When the second wave of COVID-19 hit in April 2021, Jaya*, a sex worker based in Andhra Pradesh’s Vijayawada, caught the infection. She had to be admitted at a private hospital for several days, and the treatment ended up costing nearly Rs 2 lakh, forcing her to take a high-interest loan. This added to the debt that had already piled up during the first wave of COVID-19, with no work for an extended period from March 2020.
While work slowly resumed around October 2020, sex workers in the state were forced to take loans once again for living and medical expenses from March 2021, even before they could repay their existing loans. A survey conducted by Vimukthi, a collective consisting of survivors of sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation based in Andhra Pradesh, found that many workers who had already taken loans during the first wave were forced to take bigger loans during the second wave.
The study looked at the borrowing patterns of 116 women during the first wave and 142 women during the second wave (including the 116 women from before). All the women were sex workers working in Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam districts. The survey found that during the lockdown period of the first wave, 99% of the 116 workers had taken loans and were still repaying those loans as of June 2021. During this period, the average loan amount borrowed by the sex workers surveyed was Rs 52,350 (with the minimum amount being Rs 5,000 and the maximum amount being Rs 4.3 lakh).
Among the 142 people surveyed during the second wave, 99 took a loan during the lockdown period in 2021, many of whom were still repaying their recent loans. Apart from food and other living expenses, large amounts were borrowed during the second wave for treatment in private hospitals, at a time when government hospitals were inaccessible, the survey found. During this period, the average loan amount borrowed by the sex workers surveyed was Rs 33,531 (with the minimum amount being Rs 5,000 and the maximum amount being Rs 5.5 lakh). The monthly interest rates are nearly 15% to 20% on most of these loans, said Rammohan Nimmaraju, an activist at the NGO HELP that works with survivors of human trafficking, who is one of the authors of the survey.
“Most sex workers have been sucked into debt traps, as they have become dependent on loans from multiple microfinance institutions and private money lenders,” Rammohan told TNM. “Most of the huge loans taken during the second wave were towards COVID-19 treatment, which ended up costing around Rs 3 to 4 lakh for some of the affected workers,” he added. With sex work yet to resume properly since it was halted in March, many of the workers have been left with no income source, especially in cases where they were the only earning member of their household, Rammohan said. Most of the survey participants have children below 18 years or ageing parents or other family members dependent on regular medication, he added.
The survey was part of a multi-state study conducted across West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh, to understand the economic impact of the multiple lockdowns on survivors of human trafficking and on sex workers. The study found that overall the dependence on loans had increased in 2021 compared to the previous year and that the loan amounts were also higher.
In September 2020, the Supreme Court had directed states to provide dry rations to sex workers without insisting on proof of identity. In Andhra Pradesh, access to ration has improved, with nearly 75% of the 1.2 lakh sex workers registered under the Andhra Pradesh State AIDS Control Society’s targeted intervention programme receiving free ration till December 2020.
Among the 142 survey participants, 89% were found to have had access to ration last year. However, the lack of relief during the second wave has hit the workers hard, Rammohan said. A few of them received basic support in the form of essential commodities from civil society organisations, he said. Inclusion of sex workers under the state government’s various welfare programmes like Amma Vodi, Chedodu, Cheyutha, etc. has also remained low due to lack of proper identity documents, he added.
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