Srishti’s Life Story: “I Felt Like I Was Dying Every Day, but I’m Still Living!”

Srishti, a barely literate, HIV-infected, divorced Muslim mother, grew up in extreme poverty and without male guardianship. Forced into marriage at 14, her husband sexually abused and starved her. Srishti nearly died giving birth, but only divorced her husband after he tried to kill her and her infant son. Srishti was 16 when she began working in Sonagachi, but was economically exploited by a brothel-keeper. She eventually became an independent sex worker in the brothels and achieved enough autonomy to move in and out of diverse non-brothel-based settings in West Bengal and neighboring states. The pervasive culture of silence surrounding sex work and women’s sexuality, coupled with intimate-partner violence such as marital rape and spousal infidelity, puts married women in India at high risk of HIV infection. Her experiences residing in brothels, working as a peer educator in a rescue and rehabilitation NGO, and pulling herself up out of dire poverty while being HIV positive have significant implications for social policy and practice, especially in the context of HIV prevention and anti-trafficking NGOs in India and other countries.