Consensual Sex is Increasing in Bangladesh

HIV/AIDS constitute a significant public health threat around the world. By the end of 2006, about 39.5 million people worldwide were living with HIV/AIDS, unfortunately 90% of them in developing countries. During 2006 alone, a total of 4.3 million adults and children were found to be newly infected with HIV, and in the same year, 2.9 million people died from HIV/AIDS - 80% of them Africans. In two decades, AIDS has killed almost 30 million people and orphaned over 14 million children.

HIV/AIDS epidemic spreads out depend on several social custom or norm prejudicial practice, such as gender discrimination, sexual violence, early marriage, trafficking, unsafe sex or exploitation of sex workers, transmission of other STDs, intravenous/injection drug uses. Socio-economic position and illiteracy also can makes vulnerable for HIV/AIDS.

An increase in affluence also has resulted in a rise in the number of men who visit commercial sex workers. HIV/AIDS in Bangladesh, therefore depends on the conditions in the commercial sex industry, including the frequency of the incidents of men visiting commercial sex workers. While, everyone buying sex in Bangladesh is having unprotected sex some of the time, and a large majority don’t use condoms regularly. The fourth national surveillance also found a high prevalence of syphilis among female sex workers. The same floating sex workers in central Bangladesh who had a 0.5 percent prevalence of HIV, for example, had a 42.7 percent prevalence of syphilis.

Bangladesh is still considered as a low HIV/AIDS prevalent country; by the way Bangladesh is passing at a critical moment, the majority of AIDS cases in here are the result of needle sharing. Of 500 injection drug users questioned in central Bangladesh during the fourth national surveillance, 93.4 percent said they had shared needles in last week. Providing clean needles is also considered important because it decreases the spread of HIV from injection drug-users. It is also important to bring a behavioural change among commercial sex workers (CSWs) by promoting the use of condom.

After several investigate on sex industries have identified more then 1,00,000 various category commercial and non-commercial sex workers in Bangladesh who are most of them illiterate. Some female brothel sex workers have an average of 20-25 clients per week, Female hotel sex worker meet an average of 44 clients in a week, the highest number of clients in commercial sex than any other counties in South-East Asian region. Moreover the residence sex workers and floating sex workers are present in large number though the precise distribution and prevalence is still unknown. By a study ‘Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation’ also found that a substantial proportion of some young and single textile, garment workers, tea garden female workers, house key-per supplement their low wages by occasional prostitution. Consensual sex or non-commercial sex exists in rural societies, particularly when husbands are absent for a long time.

Sex before marriage, or sex after marriage without spouse, is still taboo for most people in our society. Most would also prefer their partners to be virgins. Sex has become much more accepted in our society today. The fact that sex has become very common among adolescents today is irrefutable.

Sex is consent is more common in the upper classes and the poorer classes of society; it seems they have both social and religious approval to engage in consensual sex and can have it anywhere. Some private sector, high official persons are engaged consensual sex with their subordinate female colleagues. It happens to avoid official harassment or money or any other material compensation is involved. Lower female workers like as garment workers sometimes has a boyfriend for the sake of protection from harassment by other men. Some low wages female workers engage to consensual sex to fulfill their families’ burden.

Women in Bangladesh are largely getting sexual experience through marriage and for the most part, sex is consent is mostly confined to their future husband or lovers. “Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation” found, sexual behaviour among Bangladeshi women is changing. Young girls may not remain in the traditional sexual confinement of the previous generations and consensual sex among them is on the rise. It may encourage AIDS to acquire alarming proportions in Bangladesh.

Media, jobs security and natural devastation always play a vital role to change human behaviour. This social change would happen gradually or rapidly. By the way, the cause of changing of human behaviour in our society is to the mixed effect of urbanization and modernization has brought frustration in the man. For these two things people are forgetting traditional social norms, family sexual behaviour is changing, attitude of peoples towards sex is changing very fast. Besides migration for jobs, an increasing number of women taking up jobs outside the home, a decline in the traditional joint family system, and conflict to global culture were considered to have contributed to this phenomenon.

References: Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation, World Bank

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