Unstoppable

So it turns out blogging is a lot harder than I thought. Not the technical part – Blogger makes it easy even for a tech-dummy like myself – but finding the time and space to write and reflect is a challenge, to say the least. Our days are packed full with field work, sight-seeing, and navigating the streets of Kolkata in 100+ degree weather and stifling humidity. Most days, it’s all I can do to take it all in, snap a few pictures, and do a little post-dinner processing with the rest of our team (thank goodness for social workers!) before a much-needed shower and bed.

But enough excuses. I’m way overdue to share a little bit about our work at Durbar. It’s been a wild ride!

Our program merges field research with course work on postcolonial social work and feminist theory. After arriving in Kolkata, we spent a week in orientation with the friendly Durbar staff, who gave us a thorough introduction to Durbar’s many programs in between steaming cups of chai tea. Durbar is a collective organizing of sex workers in West Bengal. Durbar employs a Marxist framework, asserting that sex work is work, and sex workers deserve respect, recognition and freedom from discrimination and stigma.

The highlight of our orientation was meeting dozens of Durbar’s sex workers, a delightful group of women. Their pride in themselves and their work, as well as their passion for justice were powerful and moving. One of Durbar’s many slogans seems to capture the spirit of the organization: “Love’s Labor – Just Labor.” We’ve also enjoyed building relationships with members of Amra Poditik, Durbar’s children of sex workers organization, and Anandum, Durbar’s MSM and transgender sex workers organization.

During our second week, we chose research topics and formed three sub-groups focusing on Amra Poditik, anti-trafficking, and advocacy, respectively. As the advocacy group, Anna L. and I are studying sex workers’ capacity to advocate for themselves in the context of Durbar. Last week we picked our research topics, designed assessments, and ran field tests, before going back to the drawing board. Our work has been full of starts and stops, trial and error. It’s been frustrating at times (especially for me!), but as TJ says, research is not a linear process. We’re all learning to trust that process, and learn from the unexpected.

Today Anna and I ran our first successful batch of interviews, with the help of Santanu, our Bengali translator. The language difference is probably the most challenging aspect of our research so far. Much of our communication is lost or misunderstood, while cultural differences complicate things further. In short, it makes for a lot of awkward and funny moments. At the end of the day, though, we felt good about our questions, the responses they generated, and (especially) the personal connections we made. We have the whole summer to figure out what it all means.