Accessible Healthcare: Karnataka Sex Worker's Group Aim To Provide Telemedicine-Based Health Service Across Country

Despite the Supreme Court (SC) rulings entitling sex workers to dignity and categorising sex work as a profession, their community still remains largely shunned from the mainstream. One such area that many sex workers hesitate to approach is healthcare. Due to the line of profession, they're involved in, even some medical professionals view them from the eyes of stigma and mistreat them. To be medically treated with respect is still a thing of hope for many sex workers in the country.

Enabling a safe and dignified healthcare space for the community, the Ashodaya Samithi (a sex worker-led organisation based in Mysuru) launched the 'Phone Maadu' initiative. The project helped sex workers in Karnataka to get easy access to medical professionals and quality health care. It was helpful for many of them during the pandemic, as they could go about with regular checkups and receive medical advice without being stigmatised and ensuring anonymity.

Telemedicine-Based Approach

The Phonehealth clinic by the name 'Phone Maadu' evolved organically from the need to have a safe space for the community during the COVID-19 lockdown. While lack of proper health care services is one factor, the accessibility to it for the sex workers community is another. The telemedicine-based approach connects community members to doctors through simple tools such as phone calls, WhatsApp, and SMS.

Ever since its launch, many sex workers preferred 'Phone Maadu' over visiting doctors face-to-face as it provided them confidentiality and comfort from expressing themselves openly. Talking about these aspects, the Samithi also points out how the space non-stigmatises the community. They stated that the patients could speak freely, unlike in most government or private facilities, where the odds are that they might face some degree of stigma because of their identity.

For this very reason, the idea behind Phone Maadu has travelled to official tables and is being discussed to take it ahead on a governmental level. Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra launched the 'Phone Maadu' report on February 21. The report documents how Ashodaya's innovation promoted and provided for changes in how health care was meted out to the sex workers.

Benefit Marginalised Sections

Ashodaya's project is all set to be scaled up by further leveraging technology and is expected to benefit many other marginalised sections of society. The team behind the initiative noted that while Phone Maadu's success may be seen as a "one-off" initiative, it could take form in two or three other places, like Gujarat, West Bengal, and Maharashtra, before expanding to a "national scale."

The Samithi, with over 8,000 sex workers, are committed to continuing the project but are held back due to the limitations posed by funding. As they continue to seek support, they are functioning under the pivot offered by their network of doctors. Ashodaya proposes a new system that eliminates the dependency on a middleman to schedule doctor's appointments and gives the autonomy back to the user. With this system in mind, they aim to provide a doctor's consultation service round the clock with the help of doctors who have previously worked with Ashodaya.

Currently, they are looking into raising funds locally or from doctors to advance their technology and make the entire process more efficient and optimised. A report by The New Indian Express cited a team official saying that rolling out the programme among the marginalised communities could have a huge transformational impact.

Also Read: Healthcare With Dignity! Delhi's Red-Light District Gets First-Of-Its-Kind Clinic For Sex Workers & Their Families