Smarajit Jana could have been a career diplomat. Instead, this public health scientist used his persuasive skills, to slash the incidence of deadly HIV/AIDS in Kolkata’s redlight district, where it was spiralling uncontrolled among
prostitutes.
Realising that any plan was doomed to failure unless it was willingly and wholeheartedly accepted, he captured the interest of sex
workers by pointing out that their future children could avoid infection only if the mothers insisted on customers using condoms. Children meant a lot to prostitutes. Most, readily agreed to cooperate.
But, so long as customers could find
unprotected sex among a few, the workers who insisted on a
condom, would lose precious earnings. Lack of self-worth prevented many women from refusing unprotected sex. Jana got across to them that they, like others in society, were being paid to provide a service. He preached the
benefits of all the sex workers joining to form a ‘
union’. He succeeded.
Next, using his powers of persuasion on others concerned with the sex industry, from policemen and politicians, to roughnecks and pimps, Jana convinced them all, of the benefits of compulsory condom usage among sex workers, to control the spread of AIDS. Now, a whopping 60,000 prostitutes joined the union, without interference from any quarter. In Sonagachi, Kolkata’s red light district, the incidence of HIV/AIDS plummeted to a mere 5% whereas, in Mumbai’s brothels, it is 60%.
The UN has commended the Sonagachi project and hopes to learn from it. Meanwhile, the Kolkata sex workers collective has, so far, hosted three conferences for sex workers worldwide, to help control AIDS globally. Quite deservedly, Jana has become an iconic figure among Indian sex workers, conquering their hearts and minds, by showing them how to make a better life for themselves.
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