Introduction

Researcher engagement with issues of violence against women and economic empowerment of women in South Asia. In the summer of 2012, author was recruited by the BBC World Service as a researcher and producer for a newly commissioned documentary on human trafficking. The documentary investigated how girls from eastern states of India were being trafficked and sold for marriage in states such as Haryana and Punjab, the more prosperous northern regions that have a skewed sex ratio resulting from female foeticide and infanticide. Her early field visits were eye-opening and provided her with insights into the wider livelihood and social issues facing the women working as sex workers. It called for the decriminalisation of sex work and argued that sex workers cannot be judged through the lenses of religion or morality as there are myriad legitimate reasons why women choose this profession.