When Climate Change Pushes Vulnerable Women Into Sex Work

Climate refugees in the Sundarbans often have no choice but to sell their bodies in order to feed their families.

Climate change is not just an environmental issue, it’s a social issue, experts warn. Poverty, starvation, income inequality, and disease will all be exacerbated by irregular weather patterns and warmer temperatures.

Studies show that every decade in the coming century will be worse than the one before it, and though the issue has gained public attention in recent years, the problem has existed for much longer.

Mousini Island Land in many parts of the Sundarbans is contaminated with salt water from repeated flooding, rendering it barren. Communities that used to rely on farming are often forced to look for alternative livelihoods as agriculture becomes increasingly difficult. This photo is part of a series on women, climate change and migration by Indrani Basu, Manon Verchot and Joanna Plucinska. The project was funded in part by the Earth Journalism Network and through independent campaigning. Photo by: @manonverchot #climatechange #sundarbans #westbengal #sealevelrise #flooding #globalwarming #india #storiesofindia #cyclones

A photo posted by @sundarbanssinking on May 26, 2016 at 10:55am PDT

For Dipali, a 48-year-old mother of five in West Bengal, 2009 was the turning point. When Cyclone Aila washed away the only life she had ever known in the Kakdwip subdivision of the Sundarbans, she was forced to move to Kolkata.

The Sundarbans are one of the most vulnerable parts of the world when it comes to climate change. The region, a network of islands in the Bay of Bengal, is rapidly disappearing under water as sea levels rise. At the same time, increasingly devastating storms batter the coastline, flooding villages and farms. This poses a problem for the 4.2 million people living on the Indian side of the border.

Mousini Island, West Bengal A little girl walks along the crumbling edge of an embankment that holds back rising water. Before long, the house behind her will disappear and its residents will have to relocate for the sixth time in recent decades. interview. This photo is part of a series on women, climate change and migration by Indrani Basu, Manon Verchot and Joanna Plucinska. The project was funded in part by the Earth Journalism Network and through independent campaigning. Photo by: @manonverchot #climatechange #sundarbans #westbengal #streetsofindia #_soi #globalwarming #sealevelrise #monsoon #cyclone #nofilter #india

A photo posted by @sundarbanssinking on May 18, 2016 at 6:46am PDT

Every year, more and more people escape inland as their islands become unliveable. Many make their way to Kolkata’s slums, where they try to find work as wage labourers and housekeepers.

For some families, though, these jobs do not provide enough income. That’s when wives, mothers, and sisters find themselves in Kolkata’s Red Light District. In the year of Cyclone Aila, there was a 20-25% increase in the number of sex workers in Kolkata, according to Dr Smarajit Jana, an epidemiologist who works with Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, an organisation that defends sex worker rights. Most of them, like Dipali, came from the Sundarbans.

In an interview for a special report published by Huffington Post India, Dipali recounts how she first resisted selling her body. She tried to get by on wage labour, but as she struggled to feed her children and send them to school, she eventually gave in.

"Sometimes, I just stand there and cry," says Dipali, a 48-year-old sex worker in Kolkata. Like hundreds of women in the Red Light District, she is a victim of rising seas and stronger storms. Dipali is part of a new surge of migrants: a climate refugee. In the coming decades, millions of people will be displaced along the world's coasts. Many women will be forced to turn to sex work to support their families after their homes and livelihoods are swept away in floods. The first time someone approached Dipali for sex work—a mistri (foreman) who she was helping with a painting job—she immediately refused. "But as I struggled to find enough daily jobs to feed my children," she said, speaking in Bengali, "I finally gave in." Read her full story here: http://huff.to/29jOZbm This photo is part of a series on women, climate change and migration by Indrani Basu, Manon Verchot and Joanna Plucinska. The project was funded in part by the Earth Journalism Network and through independent campaigning. Photo by: @manonverchot #climatechange #sundarbans#westbengal #sealevelrise #flooding#globalwarming #india #storiesofindia

A photo posted by @sundarbanssinking on Jul 2, 2016 at 1:00am PDT

Read her full story here.

This story was made possible thanks to funding from the Earth Journalism Network.