PAKISTAN: Truckers’ Sexual Behaviour a Risky Journey to HIV/AIDS

By Zofeen Ebrahim Reprint | | Print |

Zofeen Ebrahim

KARACHI, Pakistan, May 27 2003 (IPS) - Khurshid, a truck driver for more than seven years now, says he is enticed by the charm of this southern Pakistani city, but would not bring his wife and children here even if he earned enough money to do that.

– It’s no place to bring up children, they may get wayward,” says the 32-year-old trucker with a toothy smile. He goes back to his home in Mansehra, a small hilly town in Punjab province, every three months, but otherwise home is the truck he drives or the Mauripur truck terminal here.

Mauripur is one of Asia’s biggest truck terminals, through which some 20,000 truck drivers, their assistants and cleaners pass through everyday, transporting oil or other goods all over Pakistan, say from in Karachi in the south all the way up to Peshawar in the north. An equal number of men go to work there everyday as mechanics and labourers.

It is a city within a city that ‘men on the move’, as the mobile population of male truck drivers is called, call home in between long journeys.

There are some 800 truck stands in the Mauripur terminal. There are also some 700 shops, from butcher shops to stalls selling all kinds of potions, seven mosques with ‘madrasis’ or Islamic schools attached, to libraries.

Then there are the ”all things haram (prohibited)” that truckers do in these parts using the money they earn, says truck driver Muhammad Riaz.

Khurshid says that if he earns honestly, he can send 4,000 to 5,000 rupees a month (68 to 86 U.S. dollars) home. Riaz adds that some drivers make up to 10,000 rupees (172 dollars) or more, but ‘’but that’s ‘haram’ money and then it’s used for all things ‘haram’ ”.

Asked to explain these sinful deeds, the two look at each other. Khurshid says: ôIt is common knowledge that truckers indulge in certain social activities like drinking, puffing ‘charas’ (hashish), indulging in casual sex with chingrian (beggar women), with masseurs, with their cleaner boys, with ‘hijras’ and ‘khadras’ (transgenders) – just about no one is spared.”

‘’Once a respectful profession (driving trucks), now it is considered a highly immoral one. They call themselves Muslims but conduct themselves in the most un-Islamic way,” he adds.

Riaz interjects: ôThis is primarily a male-dominated profession and those among them who resist are laughed upon and called names like na-mard (not man enough)."

In fact, having sex with a woman is considered a need, is pardonable – and is not infidelity, say activists working with the drivers.

ôIt is quite acceptable," explains Alya Mian, behaviour change consultant for STI/HIV/AIDS at greenstar Social Marketing Programme, which established a clinic at the Mauripur truck terminal. ôIt’s sex with men that they consider sinful,” says Mian.

Bobby, a transgender who calls her life variously ôa dog’s life" and a ‘tamasha’, (spectacle) is a commercial sex worker. She says she sometimes gets blisters ‘’and I know many complain of piles". Because it can get painful, ôWe sometimes take certain capsules and sometimes injections that numb the area. For disinfecting we use phitkari (potassium permanganate)."

But asked about restaurants here being pimping sites, a restaurant owner says: ôWe do provide rooms but never for prostitution."

If someone wants to take the cleaner boy or have a massage in the rented room, he says: ôAs long is it is not a woman, we are not bothered.” He glares defiantly and snickers, ôTruckers never rent out rooms when they can use the truck for the purpose!"

Asked if they have families living here, one truck mechanic says: ôThis is no place for a respectable man to bring his family. It is a place for ‘launda baazi’ (homosexual activities), prostitution, smoking, almost everything goes in here.”

This draws jeers, cheers as well as loud laughter. ôThat’s simple. Men are away from their wives for long periods, naturally the need has to be met somehow," says Mohammad Amir, another mechanic.

As for the unmarried ones, ôThey are young, they have intense heat within them that needs to be let out," is their justification.

Yet many truckers – by now 30 of them have gathered – say they are aware of HIV/AIDS. ôIt’s what we’ve seen on television, an incurable disease that once contacted leads to a very painful death", ôyou catch it with contact through women", ôyou get blisters all over you and your body becomes weak", ôit is a punishment from God for your sins".

One trucker says: ôThe only protection is abstinence, we all know that but who cares." As for condom use, he adds: ôNo time, once you are in the mood and in the heat of the moment you completely forget.”

ôPeople are aware of the disease, but most are unaware of its transmission,” says AIDS specialist Dr Muhammad Tariq of the greenstar Social Marketing Programme. ‘’There is a lack of information and knowledge, and that is because of the stigma attached to it and the cultural taboos.

Pakistan has low HIV prevalence, but this also makes it hard to create awareness and change in risky sexual behaviour, including by mobile groups such as truck drivers.

Another barrier is that Pakistani society is in denial of how widespread commercial sex is, as well as the existence of sex between men.

ôResearch conducted in many countries has highlighted the fact that truck drivers and cleaners are one occupational group that is generally known to exhibit high-risk behaviour," says Dr Syed Sharaf Ali Shah, project director of AIDS Control Programme of Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital.

A survey of 821 truck drivers aged 21 and over and cleaners aged 15 or over provides insight into truckers’ knowledge, attitude and behaviour related to HIV/AIDS. A total of 81.2 percent had heard of HIV/AIDS, yet 56 percent reported extramarital relations. Thirty-three percent multiple sexual partners as frequently adopted modes of transmission of the virus.

Of the 69.3 percent who had heard of condoms, 40.3 percent linked it to contraception and only 16.7 percent cited protection from sexually transmitted infections. A mere 2.6 percent were aware that it protected them from AIDS. Despite that, only 6.5 percent used condoms.

ôA sero-surveillance study sample of 300 truckers carried out at Mauripur showed the existence of 12 percent syphilis among this group, a strong marker for HIV/AIDS,” adds Sharaf. ‘’This was quite an eye-opener specially in a situation with ‘perceived risk’ among people who think they cannot get it even when openly indulging in sex out of marriage.”

Tariq says that many truckers who come to the clinic indeed suffer from STIs. But that is for the truckers who do show up, because very few come to the SMP clinic. ôThey suspect that this is a family planning clinic for men. Many think this is an AIDS clinic and if they are seen entering it, other truckers would suspect he’s contracted the disease,” he explains.

Pakistan may have low HIV prevalence, but has high risk, says Tariq. A young population with 63 percent below the age of 25, high fertility rates, poverty, gender inequities and widespread cultural denial of behaviour spreading HIV and other STIs all point to the potential for HIV/AIDS epidemic to escalate, he adds.

A restaurant owner says that since a recent clampdown on commercial sex workers around the Mauripur terminal, ‘masseurs’ have multiplied. As Bobby says: ôOnce these men indulge in sexual activities with men and us, they get into the habit and begin to enjoy this more. And best of all, there are no strings attached."