From Occupational Stigma to Mukti

Liberation, Place, and Agency Among Sex Workers in Sonagachi

Datos Bibliográficos

ID24144971
AutoresEdwina Pio (0000-0002-3296-618X, Auckland University of Technology), Guillermo Merelo (0000-0002-3686-2361, University of Auckland, autor de correspondencia), Robet Kilkpatrick (World Vision), Annie Hilton (Education Trust)
Año2026
Fecha de publicación2026-09-10
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaGender Work and Organization (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0968-6673 • E-ISSN: 1468-0432
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/gwao.70263
OpenAlexW7212306895
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas66

This article examines how former sex workers in Sonagachi, Kolkata, India, navigate occupational and place‐based stigma through spiritual repertoires, of which mukti (liberation) is a central tool. Drawing on critical, embedded ethnography across three fieldwork periods (2001, 2011, and 2019) with long‐term engagement in the Freeset community, the analysis shows how religious imaginaries are translated into everyday practices that rework recognition, work, and belonging. Rather than a linear exit from “dirty work,” mukti appears as a lived, practice‐based capacity orienting moral repair, spatial re‐siting, and intergenerational aspiration. The discussion unsettles Euro‐American secular framings of stigma and liberation, indicating that non‐Western spiritual frameworks can be constitutive—rather than merely contextual—of stigma navigation. It also illuminates how spiritual repertoires mediate relations among tainted places, social identities, and ethical action. The conclusion outlines a comparative, cross‐tradition research agenda attentive to spiritual practice and moral geography in contexts of marginalization.

Agency (philosophy) · Ethnography · Moral agency · Sex work · Sex workers · Stigma (botany) · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Sex work and related issues · Water Governance and Infrastructure