To Understand the Challenges Faced by Female Sex Workers in Seeking HealthCare in Miraj town (Maharashtra)

Background: Sex workers face challenges in terms of health, emotion, financial, and social because of their profession. Great majority of female sex workers tend to self-diagnose and seek over-the-counter medication from pharmacies or use traditional home remedies for sexually transmitted infections treatment rather than to visit health institution. Present study is conducted to understand the challenges faced by female sex workers in seeking health care. Methods: 138 female sex workers aged 18-45 years in urban area of Miraj city and registered with NGO were purposively selected from the reference population. Information was collected on characters like age, education, duration of sex work, place of work, and monthly income, any illness in last one year, treatment taken for the same, place of treatment, and problems encountered in taking treatment etc. by using pre-tested and structured questionnaire and in-depth interview guide. Results: Mean age of the participants was 34.82 ± 6.83 years. Mean duration of sex work was 11.18 years. 68.11% respondents had no formal education. 43.48% participants experienced one or other illness during last one year Challenges faced by the participants in seeking health care at government facilities included-unaware of health care facilities (10.86%), facilities far away from their place of work (15.94%), inconvenient OPD timings (26.08%) and inconvenient location of hospitals (9.42%). Fear of revealing occupation secret (20.28%), fear of result (6.52%) and negative attitude of health worker towards the participants (34.05%) were the obstacles for not seeking health care from government health facilities.