The sex industry is a vast business spread across the globe and can be found in some manner or the other even in the most remote and conservative countries.
The following is a summary of a discussion with a former sex worker who turned “tricks” on the streets of Colombo.
Nanda was the youngest in a family of 12, her father had no job and her mother sold lottery tickets on the roadside. They lived in a small house in the outskirts of Colombo.
The poverty faced by the family first led one of Nada’s elder sisters to work as a prostitute; she later introduced Nanda to the business when she was 16 years old.
Nanda was sent to a probationary institute after she was caught being married while she was still a minor. After two years of rehabilitation Nanda returned to the streets to make a living the only way she knew how, she had only gone to school till grade 1.
She tells a tale of much hardship and helplessness as she regales her story and reminds us of the dangers sex workers face trying to make a living.
HIV and sexually transmitted diseases are common amongst prostitutes, mainly because of unawareness. The police constantly try to apprehend them and send them to jail.
She has not been a sex worker for 12 years now and has 7 year old son who attends a school in Colombo.
Nanda found salvation in the form of a lover who worked with the police and married her and took her away from the life of the Streets. Nanda pleads to the young girls of our country that Prostitution is not even a last measure to take and is far too dangerous and traumatizing to make the income worthwhile.
Nanda is now currently working alongside an NGO teaching sex workers the importance and proper use of condoms.
