ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses sex workers' construction of risk by looking into the conditions that influence their understanding. In the HIV discourse, sex workers are seen as risk groups who engage in risky sexual behavior. While this discourse relates risk to certain sexual behavior, what appears as risk to the sex workers has received little attention. This chapter shows that sex workers construct their risk in relation to their personal experiences in which the risk of hunger and violence appear as more daunting compared to the remote risk of HIV. They adopt various local practices to minimize their health risk. This chapter further shows that sex worker's engagement in risky sexual behavior is related to unequal power relations with clients, adherence to hegemonic feminine heterosexuality and desperation to earn money, which cannot solely be explained by an epidemiological understanding. This chapter argues that risk is a subjective lived experience to the sex workers entailing varied meanings.
