Six sex workers who have joined into a group called Saheli ("peers") met with us one evening at a clinic run by the National AIDS Research Institute in Pune. The clinic, which devotes itself to helping sex workers, is in the heart of Pune's red-light district, and we sat on an outdoor deck that looked directly into the open windows of brothels across the street. One woman explained that when health workers first started to distribute condoms to them, they were skeptical. "We didn't like them," she said. "We thought our customers wouldn't come. But now they're fighting with each other for the condoms." |
