Mujeres Trabajadoras Sexuales (MTS) en Colombia: condiciones laborales y de salud

Abstract

Prostitution defined by the WHO as “any activity in which a person exchanges sexual services for money or any other good” (WHO, 1998) is a common phenomenon but not accepted in some countries of the world. On a daily basis, it is common to find scantily-clad women in public and strategic places offering their bodies in exchange for money; prices that go according to the place where the service is offered. Although prostitution is not a legal activity in Colombia, a good part of the population of men and women (more common in the latter population group) dedicate themselves to it as the only option and outlet to obtain an economic income necessary to live, to maintain the family and in other cases, to maintain a high economic status due to the income that this practice can generate. In most societies, female prostitution has been viewed with distaste and has been relegated to marginal sectors of urban areas, and, associated with its exercise, women who break the standards of fairness, legitimacy and good name established by society, to the point of calling them “women of the bad life” (Bohórquez Farfán, 2014). The above statement confirms without a doubt the degree of vulnerability of these women and that the vast majority of them have a depressing economic situation that subjects them to this exercise and, where only the situation of extreme poverty in which they live and in which they live remains evident neglect by the state. This essay focuses on the idea that prostitution has become a problem for public health, therefore, it is necessary to analyze the conditions under which this practice is carried out, from the labor and health point of view, and the implications that it generates in the different areas of the life person who exercises it and their family. Although it is true, studies have been carried out in some specific areas of the country, where the vulnerability of the people dedicated to it is exposed, but it is essential to divert our gaze with greater insistence in this direction. Keywords: sex work, sexual and reproductive rights, working conditions, health status.