Community-Based Strategies as Transformative Approaches for Health Promotion and Empowerment among Commercial Sex Workers in India

Abstract

The current paper examines the utilization of community mobilization as a strategic health communication technique in an intervention to reduce human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and sexually transmitted infections (STI) rates among marginalized and at-risk populations such as commercial female sex workers in a red-light district in India. The research documents the struggles of a historically exploited community in India to mitigate its marginalization through implementation of a multilayered strategy of capacity building and economic empowerment. Semi-structured interviews of 37 commercial female sex workers were conducted in a red-light district of India. Qualitative analysis of the interview transcripts showed the prevalence of three themes which demonstrated the different facets of the community mobilization framework within the context of a health communication intervention. The findings of this research delineate how STI risk reduction as well as participation and empowerment can be achieved through a community-based health promotion project targeted towards commercial female sex workers within the context of their lived realities of marginalization and oppression.