Diesel, oil, condoms: transgender sex workers teach India’s truckers about Aids | Global development

ATA Roadside Both, a volunteer pulling the condom on Phalus Wooden Phalus. “I feel the package first.” If it is dry, do not use it, this exceeds the expiration date, “tells his fans of truck drivers with traffic speeds behind them.

A short distance, sexually transformed sex workers urge Ruby and Bhavna from truck drivers gathering around the tea booth to ignore some common myths.

“Don’t think that spraying lemon juice on your penis after an unprotected sex will protect you from HIV. You will not have sex with your treatment. Ruby, 30, says that a condom will only protect you and your family.

The groups working to educate Indian truck drivers have sought about how to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and HIV for a long time to recruit workers in commercial sex. It is their services that drivers are searching for when the truck stops, during the weeks and even the months they are on the road, away from their families.

APOLLO Tires, the corporate social responsibility arm (CSR) for the country’s largest tire factory, works with sexual transformers after studies have shown that some drivers prefer them.

It is often not spent. Sometimes, drivers say they prefer sexual intercourse with sexual transgender because they are cheaper and easier. This is somewhat true. Rinika Grover, head of sustainability at Apollo Tires and CSR says.

The company sells tires to transport companies. About 60 % of its revenues come from buses and trucks, whose drivers are a high -risk group for HIV, with a 1.48 % spread rateSeven times from The National Mediterranean of India, which is 0.2 % for adults.

The Foundation has taken more than 100 sex workers in transgender people as part of the HIV/AIDS awareness project. They work as volunteers, and make drivers familiar with risks, symptoms, prevention and treatment. Some of the transgender people were taken as paid employees.

For a stranger, their advice can look very clear but necessary. “If you have symptoms, then who go?” Bhavna, 34, asks for drivers tea break. “No, not some local Antichrist. You go to the right doctor with the first letters of MBBS after his name.”

She later shows that the tendency is for drivers to search for an easy and cheap solution from an unlicensed practitioner, who usually advise them to rub the baking soda or mustard oil on the genitals or apply a dough made of certain leaves.

She and Ruby the drivers competition to measure the level of awareness. It is so. How do you get HIV? “Lack of hygiene”, offers one. How do you get sexually transmitted diseases (STD)? “By sharing food,” another says.

The transgender volunteers know the world of truck drivers well. On the cold gray winter day, they target drivers at the Sanjay Gandhi transportation center, northeast of Delhi. It is a dark, bleak land next to the landfill, with black birds of prey on which it revolves.

Here, the rows and rows of truck drivers are loaded, loading, fuel, repair and dining. Besides, in the alleys and dark gardens, they buy the services of sexually transformed sex. Both groups are severely deprived, they are on the margins of society and challenges their poverty.

Drivers are mostly without a gorial in sandals and wearing thin layers cannot get out of the cold. The last shower and a hot meal is a distant memory. It is not completely different from sex workers. The joint experience encourages confidence, which is why drivers listen to their advice, and are often delivered in street language.

India has made great progress in the processing of the means of the means: the prevalence of the current HIV is 0.2 %. Decrease from 0.32 % in 2010.

But the need for continuous awareness campaigns remains, as well as follow -up care. “We also refer to drivers to our health centers throughout India, which provide HIV and advice virus testing services, free drugs, treatment of sexual communication diseases, tuberculosis and vision as well,” says Amit Chaudhry, the pioneer in the Apollo Foundation program.

The transgender project began in 2022 and has since reached more than 100,000 truck drivers. Benefits work in both directions. Sexual transfers Sex workers, who are accustomed to contempt by society and living in the shadow, enjoy the increase in the social situation provided by volunteer work, even if it may sometimes lead to loss of income.

Usually, they will never dream of entering the office of a multinational company. Now, the job assigned at hand, the office also becomes a space for it and climbs their first -class self -esteem or two.

“It was a great job for me,” says Mayra Mesher, 22, who is now a paid employee after training as a health teacher. “My vision encourages sexually converts to realize that they can do more than sexual work or beg in traffic lights.”

Again in his driver’s taxi, Ashok Kumar, 400 miles (650 km) from Delhi to Jammu, says the time has spent a good time.

“I knew some of what they said, but I learned some new things too. I liked the way Ruby said the condom that would protect two people – I and I and my wife.”