BHUBANESWAR: Odisha is among the top 12 states in the country to have the highest concentration of both female sex workers (FSWs) and men who have sex with men (MSM).
According to the programmatic mapping and population size estimation (PMPSE) conducted by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) in 2022, the state recorded an estimated 24,620 FSWs and 5,977 MSM. The estimation has been published in the recent issue of peer-reviewed journal PLOS Global Public Health.
As many as 2,113 hotspots and 190 network operators in the state were mapped during the survey.
The hotspots included brothel, lodge/hotel, street, railway station, bus-stand, park, marketplace, under the bridge, highway, spa and abandoned area.
The state has two FSWs per 1,000 adult women and about 88.6 per cent (pc) operate through physical hotspots such as homes or street locations. Around four per cent are exclusively linked to network operators, and 7.4 pc are found in rural villages under the link worker scheme (LWS).
The PMPSE reported female sex workers in the range of 1,000 to 2,500 in 10 districts, 500 to 1,000 in 11 districts and less than 500 in nine districts of Odisha. Of the 9.95 lakh FSWs in the country, Karnataka topped the chart with 1.53 lakh FSWs, followed by Andhra Pradesh (1.19 lakh) and Maharashtra (95,351).
Odisha has an estimated 0.47 MSM per 1,000 adult men and around 88.4 pc frequent known hotspots, while around 10 pc are in LWS villages and only 1.7 pc operate solely through network operators. The state has MSM in 618 hotspots and 24 network operators apart from 458 LWS villages. Only two districts have less than 1,000 MSM and 26 districts have less than 500 MSM.
Karnataka recorded the highest 45,630 MSM, followed by 40,186 in Maharashtra and 38,282 in Tamil Nadu out of 3.51 lakh in the country.
Similarly, the state recorded 7,209 transgenders in 717 hotspots and 175 LWS villages. While 90.8 pc were found at hotspots, 6.37 pc were with 91 network operators and 2.77 pc in LWS villages.
The community-led PMPSE was carried out in 651 districts of 32 states and Union territories.