Empowerment

Working in small-town India these past six months, I’ve been thinking a lot about empowerment. What does it mean for someone be empowered? At what point has a woman reached “empowerment”? Working for an NGO that focuses on sex workers’ rights these past six months, I’ve realized that the idea of empowerment is much more complex than I originally thought.

            Growing up, I received some of the best educational opportunities the U.S. has to offer. Since graduating, I have chosen a career path that was my choice completely. And when I decide to marry, if ever, that will be completely my choice as well. All of these choices are standard markings of an “empowered woman” in the 21^st century.

            Now, let’s take the stereotypical notions of sex workers—poorly educated; whores of society; passive victims of male aggression. None of these descriptions correlate with the idea of being an empowered woman. However, through working with a collective of sex workers called VAMP and living in this town of Sangli, I’ve learned that the story is much more complicated. The women of VAMP are strong; they are brave; they are fighters. They stand together and shout out “sex work is work!” during team building type exercises. They often times did come from pasts marked by few educational opportunities and poverty, yet they are striving for a better livelihood for themselves and their families. In the U.S., we pride ourselves on being a country where the “American dream” is attainable for all—the idea that through hard work, you can raise your socioeconomic status. Sex workers are fighting for this exact idea of working hard to improve their lives and move up in a hierarchical society.

            To be fair, I’m not trying to idealize sex workers’ lives and conditions in any way. Sex workers are one of the most stigmatized and abused groups in Indian society, having to bear the brunt of police violence, condemnation, and a lack of access to education, health care, and government benefits. But through collectivization, they are more adequately able to fight against these abuses and for the human rights they deserve.

It’s commonly thought that these women were forced to be doing sex work and are helpless, when in fact according to the PAN India Survey on Sex Workers, 73% of female sex workers entered this work on their own. They are able to make their own income, support themselves, send their children to school, pay their bills, and sometimes afford extra luxuries such as gold earrings or silver bracelets.

When I talk about my work with friends and family in the U.S., they are often confused with the idea of my NGO working to improve sex workers’ current situations, as opposed to saving them from their work. It is more morally acceptable to be “helping” sex workers by “freeing” them from their horrific experiences, and encouraging them to take up jobs in other sectors of society. As I tell them, though, many of these women do not want to change their careers. They’ve worked before as maids, as daily wage earners, tailors, and cooks; but in these jobs, they were often sexually or physically abused, or paid below a living wage. Society tells us that we can “empower” these women by saving them from this work, whereas I’ve learned empowerment is helping improve the conditions of sex work, making it safer and allowing sex workers to be free from abuse and eligible for government benefits like any other Indian citizen.

A main focus of my career goal includes women’s empowerment. As I’m learning, though, there is no one definition of empowerment. I consider myself, as being educated, working, and free from abuse, an empowered woman. Yet I now also consider a sex worker who is working for a fair wage, living in safe conditions, supporting her family and building a life for herself, as also being empowered. It’s through efforts on the part of collectives like VAMP and NGOs like SANGRAM that strive to make this a reality, and I’m lucky to get to be a part of it.