Turbulent Transformations and Urban Undesirables: Revanchist Urban Transition and Street-based Sex Work in Bangalore

Neethi P. , Anant Kamath | 22 June 2024 

In this chapter, we provide a broad-sweep presentation of the sexual counter-geographies and socio-spatial contours of Bangalore city, bringing out the ordeals of its overwhelming transition. In this process, we bring out the dismal intersections that undergrid the life and work of street-based sex workers, and threats to their very existence in the process of envisioning and unravelling the realisation of a city. We demonstrate how the modulations in the human and spatial cartographies of street-based sex work are strikingly unique in terms of the vast spectrum of social and spatial elements that they are intertwined with. Finally, we provide a discussion on the ongoing human rights and citizenship empowering initiatives among this section of workers, by identifying the role of various individuals, organisations and movements in this regard, both legal as well as in civil society.