Blanchard, A. K., Nair, S. G., Bruce, S. G., Ramanaik, S., Thalinja, R., Murthy, S., ... & Isac, S. (2018). A community-based qualitative study on the experience and understandings of intimate partner violence and HIV vulnerability from the perspectives of female sex workers and male intimate partners in North Karnataka state, India. BMC women's health, 18(1), 66.

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Bhattacharjee, P., Campbell, L., Thalinja, R., Nair, S., Doddamane, M., Ramanaik, S., ... & Beattie, T. S. (2018). Understanding the Relationship Between Female Sex Workers and Their Intimate Partners: Lessons and Initial Findings From Participatory Research in North Karnataka, South India. Health education & behavior, 1090198118763934.

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Karnataka Health Promotion Trust, Samvedana Plus project, India  

David* is a 25 year old man, who works as driver and is married. He has had an ongoing intimate relationship with a FSW for more than seven years. They have had a difficult relationship for many years, which has often led to him physically abusing her.

Karnataka Health Promotion Trust, Samvedana Plus project, India  

Gowri* is a 35-year-old sex worker with a daily clientele. She has two regular intimate partners, with whom she reports being very compatible. As a result, she does not experience violence in intimate relationships. Given the intimacy and trust she enjoys with them, she does not use condoms in their intimate relationships.

Violence persists in sex workers’ relationships with their intimate partners, an intervention and evaluation study, Samvedana Plus, was designed to understand and address violence and HIV risk in the intimate partnerships of female sex workers. Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT) is implementing Samvedana Plus, in partnership with Chaitanya AIDS Tadegattuwa Mahila Sangha, a communitybased organisation (CBO) of sex workers in northern Karnataka, India. The findings of the report are related to four broad categories: characteristics of the female sex workers and intimate partner relationships; gender attitudes, social norms and violence acceptance; experience of intimate partner violence, solidarity and self-worth; and STI/HIV risk perceptions, skills for self-protection and condom use among female sex workers.

A study of levels of IPV against FSW in this area of Southern India produced a significant anomaly. IPs reported significantly higher incidences of violence than FSW. This presentation looks at three potential hypotheses for the anomaly, namely: IPs over-reported the violence; respondents didn’t understand the question; and FSW under-reported the violence.

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Beattie TS, Isac S, Bhattacharjee P, Javalkar P, Davey C, Raghavendra T, Nair S, Satyanarayana S, Kavitha DL, Blanchard JF, Watts C, Collumbien M, Moses S, Heise L. Reducing violence and increasing condom use in the intimate partnerships of female sex workers: study protocol for Samvedana Plus, a cluster randomised controlled trial in Karnataka state, south India. BMC Public Health 16:660 DOI 10.1186/s12889-016-3356-7

This presentation addresses the forms of intimate partner violence and associated HIV risk and vulnerability among women in sex work in Karnataka, India. The project, in the Bagalkot district of Karnataka, Southern India, examines the link between IPV and low condom use in the relationships of female sex workers. It concludes that any effective HIV prevention strategy must address the issue of IPV.

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“All in the name of love”: Understanding the relationship between female sex workers and their intimate partners. This presentation covers the exploratory research carried out in North Karnataka, India to understand the relationship between sex workers and their intimate partners and the drivers of violence and condom use in these intimate relationships. The qualitative study was conducted in two separate, three-day residential workshops with 31 female sex workers (FSWs) and 37 intimate partners (IPs), and addresses the nature of these relationships.

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