Working with truckers

It is the weekly animal bazaar on the Sangli-Miraj route. Shevanta, a sex worker, is demonstrating condom use to a group of embarrassed truckers. “Jaanam, jara zapun,” (dearest, take care), she says mock-sexually, repeating a recent IEC slogan. The VAMP educators burst into peals of laughter as the truckers start blushing. In the late 1990s, when HIV prevention programmes widened their gaze beyond sex workers – to include their clients - truck drivers were too obvious a sight to be missed. They include the long-haul cross-country truckers who ply the national highways around Sangli, and the local truckers who cart local produce along the state highways. Truckers wait a day as the trucks are loaded and unloaded – a day that is a chance to buy sex. Truck drivers are often the favourite clients of women in prostitution and sex work; they are also the least violent.

In 2000, VAMP started a programme to convince truck drivers (and other transport workers) to treat STDs and prevent HIV. The programme was shaped by two factors. One, it was a challenge to work with truckers, with whom they were already on the inside track. Women in prostitution and sex work felt they would run an effective programme for truckers, since they know their habits and behaviour patterns. Two, many women wanted to leave prostitution and sex work, and were looking for spaces that could absorb them.

The truckers’ programme is built around the core idea behind the peer intervention – empowering individuals to prevent STDs, including HIV/AIDS. “The target is not the trucker.” “It is the STD. We need to get it into the trucker’s head that he needs this. But targeting truckers is not the way to achieve this.” Instead, VAMP’s strategy aims to build the self-worth and dignity of truckers. One way to get into a trucker’s head is through the time-tested tactic of friendship. Befriending truckers is fairly easy, since their routes are fairly regular, and it is very important in a transitional lifestyle marked by long, empty patches.

VAMP’s workers reach out to truckers at dhabas where they stop for meals, vegetable and animal markets where they unload produce, and industrial complexes dotting the Sangli-Miraj area. They talk to them about life on the road, the journey, relationships back home…somewhere in the conversation, a small space opens up into which HIV can be slipped in. “The truckers come back from as far as Haryana,” says Amina. “They remember the discussions they had with these women.” Talking to truckers about sex between men is an important aspect of this programme, since many truck drivers have sex with the cleaners who accompany them.

Outreach workers also provide treatment access to truckers with STDs or HIV. A mobile clinic visits 10 sites in Sangli and on NH4 everyday. The clinic is equipped with a doctor and a counsellor, and has facilities to examine and treat patients for STDs and opportunistic infections. The clinic, which also distributes condoms and provides information on HIV, is sometimes used by other villagers and migrants along its route.

Last year, the truckers’ programme expanded its tentacles to reach auto rickshaw drivers and migrant workers. Here, the most effective outreach workers are young men from the community who have few job prospects. Many of them had turned to petty crime and become goondas or thugs; becoming outreach workers has given them a sense of hope. Some of them are educated and keep records for VAMP workers, adding to their self-esteem. Although new, the auto rickshaw programme has already tasted success. “One rickshaw driver told us that he now talks to every passenger he drops off at brothels about using condoms.” says Shevanta.

Migrant workers

SANGRAM started working with migrant workers and their families from 2006. This was in addition to the work with transport workers when we realized that many migrant workers were accessing the site clinics run by SANGRAM at the trucking stops. As the popularity of the SANGRAM clinic grew among the transport workers as a non-judgmental space, it drew many non-truckers who were dealing with the trucking community. The target community changed from the transport workers to any person from the surrounding slums who had a Sexually Transmitted Infection [STI] an HIV. VAMP started outreach with migrant workers both male and female and the programme took a new direction. Sex workers using their skill and ease regarding STI’s to raise awareness and help non-sex workers especially women to access treatment for STI’s.