Social worker's experiences of working with women in sex work and their children : A qualitative study conducted in the organization Saheli Sangh

Sammanfattning: In India, the estimated number of people in sex work is high - figures show an appraisal of three million female sex workers. Most women who enter sex work tend to be very young and do so due to severe economic circumstances. The situation is considered especially severe in some parts of India due to a combination of poverty and the low status of females, which contribute to their exploitation in the sex industry. This vulnerability often leads to women being marginalized and stigmatized from society.   The aim with this thesis is to investigate how social workers, at an organization in Pune, India, work with women in sex work and their children. What motivates the social workers to pursue work with this group? How do they feel about their work and their clients? Further questions we wanted to answer were how the organization worked to secure good and sufficient living conditions for the children. Our initial goal for this study was to examine how the staff members at Saheli Sangh work to prevent the children from entering sex work. While doing so, we gained knowledge about the social worker’s own thoughts, values and experiences of doing social work with this group. Hence, this newfound knowledge became our main focus throughout our study.   The results showed that education and safe housing were the primary interventions offered to prevent children from entering sex work. It also showed that the staff in the organization forms a special bond with the children and women with whom they work. To provide the needed interventions, the organization needs more resources and more support to combat negative perceptions and stigma from the society of women who do sex work and the social workers who help them address their needs.