Fighting AIDS: Sex workers collective assistant Ayu Aji Asmara (left) and Kerti Praja Foundation program coordinator Emily Rowe stand in from of the Denpasar Foundation, Bali. JP/J.B. Djwan

According to Kerti Praja Foundation staff Dinar Lubis and Emily Rowe, the provincial government “is doing a good job within the framework they face”.

Both workers explain that as the sex industry and drug use is illegal, any intervention by the government becomes “hypocritical and impossible. How can you do serious intervention when you are dealing with illegal activities?” asks Rowe, pointing out that despite this dilemma, the government has “a fantastic methadone program, free condoms, needle exchanges and medication and a campaign ‘no condom, no sex’ targeting sex workers and their clients”.

Mitigation programs in Bali have gone to the grass roots of the problem, according to Lubis and Rowe. “The Bali AIDS Commission is working with pimps. They establish working groups in every [sex work] location in Bali to reduce the number of sexually transmitted diseases [STDs] and HIV through condom use,” says Rowe.

She adds that every sex worker now also has regular medical checkups for STDs and HIV. “Every girl must have a medical card and undergoes periodical health checks. Because brothels are illegal, municipal police monitor these health checks and if they don’t see medical cards, they can punish the brothels,” says Lubis. However, it’s a grey area, she adds, because simply shutting down a sex work site that does not produce its medical cards means it will move to another area and potentially operate outside of any medical checks.

Working directly with pimps is one of the approaches used by Bali-based HIV transmission mitigation programs. A sex workers collective (OPSI) has also been set up to address the issue.

The collective was formed in Bali just three months ago, according to OPSI assistant to female sex workers, Ayu Aji Asmara.

“The union is run by the sex workers themselves. It was formed after some of the girls went to a conference in Jakarta. Over the next weeks, we will have training in advocacy and human rights issues for sex workers, held by the AIDS commission in Bali. I hope that with the union the rights of sex workers, their rights to health and access to health improves.”

Ayu realizes it would be difficult to legalize the sex industry in Indonesia, but she hopes sex workers’ rights will one day be recognized and enacted.  “At the moment, the government has a policy of jailing these women because they make the streets look untidy. I hope, through the union we can make an effort to remove this policy,” says Asmara.

Ketut Dewi, who works with HIV mothers and babies at Sanglah Hospital, believes legalization of the sex industry offers one of the best solutions to sexually transmitted HIV levels.

“Legalization is a matter of taking control. By legalization, there will be regulation and monitoring.

Legalization also make the sex industry formal and this industry should also pay taxes, make regular [medical] checks up and provide condoms,” says Dewi, also for calling for true compassion and understanding of sex workers and their clients and greater knowledge sharing of HIV.

As well as health issues, such as HIV, being a collective also protects female sex workers against violence from clients and gives them “more pride in themselves” according to Dinar Lubis from the Kerti Praja Foundation. “In my opinion [sex work] is already her profession, so she needs to be in control and proud of what she does.”

As sex workers gain greater self determination through the support of the collective and with pimps taking an active role in promoting condom use, wives and babies waiting at home for their husbands may also find themselves protected from a disease that otherwise creeps unseen and unheard through their doorways, shattering their worlds forever.

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