Samvedana Plus: Reducing violence and increasing condom use in the intimate partnerships of female sex workers

Abstract

Karnataka Health Promotion Trust programmes have achieved some success in reducing violence by clients, police and gangs against female sex workers, largely through advocacy and community mobilisation. However, violence persists in sex workers’ relationships with their intimate partners - their husbands or lovers. This brochure explains how the Samvedana Plus programme - in partnership with a community-based organisation of sex workers - is intervening with the women who face abuse, their intimate partners and the wider society to: challenge disempowering gender norms reduce violence increase condom use by sex workers in their intimate partnerships Further publications and resources are available This research is supported by the Department for International Development’s STRIVE Programme which is led by London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)