For Sex Workers, A Life of Risks

By MON MON MYAT / IPS WRITER, Irrawaddy News, March 6, 2010.

RANGOON — When Aye Aye leaves her youngest son at home each night, she tells him that she has to work selling snacks. But what Aye Aye, 51, actually sells is sex so that her 12-year-old son, a grade 7 student, can finish his education.

“Every night I work with the intention of giving my son some money the next morning before he goes to school,” said Aye Aye (not her real name). She has three other older children, all of whom are married.

Her 38-year-old friend Pan Phyu, also a sex worker, has a greater burden. Since her husband died, she has had to take care of three children on her own, as well as her mother and uncle.

But Aye Aye and Pan Phyu’s source of income is fast declining, because it is no longer that easy to get clients at their age. Many younger women are in the sex trade these days because of the difficult economic conditions in Burma, where prostitution is illegal.

Aye Aye and Pan Phyu’s daily lives are marked by the risks that come with doing illegal work, ranging from abuse from clients and police harassment to worrying about getting sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS.

Accurate figures of the number of sex workers are difficult to come by. But some media reports say that there are more than 3,000 entertainment venues, such as karaoke bars, massage parlors and nightclubs, where there are sex workers, and that there are an estimated five sex workers in each venue.

There are fewer opportunities available for Aye Aye and Pan Phyu in the nightclubs in downtown Rangoon, but they found a place near the highway in the city outskirts.

“I’m already having a hard time finding even just one client a night, yet some clients want to use me for free. Sometimes they cheat me and go without paying,” said Aye Aye.

Their clients include college students, policemen, business people and taxi or trishaw drivers. “It’s true that sometimes we get no money but just pain,” Phyu added.

Many clients think that they can easily abuse commercial sex workers because the illegal nature of their profession makes them powerless to demand their rights.

“Sometimes I receive money for one client but I have to serve three. If I refuse or speak up, I could be beaten up,” said Pan Phyu, who has been a sex worker for 14 years.

“If the local official in my ward or my neighbors don’t like me, they could inform the police, who could arrest me anytime for trading sex,” Aye Aye added.

To keep from being harassed by the police, Aye Aye and Pan Phyu say they have to either give money or sex. “The police want money or sex from us. We need to make friends with them. If we can't give a bribe, we are threatened with arrest.”

Pan Phyu said: “Some clients come in plain clothes, but after speaking with them for a while, I realize that some of them are police officials.”

A few years ago, Aye Aye and Pan Phyu were arrested when the police raided the hotel they were in under the Brothel Suppression Act. Aye Aye spent a month in a Rangoon jail after paying a bribe. Pan Phyu could not afford to pay, so she spent one year in jail.

Like many commercial sex workers, getting infected with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases is never far from their minds.

Aye Aye recalls that two years ago, she suspected that she might have HIV. A blood test at the Tha Zin clinic, which provides free HIV testing and counseling service for commercial sex workers, confirmed her worst fears. “I was shocked and lost consciousness,” Aye Aye said.

But Pan Phyu said calmly: “I already expected to have HIV, as I’ve seen friends of mine dying from AIDS-related diseases.

“My doctor told me that I can live normally as my CD4 counts are above 800,” she added, referring to the count of white blood cells that fight infection, which indicates how advanced the disease is.

Still, Aye Aye and Pan Phyu say they remain in sex work because that is the only job they know that can bring them enough money.

“I tried to work as a street vendor, but it didn’t work because I didn’t have enough money to invest,” Aye Aye said.

Aye Aye earns from 2,000 to 5,000 kyat (US $2-5) for a one-hour session with a client, an amount she would never earn as a food vendor even if she worked the whole day.

Because she has HIV, Aye Aye carries a condom in her bag, as suggested by the doctor from the Tha Zin clinic. But her clients are stubborn and refuse to use any protection, she said. “It’s even harder to convince them to use a condom when they are drunk. I was often beaten up for urging them to use a condom,” Aye Aye said.

Htay, a doctor who asked that his full name not be disclosed, says he has heard similar stories from other sex workers who come to see him. They say that their clients do not want to use a condom, said Htay, who provides community health care for people living with HIV.

According to a 2008 report by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), more than 18 percent of some 240,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Burma are female sex workers.

HIV-positive sex workers are a hidden reality in Burma. “Our society covers up the truth that prostitution exists because of shame and fear of sin, but it actually makes the situation worse,” pointed out Htay.

“I think a network of commercial sex workers needs to be set up in this country,” said Nay Lin of Phoenix Association, a group that provides moral support and vocational training for people living with HIV/AIDS. “Through that they could stand for their rights and protect their communities.”

“Just like others, commercial sex workers who are mothers earn money in exchange for sex to support their children and their families, but they always work under fear of the police and of being abused by clients,” Lin said. “We should respect them as mothers instead of abusing them.”

To this day, Aye Aye leaves home to go to work as soon as her son falls asleep at night. She worries about earning enough money, and what will happen to her son if she does not.

“If I have no client tonight, I will have to go to the pawnshop tomorrow morning,” she said. Showing her 30 centimeter length of hair, she adds: “If I have nothing left, I’ll have to sell my hair. It might be worth about 7,000 kyat ($7).”