Partner Organization: Sampada Gramin Mahila Sanstha (SANGRAM) is a voluntary organization that works at the grassroots level with activists, volunteers and paid workers. It is gaining importance as a practical training ground for other NGOs interested in working on HIV/AIDS in a rural context. SANGRAM started its work with women in prostitution and sex work from South Maharashtra and North Karnataka in 1992 and has since fanned out among diverse populations. SANGRAM is based in Sangli district, which has the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS in Maharashtra after Mumbai. Description of Fieldwork: In February 2008, the Leitner Clinic traveled to Sangli, India, where they worked in partnership with SANGRAM/VAMP. The Leitner team interviewed the organization’s leadership; female, male, and transgender sex workers; peer educators; outreach workers; and the children of sex workers. They also spent time in Sangli’s Red Light district interviewing sex workers who live and work there. Project Outcome: In July 2008, SANGRAM published the Leitner Clinic’s policy document, “Rights-Based Sex Worker Empowerment Guidelines: An Alternative HIV/AIDS Intervention Approach to the 100% Condom Use Programme.” SANGRAM distributed the report at the 2008 International AIDS Conference in Mexico City. Empowerment must be the objective of any program targeting vulnerable groups. The current trend of implementing programs that fail to consult with sex workers during their creation or implementation and that have reduction of the disease in the general population as the goal exacerbate the notion that sex workers are nothing more than vectors of disease and further the existing stigma and discrimination that prevents sex workers from realizing and promoting their human rights.
Project Description: In spring 2008, the Leitner Clinic focused on sex workers rights in partnership with SANGRAM, an Indian grassroots organization and VAMP, an Indian sex workers collective affiliated with SANGRAM. The Leitner Clinic produced a policy document published by SANGRAM that highlights the abuses that have resulted from fundamental flaws in the design and implementation of the 100% Condom Use Program (100% CUP), a public health program targeting sex workers and implemented in South East Asia. The policy document crafts alternative guidelines for HIV/AIDS intervention programs targeting sex workers rooted in a rights-based and justice-based 
approach and inspired by SANGRAM/VAMP’s model of sex worker empowerment. The Leitner team consisted of Fordham Law students Meghan Gabriel (`09), Laura Garr (`09), and Laura Smith (`08) and was co-supervised by Prof. Chi Mgbako and Supriya Pillai, Program Officer for Asia at the International Women’s Health Coalition.
-Laura Garr (`09)
