalit Feminism: Caste, Power and Hierarchy,” researcher Anurekha Chari Wagh says that It was Dr. Ambedkar who argued that castes continued to be maintained through the sexual exploitation of women, particularly dalit women and institutionalization of endogamy. Thus violence, particularly sexual violence is an integral aspect of the experience of being a ‘dalit woman’.
Aayadan, an autobiographical novel by Dalit writer and feminist Urmila Pawar, brings home the layered, compounded harsh realities of untouchability in a caste-ridden society combined with being a woman in a patriarchal world. Through personal anecdotes, Pawar illustrates the complexities of navigating her identity, including how in the workplace, Dalit women were sexually exploited by their upper-caste co-workers, while at home, they were beaten up by their husbands. Pawar also bravely shares about how she herself was sexually exploited by her maternal uncle.
Caste and Sex Work in India: a system of exclusion that perpetuates itself
With defined boundaries and restrictions on economic opportunity, ‘lower’ castes contributing disproportionately to sex work becomes a self-perpetuating system.
Research examining caste and labor vulnerability consistently find that historically marginalized communities remain disproportionately represented in insecure work, informal labor, and lower-income occupations.
Sex work exists within that broader context of informal, insecure work.
A study titled “Demography and sex work characteristics of female sex workers in India” published in the National Library of Medicine found that the proportion of those “belonging to scheduled caste (35.3%) and scheduled tribe (10.5%)…was higher among FSWs (p < 0.001).”
Unfortunately, the vulnerability does not end upon entry into sex work. For Dalit women, it continues, and manifests itself in poorer outcomes in terms of social capital, housing, violence and finally, higher exit barriers, further perpetuating the system of ‘lower’ castes contributing disproportionately to the number of women engaged in sex work.