Risk, Stigma, Agency

“Cisgender women in sex work in Kolkata are branded as marginalized and spoken about through the words of other people. In her timely and very significant book, Dr. Sunny Sinha does the opposite. With ethnographic precision and theoretical sophistication, she weaves their words and her data from years of intense fieldwork into a powerful story about the infinitely complex intersections of risk, stigma, agency in the lives of women who can speak for themselves.” —Treena Orchard, Associate Professor and Faculty Scholar, Western University’s School of Health Studies, Canada “Sunny Sinha does a brilliant job in presenting the voices and agentic strategies of these women in the context of the challenges they faced in both their work and personal lives.” —Ronald Weitzer, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, George Washington University, USA This book centers the life histories of three women engaged in sex work in Kolkata, India to show how they make sense of their lived experiences and the risks they face in their current social environment. Whereas much of the risk discourse surrounding sex work in India comes from academics, social and health workers, epidemiologists, and policymakers, this book foregrounds the lives and voices of the women themselves to provide a richly nuanced picture of the diverse and complex realities that shape women’s lives and the different interrelated vulnerabilities many sex workers face, such as poverty, familial violence, child marriage, marital rape, stigma, and health risks. This book will be of interest to researchers and students in social work, anthropology and sociology, women’s studies, public health, and criminal justice, as well as non-academic professionals who address issues of violence against women, human trafficking, or health risks in sex work. Sunny Sinha is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work at Appalachian State University, USA. For nearly two decades, Dr. Sinha has conducted research among women residing in brothels, women indirectly employed in sex work via informal jobs, transgender sex workers, and clients of sex workers.