In Sri Lanka, there are sex workers in every city including Colombo, and even in other small towns. Street sex workers, massage clinic and brothel house sex workers, escort girls, part-time sex workers, child prostitutes, male sex workers and even foreign sex workers can be found. The lowest rank of the sex worker is ‘street sex worker’, and according to Ratnapala (1999, 2000) four sub-categories can be found, such as those who take their clients to a nearby shady hotel or guest house and engage in sex there, those who get into cars of the clients and have sex in the car, those who take the clients to their rooms in the shanty or the hut where they live, and those who engage in sex activities in parks, the seashore and under bushes. With regard to massage clinic sex workers, they work in the clinics, which range from super clinics run by star hotels and to small clinics employing 2-5 sex workers. Brothels also fall into 5 categories ranging from high class to lower class, and satellite brothel houses are also available. There are sex workers in rural areas in the middle of the country and some of them were servicing soldiers during the civil war period. A small number of foreign sex workers from Asia and Europe are also in the trade, and as cited in Ratnapala (1999, 2000) they have come first to Sri Lanka during the Non-aligned Conference in 1976, and then in 1992 to the SAARC Conference. Escort girls are also specifically catering to foreigners. With regard to part-time sex workers they engage in sex work, while doing a white color job or working in the Free Trade Zone or doing other lower class jobs. On the other hand, male sex workers have emerged from the 1980s as transvestites and some servicing tourists. According to Ratnapala (1999) in the 1990s the total number of sex workers were no more than 15,000. With regard to the clients, manual workers, clerks, petty traders, bus drivers, taxi and lorry drivers go to street sex workers, and massage clinic and brothel house clients vary according to the standard of the establishment. Lower and middle class men visit lower and middle class facilities, while men from medium and high-class strata visit high-class establishments. Especially high-class brothel houses operate very secretly offering wide range of pleasures, including virgins and even any other crazy sexual activities, which the wealthier clients demand (Ratnapala, 1999, 2000).
The Sunday Leader (2012) also said that in Colombo there are high-ranking massage parlors and karaoke bars operating as brothels. Three types of escort girls are available such as budget escorts ($120-150), standard escorts ($150-180) and deluxe escorts ($180-320), and charges will be doubled if the service extends to overnight. In massage parlors, Russian, Ukraine, Uzbek, Moroccan, Lebanese, Iranian, Thai and Chinese girls are also available. Russian, Ukraine and Uzbek girls are placed in high priced category.
Discussing AIDS, Divaina Irida Sangrahaya (2015) reported that girls who are working in massage centers have also been recognized as HIV vectors as these palaces provide sexual services as well. Almost all girls were found to be school children under 17 years and university students.
On a different note, while prostitution is being illegal and having many religious and social taboos over sex, a high level of sexual stimulation has been created in the society.
Rape cases can also be found each year, and Ratnapala (1999) also noted that rape mostly takes place between family relatives. Sometimes alcohol-addicted-fathers rape their own daughter while mothers are working in the Middle East. Lanka C News (2011) also reported a case of a daughter (15 years) raped by her father became pregnant. A report on offences committed against children indicates that 1012 cases of sexual abuses, 63 cases of attempting to commit sexual harassment, 1463 cases of rape/incest and 36 cases of procuration/trafficking were reported in 2011. Recently, discussions and arguments spread all over the country regarding an assassination of a four-and-a-half-year-old girl found to be raped several times before her death (Daily Mirror, 2015a; News 1st, 2015; The Sunday Times, 2015)
On the other hand, some consider public transport (crowded buses, trains) as a place for releasing their sexual urges. Ratnapala (1999) also stated that both the young and the old seek sexual comfort leaning against and touching women, and while many women abhor these acts, some allow it due to inward desire for such pleasures. Although there are no love hotels in Sri Lanka, small-scale guesthouses with a signboard of ‘Rooms Available’ can be found in even small towns. Moreover, there can be seen many young couples kissing and touching each other under umbrellas in parks and seashores such as Galle Face Colombo and Galle Fort. Cinema halls also provide a space for couples to obtain their sexual pleasures. Universities too have become a place for the youth to engage in sexual exploration. In the university premises generally there is a well-known area, which couples use to experience sexual activities. Moreover, sexual abuses, consensual sexual relationships and even extra marital affairs can be largely found both in public and private working sectors.
These trends evidence that sexual stimulation in the society should be broadly understood and properly addressed beyond the existing socio-cultural frames. Recently some broad discussions on sex and even suggestions of legalizing sex work can be found in newspaper articles, web pages and blogs (Daily Mirror, 2015b; Gossip9news BlogSpot, 2012; Lanka e News, 2015). In one discussion on legalizing sex work, one commenter has stated that although legalization of prostitution is considered for the betterment of innocent women, only brothel owners and culprits will reap benefits. As a result of mushrooming brothels, sex trafficking would increase, and in turn young girls and women’s sufferings will be exacerbated. As cited in Ratnapala (1999, 2000), it is apparent that women sex workers are frequently arrested, treated brutally, fined and sometimes sent to prison as well. But Ratnapala also pointed out that problem of sex work cannot be curbed in such an easy way, especially when there is a massive urge for sexual pleasures in the society. The proper way to address this is reducing sex work to manageable levels, so as not to create any complex social problems. He claimed that a part of the sex work can be legalized, and at the same time reasons to enter into sex work should be properly and humanely addressed, as many women, specifically among low standard sex workers, are compelled to engage in it due to unemployment and
On the other hand, with regard to international/tourist related sex work, a largely organized sex industry does not exist in Sri Lanka, compared with other sex tourism destinations such as Thailand and the Caribbean (the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Jamaica). As mentioned in the previous chapter, tourism has been developed in Sri Lanka from the 1970s, and from that period there could be seen tourism related sex work, both heterosexual and homosexual. Tourism related issues such as prostitution, nudity, homosexuality and drug addiction have drawn the attention of academics from the early 1980s (Mendis, 1981; Ratnapala, 1984; Samarasuriya, 1982). Specifically Ratnapala has investigated sex workers in Sri Lanka from the 1960s, and one of his studies conducted in five main beach resorts (Negombo, Mount Lavinia, Beruwala, Bentota, Hikkaduwa) pointed out that tourism has adversely affected cultural and rural values (Ratnapala, 1984).
Moreover, according to Ratnapala (1984), female sex workers fall into two categories, such as the women recruited by mediators from neighboring villages for the establishments in the destination, and the women brought from Colombo. Recently there can be seen establishments, which provide sex work masquerading as Ayurveda massage centers. There is a social network organized in every destination well prepared to address whatever tourists demand. Sex work is also supplied at the request of low budget tourists to high-class tourists. Although, homosexuality existed before the advent of tourism, male prostitution and child prostitution started to take place on commercial basis with the development of tourism. Ratnapala (1984) in his study of sex workers argued that Tim Bond’s (1980) estimated figure for child sex workers in Sri Lanka is inaccurate. Conducting a wider fieldwork, he stated that even in the late 1990s, the total number of child sex workers is only about 1459. Colombo and its environs are the capital for child sex workers and they can also be found in beach resorts such as Mount Lavinia, Negombo, Kalutara, Bentota, Hikkaduwa, Unawatuna, Tengalle, and in other areas such as Galle, Kandy and Anuradhapura. When traveling to Nuwaraeliya and Bandarawela, children are taken from Colombo. Main tourist clients are from Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, Italy and Switzerland (Ratnapala, 1999, 2000). On the other hand, Ratnapala noted that beach boys and even room boys, waiters, taxi drivers too are servicing as sex workers in a certain way. Beach boys were generally pointed out when reporting both heterosexual and homosexual relationships with tourists specifically take place in beach resorts. As previously mentioned, Beddoe (1998) claimed that beach boys are culture brokers in child sex tourism, and they persuade other children to perform sex with tourists, while they too engage in sex work. Miller (2011) rejected Beddoe’s argument pointing out that young children in beach resorts are not coerced to engage in sexual activities, but they gradually got accustomed to it while selling small goods in the beach since their childhood.
Another study (Archchi, 2011) pertaining to beach boys illustrated that their positive side outweighs the negatives; therefore their work needs to be standardized so as to make the best use of their service. But, some illogical arguments can also be seen in his
study. He has confirmed a statement of a travel blog, which indicates ‘many tourists come to Sri Lanka to fulfill their sexual desires’, by only comparing with the fact that all the beach boys (9) he interviewed had sexually engaged with female tourists. I assume researchers should be more aware when they come to conclusions. It is acceptable to refer to web pages or travel blogs accordingly, but he has not analyzed any more than the above-mentioned blog before making that statement. After all, it is only a personal view, not an academic work. Then confirming such a statement by interviewing 9 beach boys in a small-scale beach resort is also problematic. At the same time, Arachchi (2011) stated that according to the Ministry of Healthcare and Nutrition (2007), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has estimated there to be 30,000 beach boys in tourist resorts, but some may have lost their lives during the Tsunami disaster in 2004. I assume this figure cannot be true, and therefore propose to address.
Summing up, it can be said that both domestic and tourists related sex work exist in Sri Lanka. While having many religious and socially created taboos over sex, sexual stimulation among locals is also prevalent. Therefore, it can be said that understanding of sex in the society is ambivalent. Beside the research done in the early 1980s (Mendis, 1981; Ratnapala, 1984; Samarasuriya, 1982), and the detailed anthropological study of Crick (1994), there cannot be seen any sociological or anthropological research that thoroughly addressed the elements of international tourism in Sri Lanka. Further, thorough studies, which investigated beach boys and their international marriages with female tourists cannot be found. Although, Miller (2011) offered detailed findings on beach boys, he has also examined a part of their lives, and especially his study is based on the fieldwork done during 1999-2001. However, Arachchi (2011) conducted his survey in 2010, but the study is limited to assessing beach boys’ impact and some of his analyses are also problematic. Further, Beddoe has stated that beach boys in Sri Lanka provided marijuana to the hippies in the 1970s, batik and gems to the mass tourists in the 1980s, and children to the pedophiles in the 1990s. This also raises two questions: 1.
Are beach boys changing according to the tourists’ demand? 2. If they change, what do today’s beach boys do? This study assumes that the role of the today’s beach boy is different from the 1990s. Hence, this study attempts to understand beach boys in Sri Lanka, comparatively analyze them with beach boys in other destinations, and place their relationship with female tourists in a broader framework than the existing sex tourism. At the same time, this study is assumed to fill the huge gap in sociological tourism studies, and offer a broad meaning beyond the existing understanding of sex and sex work in Sri Lanka.