Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: The Karmi (Worker)-From Pesha (Prostitution) to Kaaj (Sex Work) -- The Laboring Gatar: The Body between Suffering and Risk -- Condom-wallis (Condom Sellers) and Condom Narratives -- The Politics of Victimhood: Pachar and Trafficking -- Mela, Immobility, and Imperial Feminism -- Epilogue: Another Virus, Another Lockdown.

"Based on ethnographic work with Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee in Sonagachi, the iconic red-light district in Kolkata, Prophylactic Rights examines the emergence of labour rights at the intersection of HIV/AIDS and anti-trafficking. The primary disciplinary contribution of this book lies in bridging medical and legal anthropology through a corporeal understanding of sex work rights. It addresses the following questions: How does the labor rights narrative emerge through everyday negotiations with an epidemic and the law and what congeries of history, public health policies, legal regimes, and techniques of subjection and subversion impede and impel the labor movement? The book will fill a gap in existing research by investigating what it means to be a sex worker in Sonagachi struggling for labor rights based on their lived experiences and bring focus to their struggles for rights and acknowledgment as equal members of society"-- Provided by publisher.