Out of touch: Sex workers speak of poverty and anxiety during India’s long Covid months

In Delhi’s red light district, Namita Singh hears how workers have been affected by the pandemic in an industry that relies entirely on one thing – physical contact with strangers

Demonstrators and Indian sex workers on World Aids Day earlier this month (EPA)

Sex work took a major hit during the 2020 pandemic in India when its migrant clientele vanished after the government imposed a sudden lockdown – pushing sex workers into a debt crisis. While restrictions have eased, the anxiety about a business that thrives on physical contact remains.  

Most brothels in the capital city of Delhi are poorly monitored, many without even a thermometer to check the body temperature of the people who visit them, and sex workers tell The Independent they are constantly exposed to the risk of infection.

“Some [sex workers] got so paranoid about contracting the infection that they started applying sanitiser all over their body after sex,” Kusum (who requested that she be identified only by her first name), president of the All India Network of Sex Workers (AINSW) says. Baths after clients leave are a luxury as water supply is irregular.