Umbrellas of Faith: Religious Solidarity with Sex Worker Rights
- Rakshith Muthukumar
- Dec 2
- 3 min read
Sri City: The term ‘sex worker’ often strikes fear or repulsion when uttered in public through stories and reports of human trafficking, to forceful coercion that affects villages and districts of cities. Stories of sex workers sold by their partners and families to pay debts flood the headlines whenever the topic has been brought up in national attention. The attention is then followed by misogynistic and at times transphobic backlash both socially and legally due to a supposed loss of morality and purity.
A quick search online for public opinion especially from the most religious often reveals a hypocritical paradox of sex workers being both women who’ve lost purpose and need to be ‘saved’, but also manipulative figures that corrupt men and make them ‘commit sin’. Ultimately, what this presents is a transfer from one form of oppression to another. The sex worker has been seen as permanently victimised by religious orthodoxy argued both through conservative social stigmas, and temple prostitution such as the devdasi system in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, and has been seen asserting themself in resistance to orthodoxy and patriarchy presented through popular culture like the 2022 film Gangubai Kathiawadi. However, in recent years, both views and circumstances have been changing between sex workers and religiosity.
In September 2025, during Navratri in Kolkata’s red light district of Sonagachi, a report by The Hindu would provide a contradiction to the dialogue of traditional religious conservatism and its isolating effects on sex workers. A durga puja pandal in Kolkata’s Sonagachi would display the identity of sex workers and their ties to religiosity as a hope to achieve rights and live in dignity. Religion in a ground reality is a sense of identity that many sex workers have, and additionally, how they survive in modern India across faith and caste. Durga for many women and families across India represents strength, resilience, and at times seen as a merciful deity among different sects. Religious symbolism seemingly ties a marginalised community to the mainstream due to rituals surrounding sex workers giving soil for the idol. The refusal of sex workers to hand soil creates a demand for equality and dignity in an entire community. Additionally, it’s seen as resistance against exclusion and even religious and caste hierarchies as a symbol to assert community.
However, despite religion in many cases being viewed as a tool of community and resistance amongst sex workers, it has also been a tool of survival especially for sex workers belonging to religious minorities. A report by the portal Feminism in India reveals a different side of the story especially for muslim sex workers from Kolkata. Religiosity finds itself tied to survival due to following customs and traditions , and even changing names to prevent bigotry and exclusion from clients. This has come at a time when large scale exclusion has been a feature of contemporary communal politics pan India as well, where many muslim communities have considered changing their names or businesses or even identities to not be subjected to social boycott and persecution with sex workers also being implied to be affected by Islamophobia too, and additionally rejection in their own communities.
At the same time, when there is exclusion on the basis of faith, religion has proved itself a method to ensure solidarity and support between sex workers and other sections of society affected by patriarchy in legal battles. In May 2022 when the supreme court recognised sex work as a profession (a key demand amongst many sex workers rights activists), A notable section who lauded it’s judgement, were nuns from catholic churches across the country. The christian portal Matters India commented how nuns across the country have welcomed the decision as a way to help consensual sex workers and human trafficking victims, framing it as an effort to fight sexual abuse through charity. Most notably however, solidarity is built between nuns and sex workers due to shared experiences of sexual abuse in light of Nuns coming forward against violence in catholic churches by priests, despite seeming difference in legal aspirations, the interpretation of religiosity despite orthodox conservatism has allowed for building a sense of community, and tolerance between devotees of faith, and the seemingly heretical.
Sex workers have been fighting for dignity, labour rights, and legal protection for decades even in environments where religion and caste dynamics seemed to be the law of the land governing through puritanical views of gender and sexuality, and where voices and demands are overshadowed by oppression masked as saviouresque. The Navratri celebrations in Sonagachi provide a new insight into religiosity’s fluid nature. Although the challenge of minority exclusion indicates a need for an intersectional touch, many sex workers find a new angle to gain support and solidarity from orthodox sections of society in their quest for dignity and agency.
