Summary Report: Behavioural Surveillance Survey in Gujarat, India: Part 11

Age at first commercial sex

A total of 64% FSWs had said that their first commercial sex was before the age of 22 years while 35% of them had said that it was after 23 years (Table 4). The mean age at first commercial sex was 21.4 years for FSWs and 23 years for clients of sex workers.

Table 4: Age of FSWs at first commercial sexual intercourse

Majority (53%) of the clients of sex workers had reported their first commercial sex between the ages of 20-25 years. More than a third (36%) respondents in this group had reported first commercial sex at below 19 years of age and 15% of them had said that they had their first commercial sex after at age 26 years.

Number of partners

The median number of partners reported by the clients of sex workers in the year preceding the survey was 12. Eighty percent of the clients had reported having had four or more female sex worker partners in the previous 12 months. The median number of female sex worker partners reported was 11 and 4 each by the male slum dwellers and male diamond industry workers respectively.

Occupational Profile

Clients of sex workers, Male slum dwellers and Working female slum dwellers

The largest occupational group among the clients of sex workers was drivers (27%), 34% of the male slum dwellers were either in government or private employment, 30% female slum dwellers reported to be working as casual labourers while 31% had said that they were working as domestic help (Table 5).

Table 5: Occupation of clients of sex workers, male and female slum dwellers (Figures in %)

Secondary Occupation of Sex workers

Twenty percent of the sex workers reported having other sources of income. Seven percent of them had stated that they worked as housemaids, 3% were reported to be involved in petty business and 4% said to work in construction sector (Table 6).

Table 6: Secondary occupation of sex workers

Job
Housemaid/Household job 7%
Construction worker 4%
Petty business 3%
Street Vendors 3%
Agriculture labour 3%
Factory worker 2%

Place of origin

Majority of the female sex workers and male university students living in hostels were from within Gujarat state. Five percent of female sex workers reported to be native of Nepal, 1% had come from Bangaladesh. Less than 1% students hailed from Nepal, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and East Africa (Table 7).

Table 7: Place of origin