HARASSMENT PATTERN OF SEX WORKERS IN BANGLADESH : A SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS OF THREE BROTHELS

1Mahmudul Hasan, 1Muhammad Liakat Ali, 1J.A.M Shoquilur Rahman, and 2M. Zulfiquar Ali Islam Institution: 1. Department of Population Science and Human Resource Development and 2. Department of Sociology University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi-6205, Bangladesh Correspondence to: Mahmudul Hasan Assistant Professor Department of Population Science and Human Resource Development University of Rajshahi Rajshahi-6205, Bangladesh E-mail: mahmud_ru@hotmail.com

KEY WORDS: Harassment, Commercial Sex Worker, Brothel, and Sardarn.

INTRODUCTION

Prostitution is defined as the sale of sexual services. It's a practice of engaging in sexual activity for compensation - normally money or its equivalent (other forms of property). Prostitution has become a high stakes business, with huge profits for brothel keepers, pimps, procurers, recruitment agencies, airline companies, hotels, travel groups, marriage bureaus, and many others. The trading of women and an increasing number of girls is carried out and mediated in many direct and indirect approaches, and is oftentimes glamorized by including language that makes such practices acceptable. One no longer uses the word prostitute, but instead uses "sex worker," "entertainer," "guest relations officer," or "cultural dancer." An organized international lobby is working very hard to make prostitution a part of the categories of work for women that should have adequate legal and labor protection (Dios 1999).
With more than half its population living below the poverty line, Bangladesh remains one of the poorest countries in the world. As in other countries, poverty, low social status, and lack of opportunities for education and employment have forced many women to become sex workers. In 1991 the national census of Bangladesh categorized them as beggars and vagrants under the subheading of "miscellaneous" (BBS 1991). According to the non-governmental organizations, over 150,000 women are involved in prostitution in Bangladesh while government statistics acknowledge only 9,000. The social status of sex workers in Bengali society is considered so low, that they are not allowed to wear shoes or sandals outside the brothel. Even death fails to end their misery. Regardless if a prostitute is Hindu, Muslim or Christian, the community people observe funeral rite for her. When sex workers die in Daulatdia, a brothel near Padma River, their bodies are just thrown in the river (MJIFDP 2000).

Prostitution in Bangladesh is shrouded in mystery. The law treats the woman as a victim, and the pimps and clients face a possibility of a death sentence. Thus, the law is beautiful, but when it comes to implementation, the women are picked up for soliciting, which is a penal offence enacted during the days of the British colonial period in 1860 (Huda 1999).

A little and/or no research has been conducted regarding harassment of the sex workers in three established brothels and some other recognized places in Bangladesh that may show a significant circumstance that has never been seen before. Therefore, our aim is to investigate the present scenario of harassment of the sex workers in Bangladesh and quality improvement ways for the natural life they usually expect.

Statement of the Problem

Prostitution is the oldest profession, and the existence of selling female sex for the gratification of males is also one of the oldest vices in society. Some have related it to the functional needs of the society, which is served by the females. However, such explanations hide the totality of the phenomenon that demands further insight into the history of prostitution. Among the reasons behind the beginning and sustaining of the profession, the subordination and weaker position of women in the socioeconomic structure of society can be assumed as most significant (Hossain, Habib and Imam 2004). The practices, which are going on worldwide, is nothing but illicit sex or prostitution that is a serious threat to civilized society. Though it is a neglected profession it is continuing almost all over the societies of the world. It is too hard to get actual information when this profession started in Bangladesh. In the Indian subcontinent, commercial sex started during the regime of Mughal. The sex workers were given a fixed place for doing such job and adopted a tax for this profession. It got a special demand to extend business activities. Here in British colonial times, it got recognition as a profession in the business centre. Therefore it considered that the recognized prostitution in Bangladesh started between a hundred and fifty to two hundred years ago (Islam 1994).

In this subcontinent prostitution was recorded in public and personal records. Khan and Arefeen (1989) mentioned about Report of the Census of Bengal, 1901, Census of India, 1911, the works of Joarder (1986), personal diary of Dewan Raja, etc. Khan and Arefeen (1989) found the inclusion of prostitutes as 'unskilled labour, not agricultural' or 'indefinite and disreputable' or in the miscellaneous column. After the prostitution of India, the Government of Pakistan continued the decennial census but avoided the conclusion of prostitutes. But over time it was increased in many towns or nearby places of patitalaya (brothel) in erstwhile East Pakistan and Bangladesh. Among them, the brothels of Narayanganj, Chittagonj, Iswardi, Daulatdia, Tangail, Natore, etc., were relatively well known. Attempt of eviction of these small and big brothels began in the late seventies, without planned rehabilitation or following any socially secured policy. As a result the prostitution spread into larger areas and took varied means. Most recently, some intervention programmes, mostly by non-government organizations, started working for protecting their human rights and preventing them from contracting contagious diseases (Hossain, Habib and Imam 2004).

The registered brothels of Bangladesh are- Tangail, Mymensingh, Daulatdia (Rajbari), Jessore (two brothels), Bagherhat, Baniasanta (Mongla), Faidpur, Jamalpur and Khulna. The biggest brothel is located at Daulatdia. In spite of these, there are a few dozen of polli (small brothels) formed in some cities. Potnitala (Naogaon), Joypurhat, Bogra, Sayedpur, and some slums of Dhaka city are mentionable (Tahmina and Moral 2000).

In our Bangladesh society, we observe that four types of harassment are frequently faced by the sex workers and those are physical torture, sexual and financial exploitation, and psychological persecution. Hossain, Habib, and Imam (2004) showed that apart from encountering physical torture of a diverse nature, sex workers are often forced to offer money to police, mastans and the like, often offering them free sexual service. In focus group discussions the sex workers claimed that some NGO workers handle their bank account, since many prostitutes are not informed whether they are allowed to open an account in any recognized bank, but a few years/days after they flew away taking their whole savings. On the other hand, few reporters/journalists (some of them are not reporters but introduce themselves as a reporter) collect sex workers' insightful information and blackmail them to take undue privilege. We also uncover though the clients come to the sex workers whenever they feel like it but their (clients) attitude is too ill to them (sex workers). This harassment occurs mostly by police, mastan (muscleman), dalal (pimp), sardarni (leader of the prostitutes), political leaders, and some other persons (e.g., NGO workers, reporters/journalists etc.) of the society.

Conceptual Classification

Harassment
The meaning of harassment varies from place to place. It is not possible to define by a single sentence. Many distinguished persons defined this by using their own ideas. Our intention is to uncover the behaviour by different levels of people toward the sex workers. Here we have noticed levels of harassments defined as- physical torture, sexual and financial exploitation, and psychological persecution.

Commercial Sex Worker
Prostitute is a Latin word that is sometimes used instead of commercial sex worker. It is used in Bangladeshi society given named as-Bornita, Magi, Bashini, Bala, Jenana, Jounokormy, Gonika, Bessha, Ghupshi, Call-girl, Nishi Konna, Parar Maye, Khanki, Naughty, Chenal, Barobonita. We have defined commercial sex workers (female) as those who sell sex for money. The term sex worker is considered in this paper as those women who sell sex for money in our society.

Brothel
Brothel is defined here as a government recognized place where women are allowed to sell sex for earning money. Therefore the place where the sex workers continue the sex trade is known as brothel. Generally the time of sex business is fixed from 9.00 am to 4.00 pm but it continues all the time of day and night. Almost all of the brothels have a government recognized beer shop.

Sardarni
Sardarni means senior prostitute. The senior prostitute who controls a group of junior sex workers is named as sardarni. They have good power which they exercise over junior prostitutes. Sardarni practices her power throughout dalal (pimp), mastan (muscleman), political leader, police, blacker etc.

METHODOLOGY

We have collected data from the prostitutes of three established brothels of Jamalpur, Mymensingh, and Tangail of Bangladesh. Among 800 sex workers, 120 were interviewed. The rest of the sex workers declined to be interviewed. The interviewing was conducted using a prescheduled questionnaire. Some popular statistical tools have been used to analyze our collected data. We have constructed frequency tables to cite the frequency distribution of several variables. Contingency analysis has been performed to investigate the association among qualitative variables. For contingency analysis we have tested the following null hypothesis:
H0: There is no association between the variables.
H1 : H0 is not true.

All contingency tables have been prepared on the basis of classification of variables. From each contingency table, examination of association between the components and the various segments of the components have been made by computing chi-square test statistics of the form-


Where Oij and Eij are the observed and expected frequency of (i,j)th cell, respectively.

The earlier discussion of univariate and bivariate data shows percent distribution of the variables. But these analyses failed to identify interaction effects of a group of categorical or dummy variables. So, it required using the logistic regression as well. The logistic regression model can be used not only to identify risk factors but also to predict the probability of success. The model is now widely used in research work to access the influence of various socio-economic and demographic characteristics for controlling the effect of other variables on the likelihood of the occurrence of the event of interest. Logistic regression analysis is similar to a linear regression model where the dependent variable is a dichotomous one, coded as 1 (event occurring) and 0 (event does not occurring), the dependent variables can be interval level or categorical; if categorical, they should be dummy or indicator coded.

Let Yi is a dichotomous dependent variable (whether the sex workers were harassed) and the independent variables Xi1, Xi2, Xi3, Xi4, Xi5, Xi6, (educational qualification, harassment by police, having sex during menses, whether clients likes to use a condom, social sentiment towards them, and whether they face problems going outside the home, respectively).

Then the model becomes of the forms:

… … …(1)
Or equivalently,
… … …(2)
Where is the intercept term and 's are the regression coefficients. The logarithm of the ratio of Pi and 1 - Pi which is called logit of turns out to be a simple linear function of Xij.

We define, … … … (3)
The logit is the logarithm of the odds of success, that is, the logarithm ratio of the probability of success to the probability of failure. The logistic model can be rewritten in terms of the odds of an event occurring. First, Pi as increases, so does and second, log it Pi varies over the whole real line, whereas Pi is bounded only between 0 and 1. If Pi is less than 0.5, log it Pi is negative; and if Pi is greater than 0.5, log it Pi is positive. The equation can be written in terms of odds as:
. The exponential rise to the power is the factor by which the odds change when jth independent variables increase by one unit. If is positive factor will be greater than 1, which means that the odds are increased; if is negative factor will be less than 1, which means that the odds are decreased. And when is 0, the factor equal to 1, which leaves the odds unchanged. An odds ratio is greater than 1.00 suggests as increased likelihood of the event occurring while an odds ratio is less than 1.00 indicates a decreased likelihood of the event occurring. The category with the relative odds of 1.00 represents the reference category for those categorical variables.

Socioeconomic Profile of the Sex Workers

The sex workers socioeconomic profile is associated with several characteristics. Information about socioeconomic profile is needed in understanding the component of behavioural research on sexual networks and to investigate the problem from a holistic point of view. A socioeconomic profile provides important insights about a community upon which future preventive interventions may be formulated and undertaken as well.

Individual socio-economic profile of the respondents will allow us to get a detailed idea about their age, education, marital status, age at first marriage, whether given dowry, registration of marriage, number of children they have, living status, schooling of their children, ownership of their house, types of house and modern facilities, including the reasons that motivated them to enter into commercial sex work.

Data on demographic and socioeconomic characteristics illustrates that though 30 percent of the respondents engaged in sex for money at age 25-31, 20.8 percent of respondents are at less than 18 years of age. Only 26.7 percent of sex workers are educated (primary to higher). However, 42.5 percent of respondents are illiterate and 30.8 percent respondents can sign only (Table 1). We find that age has an association with working days per week as if age increases their demand for sex decreases day by day (See Table 1). So, they are used to more sex for earning enough. Educational qualifications had no association (See Table 3) with contraceptive use as use of contraceptives mostly depends on clients' preference rather than the prostitutes'. Though some prostitutes are aware of risk factors during sex but usually fail to impose their ideas since the clients may not be interested to have sex with her. On the other hand, educational qualification has an association with working days per week (See Table 3). Education can be a control as to what amount of time she should perform sex, a week.

Only 35.8 percent of sex workers are married and 64.2 percent sex workers have different marital status such as unmarried, divorced, widowed and separated. The sex workers married at different ages- below 18 years (92.6%), and 18 years and over (7.4%). The sex workers report that a considerable majority of them (70.4%) were the victim of dowry and another proportion of them (58%) had not registered their marriage and were thus cheated easily by their husbands (See Table 1).

72.6 percent of respondents have children, two or less than two. 21.1 percent and 6.3 percent of sex workers have 3-4 and 4+ children respectively. Again, 35.5 percent respondents live with their children, 46.1 percent report though they stay away from them they acre for them and 18.4 percent says they have no relation with their children (Table 1). On the other hand, only 29.9 percent respondents replied that their children go to school, though it was not identified whether their children were old enough for school. It should be noted that all of the children have fundamental rights of compulsory primary education (Table 1).

We have collected some information about residential pattern of the sex-workers. Out of 120 respondents 42.5 percent expressed that their household type is rented house, 40.0 percent of them have their own house and 17.5 percent of them have no house of their own. More than 56 percent of respondents claimed their household type is tin shed. The rest of them have different types of dwelling houses and those are half building (22.2%), concrete house (10.1%), made of mud (2.0%), and polythene or bamboo slips (9.1%). Also they (38%) have the facility of electricity. 26 percent and 22 percent respondents have T.V /CD/ tape-recorder/ radio, and electricity/ T.V/ C.D /tape recorder/ radio/ chair-table/ cot respectively (Table 1). In focus group discussion we found an alarming situation that they have to spend more than 8 to 10 times higher amount of money for the above facilities than other Bangladeshi nationals.

Reasons for Involvement in Prostitution

We have collected data carefully looking at causes of involving in this profession. A high proportion of sex workers (42.5%) came to the sexual profession due to poverty. On the other hand, the rest of them came to the profession due to cheating (11.7%), raping (10.0%), afflicting (5.0%), bearing inheritance and other causes (16.7%) respectively (Table 1). It is a matter of regress that 75.0 percent of sex workers involved are less than 18 years of age where 34.2 percent sex workers comprise age less than 14 years of age. The UNICEF estimated that there were 10,000 child prostitutes working in the country (Ahmed 2006), but other estimates placed the figure as high as 29,000 (Ahmed 2006). The minimum age requirement of 18 for legal prostitution commonly was ignored by authorities and circumvented by false statements of age. Procurers of minors rarely were prosecuted, and large numbers of child prostitutes worked in brothels (Ahmed 2006). On the other hand a report shows that 65 percent of 135 surveyed women and girls in brothels in Bangladesh were between age 11 and 13; 33 percent were between age 13 and 15 (Firoze and Ali 2006). However 37.5 percent said that they are included in this occupation less than 5 years. 25.8 percent sex workers do sex from 5-10 years and only 5 percent doing sex over 20 years (Table 1). In focus group discussions we observed that sex workers could continue their profession 5 to 6 years only in their life time, because they do sex more frequently than those of others. Unhealthy and insufficient food intake, impact of open weather, physical or mental torture (harassment) etc. are also the reasons of such short duration of sexual life.

Sources of Contact with the Clients

Sexual business mostly depends on the sources they are using for contacting with the clients. 69.2 percent of the respondents communicate directly by themselves and 20.8 percent of them by dalal (pimp) and sardarni (senior prostitute); also specifically, 5.0% communicate by mobile phone or custodian of rented house/hotel manager (Table 1).

Types of Clients

All levels of people do sex with the sex workers either in a brothel or in hotel or even in any type of street based places. The rickshaw pullers and day laborers cover 36.7 percent of clients for the commercial sex-workers in Bangladesh. The second largest group is students where their participation is 23.3 percent (Table 2). The peak number of sex-workers do sex with 2-4 persons a day whose percentage is 55.8. On the other hand, 29.2 percent do sex with 5 to 6 persons per day. In contingency analysis (Table 3), it reveals that types of clients have association with amount of money as if clients are VIP level people, they pay a good amount more than a rickshaw puller.

Income from Sex

The comparative study of working lifetime, according to income reveals that 55.8% prostitutes sell sex by Tk. less than 50 (equivalent to US $ 0.74 @ Tk. 68.00) and 30.8 percent by Tk. 50-100 (equivalent to US $ 0.74-1.48 @ Tk. 68.00). Only 1.7 percent earns Tk. more than 300 (equivalent to US $ 4.41 @ Tk. 68.00) per single performance. 69.2 percent of respondents do sex daily per week in spite of their continuing menstruation and 24.2 percent sex workers do sex 4-6 days per week. On the other hand, 42.5 percent of sex-workers said that their monthly income is less than Tk.4000 (equivalent to US $ 58.82 @ Tk. 68.00), 25.0 percent earns Tk. 4000-6000 (equivalent to US $ 58.82-88.24 @ Tk. 68.00), and 17.5 percent earns Tk. over 8000 (equivalent to US $ 117.65 @ Tk. 68.00) only (Table 2). Their overall income in a sense is good comparing with other Bangladeshi females. It is one of the reasons that a large group refused to be free from such a profession once they are involved.

From contingency analysis (Table 3) we found that monthly income has no association with modern facilities as well as with household condition. It is because although they earn a minimum amount, they are under a circle of people who control their income.

Methods of Contraception and Sexual Diseases

The sex workers frequently try to use contraceptives. Hence the physical problem mostly depends on sex during menses. Working days per week have no association with sexual diseases (Table 3). Not only do sexual diseases solely depend upon working days per week but also with various factors as proper health care, food intake, environment etc.

17.6 percent sex-workers suffer from Gonorrhoea, 26.4 percent from Syphilis, 30.8 percent from skin disease and other respondents suffering from one or more than one disease. In the case of contraception, 5.5 percent use permanent methods and the rest of them use the pill (23.6%), condom (42.7%), injection (11.8%) and other methods respectively. The rate of condom use among sex worker is about 86.7 percent and among clients is about 13.3 percent (Table 2). We failed to know whether they are suffering from HIV/AIDS though many of them are performing sex without a condom, because they dislike testing their blood for social stigma and discrimination if it is proved positive. In contingency analysis (Table 3) we observe that sex during menses time no association with physical problem. It is a contradiction! Usually most of them are suffering from several diseases.

Awareness of Risk Factors

HIV/AIDS is not just a health threat in our society but also a social, economical, development and ethical threat. We observe that 70 percent of respondents are not aware of HIV/AIDS risk during sex. 43.9 percent respondents have been aware of such risk factors by NGOs (non-governmental organizations), 40.3 percent were aware by TV/Radio, and 9.2 percent were aware by other sources. On the other hand 29.2 percent and 33.3 percent prostitutes are addicted to smoking and wine (domestic or foreign) respectively and 37.5 percent prostitutes addicted with variety of items such as ganja (marijuana), heroin, injection etc. (Table 2).

Patterns of Harassment to the Sex Workers

Harassment is a common phenomenon to the sex workers. Different levels of people harass them. 16.7 percent sex workers were harassed by police. Distinctly 21.9 percent alleged that they were harassed by dalal (pimp) and senior sardarni (prostitutes). A few percentages claimed that mastan (muscleman), political leaders and other persons, afflict them also. 39.1 percent sex-workers accuse society that does not show normal behavior toward them whereas 15.6 percent complain of bitterness toward them, 6.3 percent complain of reviling approaches toward them. A remarkable opinion of the sex-workers regarding whether they are interested in rehabilitation shows that 68.3 percent wish to come back into the normal life (Table 2).

The logistic regression analysis indicates that educational status is an important factor for harassment of the sex workers. The estimated regression coefficient for literate workers is -3.485 and its odds ratio is 0.031, which means that literate workers have negatively significant (at 1% level of significance) impact on harassment of the sex workers and also literate workers have 96.9 percent lower risk than illiterate workers for harassment. It is because naturally literate workers deserve more motivation to manage any level of people in any circumstances. Though the law-enforcing agency (police) has a negatively significant effect it has only 5.1 percent direct harassment involvement (arrest) to the sex workers. Our empirical data also shows that the sex workers are not only harassed by police but also by mastans (muscleman), dalal (pimp), sardarni, political leaders etc. Sex during menses also has a negative impact on harassment of the sex workers.

The result of logistic regression about the role of condom use is an important factor for assessing the harassment pattern. The estimated regression coefficient those who are interested to use condom is 1.266 and its odds ratio is 3.548 implies that clients using a condom have a positively significant impact (at 10% level of significance) on tha harassment pattern and it also has 3.548 times higher risk than those who are not interested to use a condom. This is off course a contradictory result. It can happen as the client using a condom is not getting sufficient sexual gratification. Therefore these types of client are inclined to humiliate the sex workers. Our result also indicates that the workers who go outside their homes have a highly positively significant (at 1% level of significance) impact that means they usually face 49.700 times higher problems than those who don't.

Social attitude towards the sex workers is also an important determinant in doing different types of harassment to the sex workers. The estimated regression coefficient for good, bad, and very bad as social sentiment are -2.365, -1.239, and 0.564 respectively and its odds ratios are 0.094, 0.290, and 1.759 respectively which implies that good sentiment has a negatively significant effect on sex workers and also bad social sentiment has a negative impact on workers but very bad social sentiment have a positive impact on that type of worker. Overall good, and bad sentimental people shows 90.6 percent and 71 percent lower harassment attitude but very ill tempered people show 75.9 percent higher harassment attitude towards the sex workers than reference category. Though some people have a good sentiment towards sex workers but they show a little harassment attitude (9.4%) and bad sentimental people shows 19.6 percent higher (29% towards workers) harassment attitude than good-tempered people.

CONCLUSION

This is an empirical study that attempts to explore the extent and nature of socioeconomic background, sexual risk behavior, reasons for involvement, and patterns of harassment of the sex workers of three established brothels in Bangladesh. Here poverty and adverse social situations e.g., cheating, raping, afflicting, bearing inheritance, late marriage, early widowhood/separation, attraction to the better life, urbanization and industrialization, familial conflict etc., motivated and drive them to enter into this humiliating job. A large number of sex workers' ages are not up to the mark of legal limit. The rickshaw pullers and day labourers cover the great majority of their clients while the lion's share of their earnings mostly depends on the payment given by the VIP clients. In fact their earnings are below a dollar per act of sex. The young sex workers are more attractive to and preferred by the clients. Also the young sex workers are more capable of performing sex frequently for more income.

Our study showed that a huge number of sex workers are illiterate and though some are literate but their level is from primary to its nearest only. But education has a significant impact on the overall status of the sex workers even it helps controlling how long she should engage in sex a week. Education is also the pre-requisite of enough income.

The present study found that a number of local and national level NGOs are lively in constructing awareness and knowledge through sponsorship operation among the sex workers and undertaking necessary measures and strategies for the prevention of STIs and HIV/AIDS. But the majority of the sex workers are not aware of HIV/AIDS risk during sex. They don't commonly use condoms or their clients also. Therefore they are suffering from many diseases.

This study uncovered the nature of violence/harassment they regularly face from their matching part and also from other peoples of the society. The following types of harassment are frequently faced by the sex workers are - physical torture, sexual and financial exploitation, and psychological persecution. Away from each occurrence of physical torture of varied nature, sex workers are habitually forced to offer money to police, mastans and the like, often offering them free sexual services. This harassment occurs mostly by police, mastan (muscleman), dalal (pimp), sardarni (leader of the prostitutes), political leaders, and some other related persons e.g., NGO workers, reporters/journalists etc., of the society.

POLICY MEASURES

The findings and discussions stated above consist of few intervention policy measures considered in the future development programme for the sex workers. The government and non-government organizations may formulate and undertake the following intervention strategies for the sex workers in Bangladesh:

a) The commercial sex workers along with the community people should be thoroughly oriented both about the health and social hazards induced by sex profession;

b) Sex workers need to be aware of the whole impacts for this profession they may face later through mass media like- News papers, Radio/TV, GO/NGO programmes, short-film showing programmes etc.;

c) The community people need to be aware of the consequences of unsafe sex if they engage once;

d) Government should take a long term plan to rescue them from this shameful job in our society;

e) Vocational education and health care services need to be imposed among the sex workers so that once they can enter a new life if desired;

f) It needs an immediate action program for free and forced medical checkup regularly to know whether they are carrying HIV/AIDS; and

g) Government should take necessary action so that none can harass them now and then.

IN-TEXT CITATIONS

Ahmed, Z. Shahab
2006 "Situation of Human Rights in Bangladesh", URL:
http://www.humiliationstudies.org/documents/AhmedHumanRightsBangladesh.pdf, Retrieved on November 07, 2006.

BBS (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics)
1991 Bangladesh Population Census 1991, Dhaka; BBS.

Dios, A. Javate de
1999 'Confronting Trafficking, Prostitution and Sexual Exploitation in Asia-
The Struggle for Survival and Dignity', Published by The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women.

Fernando, B.
2001 "The Right Against Torture is an Absolute One', Published by Asian Human Rights Commission". URL: http://www.ahrchk.net/pub/mainfile.php/torture3/37/

Firoze, F. Karim, and Salma Ali
2006 "Bangladesh Country Paper: Law and Legislation" URL:
http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/banglad.htm, Retrieved on November 07, 2006.

Hossain, K. Tobarak, Shah E. Habib, and M. Hasan Imam
2004 "Commercial Sexual Behaviour and Risk Factors in Bangladesh", Department of Sociology, University of Rajshahi.

Huda, S.
1999 'Trafficking and Prostitution in Bangladesh- Contradictions in Law and Practice', Published by The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women.

Islam, M. Sirajul
1994 "Potitabitti: Karon O Protikar (Prostitution: Causes and Consequences)", Nirjhor Publications, Dhaka, Page 10.

MJIFDP (Mother Jones International Fund for Documentary Photography)
2000 'Sex Workers In Bangladesh', UNCA, from http://toto.lib.unca.edu/exhibits/blowers/MotherJones/shehzad_noorani.html

Tahmina, Q. Ain, and S. Moral
2000 "Jounata Bikri: Jiboner Dame Kena Jibika (Sale of Sex: Livelihood at the Cost of Life)", Society for Environment and Human Development (SHED), Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Background Characteristics	Percent	Background Characteristics	Percent
1. Age		10. Ownership of the Residence
<18	20.8	Rent a house	42.5
19-24	24.2	Native house	40.0
25-31	30.0	Refugee	17.5
32-37	11.7	11. House Types
38 and over	13.3	Made of mud	2.0
2. Educational Status		Brick-built	10.1
Illiterate	42.5	Half building	22.2
Can sign only	30.8	Tin shed	56.6
Primary	10.0	Polythene/Bamboo slips	9.1
Junior Secondary and above	5.0	12. Modern Facilities
Secondary	6.7	Electricity	38.0
Higher Secondary	5.0	TV/CD/Tape recorder/Radio	26.0
3. Marital Status		Electricity TV/CD/Tape recorder/Radio	22.0
Married	35.8	Electricity, TV/CD/Tape recorder/Radio/Chair/Cot	12.0
Unmarried	32.5	Others	2.0
Divorced	20.0	13. Reasons of Involvement
Widowed	6.7	Poverty	42.5
Seperated	5.7	By cheating	14.2
4. Age at First Marriage		By afflicting	10.0
<14	43.2	By raped	11.7
15-17	49.4	Inheritance	5.0
18 and above	7.5	Others	16.7
5. Whether Given Dowry		14. Involvement Age
Yes	70.4	<14	34.2
No	29.6	15-17	40.8
6. Marriage Registration		18-25	23.3
Yes	42.0	25 and above	1.7
No	58.0	15. Duration of Involvement
7. Number of Children		<5	37.5
2	72.6	5-10	25.8
3-4	21.1	11-15	25.0
4 and above	6.3	16-20	6.7
8. Living Status		20 and above	5.0
Children are living with mother	35.5	16. Communication with Client
Outside with mother’s caring	46.1	Direct	69.2
Seperated	18.4	Mobile contact	5.0
9. Children Schooling		By Sardarni	10.8
Yes	29.9	By Dalal (Pimp)	10.0
No	70.1	By custodian/hotel manager	5.0

*Significant at 0.01 **Significant at 0.05 ***Significant at
Note: r.c. means reference category.