Using NGO data to understand marginalization, stigma and empowerment: the case of USHA multi-purpose cooperative in Kolkata

该项目将在概念上和经验上有助于理解贫困、边缘化和耻辱与经济和健康结果之间的联系。该项目有两个方面。首先，它将与乌莎多用途合作社合作，通过合并三个现有数据集，分别包含金融信息(储蓄账户、获得的贷款和个别性工作者的还款史)、仅在加尔各答9个干预地点的与健康有关的数据(寻求健康行为、定期检查、避孕套使用、接受临床检查和治疗的结果、关于艾滋病毒和性传播疾病的实验室调查数据)，来构建一个独特的印度加尔各答1万名性工作者的小组数据集。(3)通过自律委员会[SRB]收集的所有性工作新入行者的背景数据(包括年龄[由放射检查确定]、临床检查报告、社会经济状况、家庭背景、选择性工作的原因和任何迫使入行者选择性工作的潜在胁迫等)以及接受USHA提供的培训的情况。这个新的数据集将被用来检验性工作者的财务和健康行为如何相互关联，以及初始条件(年龄、变化、初始社会经济地位、家庭背景、受到胁迫的情况)如何随着时间的推移对性工作者的财务和健康结果产生影响。它还将使审查性工作者使用的合同如何影响她们的福利。贫穷或被边缘化往往会带来相当大的污名，这会极大地扭曲一个人的自我形象，导致一种“被破坏的身份”(Goffman，1963)。正如这位作者在其关于污名的经典著作中指出的那样，“与[受污名的个人]打交道的软管没有给予他尊重和尊重……；他通过发现自己的一些属性证明了这一点来呼应这种否认”。在一项随机对照试验中(Ghosal et.艾尔2019年)，评估了由Durbar(成立USHA的性工作者集体)首创的一种心理干预--“筑梦”的影响。研究发现，参与造梦活动能显著改善参与者的自我形象，以及他们的储蓄和预防性健康选择。此外，储蓄和健康行为的变化分别持续到15个月和21个月后。在部分由IAA GCRF非政府组织数据奖(ES/S501323/1)资助的工作中，针对600名妇女(其中300人曾接触过某种形式的梦想建筑，300人没有)的样本数据集乌莎系统地收集了加尔各答和西孟加拉邦其他地方性工作者社区的妇女的现有记录，追溯到过去三年(在最初的实地工作之后)，重点是与结果有关的定性和定量证据，方法是将她们现有的数据集(接触梦想建筑讲习班的妇女数量、对心理结果的影响、妇女随后在储蓄、住房、子女的教育选择、参加各种集体活动等)。该项目的第二个方面将通过新的定量模型，合并和(重新)分析这两组数据，以及新的面板数据集，以量化随着时间的推移接触梦想对性工作者福利的影响

The project will contribute, both conceptually and empirically, to understanding the link between poverty, marginalisation and stigma on the one hand, and economic and health outcomes, on the other. There are two prongs to the project.First, working in collaboration with USHA Multipurpose Cooperative, it will construct a unique panel data set of 10,000+ sex workers in Kolkata, India by merging three existing data sets containing, respectively, financial information (savings accounts, loans obtained and repayment history of individual sex workers), health related data in 9 intervention sites in Kolkata alone (health seeking behaviour, regular check-ups, condom use, findings of the clinical examination and treatment received, lab investigations data on HIV and sexually transmitted diseases), (iii) contextual data collected through Self-regulatory Board [SRB] for all new entrants in sex work (including age [determined by Radiological examination], report of clinical examination, socio economic status, family background, reasons for choosing sex work and any underlying coercion forcing the entrant to choose sex work etc) and exposure to training provided by USHA. This novel data set will be used to examine how financial and health behaviour correlate with each other, how initial conditions (age, variations initial socio-economic status, family back ground, exposure to coercion) matters for the financial and health outcomes of sex workers over time. It will also enable an examination of the of how the contracts used by sex workers impact on their welfare. Being poor or marginalized often brings with it considerable stigma, which can greatly distort a person's self-image, resulting in a 'spoiled identity' (Goffman, 1963). As this author notes in his classic work on stigma, "[t]hose who have dealings with [the stigmatized individual] fail to accord him respect and regard ...; he echoes this denial by finding that some of his own attributes warrant it". In a randomized control trial (Ghosal et. al. 2019), the impact of a psychological intervention, "dreambuilding", pioneered by Durbar (the sex worker's collective which set up USHA) was evaluated. It was found that exposure to dream building resulted in significant improvements in participants' self-image, as well as their savings and preventive health choices. Additionally, changes in savings and health behaviour persist up to 15 and 21 months later respectively. In work partially funded by a IAA GCRF NGO DATA AWARD (ES/S501323/1), a data set for a sample for a sample of 600 women (300 of whom had been exposed to some form of dream building and 300 who hadn't) USHA systematically gathered existing records, going back to the past three years (after the initial fieldwork), of women belonging to the community of sex workers in Kolkata and elsewhere in West Bengal with a focus qualitative and quantitative evidence relating to outcomes by linking their existing data sets (the number of women exposed to dream building workshops, impact on psychological outcomes, what the women have done subsequently in terms of savings, housing, educational choices for their children, participation in various collective activities etc). The second prong of the project will, via novel quantitative modelling, merge and (re)analyse these two sets, together with the novel panel data set, to quantify the effects of exposure to dreambuilding on the welfare of sex workers over time