Old age livelihood planning of Sex Workers (SW): Bangladesh Experience

Sex Workers (SW) sale sex for livelihood & endorse it as occupation. Although commercial sex work exists as occupation for ages,almost all societies either attempt to simply deny or hide its existence or not been able to deal with it . In Bangladesh,approximately 100,000 FSWs are in operation,they are either organized in brothels or work independently in hotel or residence. 80% of them start working as SW before their 18th birth day.they are illiterate.They are not allowed to wear shoes or sandals outside the brothel. Even death fails to end their misery,regardless of religion they are denied for the formality of funeral. After a long horrific history of abuse, torture and neglect, country formally legalized prostitution in 2000 which set ground for Bangladesh to be one of the few Islamic countries that do not "officially" ban prostitution. It's a human nature that they tend to secure livelihood for old age. But SWs have no preparation for retirement,they are not always aware of savings and sometimes have little scope to save money.They fail to ensure proper education for children due to social stigma and fail to buy assets and lands, unable to build house, shelters etc.