Prophylactic Rights: Sex Work, HIV/AIDS and Anti-Trafficking in India

Based on ethnographic work with Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee in Sonagachi, the iconic red-light district in Kolkata, Prophylactic Rights examines the emergence of labour rights at the intersection of HIV/AIDS and anti-trafficking. The primary disciplinary contribution of this book lies in bridging medical and legal anthropology through a corporeal understanding of sex work rights. It addresses the following questions: How does the labour rights narrative emerge through everyday negotiations with an epidemic and the law and what congeries of history, public health policies, legal regimes, and techniques of subjection and subversion impede and impel the labour movement? The book will fill a gap in existing research by investigating what it means to be a sex worker in Sonagachi struggling for labour rights based on their lived experiences and bring focus to their struggles for rights and acknowledgement as equal members of society.