Table 5

Association between the presence of any active CAG and behaviour of the police with FSWs in five districts of Andhra Pradesh, Behavioural Tracking Survey, 2010–2011

Police behaviourAny active CAG
No (N=781)Yes (N=1205)Adjusted OR (95% CI)
Ever arrested by the police (%)14.415.01.1 (0.8 to 1.4)
Police explained reasons for arrest* (%)87.095.73.2 (1.1 to 8.9)
Police informed at least one friend or relative about the arrest* (%)31.448.11.8 (0.9 to 3.7)
Ever interacted with the police (%)59.668.01.5 (1.2 to 1.9)
Feel that the police treat FSWs more fairly now than they did a year before (%)70.379.71.7 (1.2 to 2.3)
  • Any active CAG: at least one individual or cell/group or committee assigned to work for any of the following social entitlements: ration card, voter card, bank account, free education for children and health insurance. PSU without any active CAG were considered as reference group.

  • ORs were adjusted for the following socio-demographic characteristics of FSWs: current age (entered as continuous variable), any formal schooling (no, yes), marital status (currently married, not currently married), typology of sex work (home based, street based, brothel based) and duration of sex work (entered as continuous variable) using logistic regression.

  • * Among FSWs who had ever been arrested. It refers to FSWs' experience when they were arrested last time.

  • Among FSWs who had ever interacted with police.

  • CAG, community action group; FSW, female sex worker; PSU, primary sampling unit.