Sex work is not new to Sri Lanka. Historical and literary references reveal its longstanding presence in society. The famous frescoes at Sigiriya, depicting bare-breasted women, are widely believed to represent 5th-century courtesans. In Woolf in Ceylon: An Imperial Journey in the Shadow of Leonard Woolf 1904–1911, author Christopher Ondaatje revisits Woolf’s short story A Tale Told by Moonlight (1921), which describes the post-Victorian sex industry in Colombo:

Reynolds wants to feel and experience life at last, so Jessop – “I suppose the devil came into me that evening” –decides to take Reynolds to a brothel. He calls his servant to fetch two rickshaws and they bowl along dusty roads past the lake and into a red-light area with Tamil and Sinhalese girls. (This was either Slave Island or Maradana, near the Beira Lake; the Burgher girls were to be found elsewhere, on Reclamation Road.)  “All the smells of the East rose up and hung heavy upon the damp hot air in the narrow streets.”  

Sex workers in Sri Lanka are equal citizens. They contribute to personal and family economies. They deserve dignity and security. They deserve the opportunity to enjoy the lives to which they aspire.  

The onset of the HIV epidemic brought sex workers into the focus of public health programming, categorizing them as a “key population” under the National STD/AIDS Control Programme (NSACP). While intended to ensure service access, these frameworks often reduced sex workers to potential disease vectors, further entrenching stigma and marginalization. Sex work was framed as a “high-risk” behaviour that required control, if not eradication.

A stark example of this approach came in 2015, when a UNAIDS-supported sex worker–led organization was registered with articles of association that read:

Such language reflects a profound misunderstanding of rights-based principles and reinforces the need for sex workers to challenge paternalistic public health paradigms that dehumanize rather than empower.

In a major development, the 2025 CEDAW Status Report included formal representation from SWASA. This was a historic milestone that brought the voices of sex workers into international human rights spaces, where they raised urgent issues such as:

Ø Police violence and extortion

Ø Lack of legal protection

Ø Barriers to healthcare and social services

Ø Stigma rooted in law, policy, and public discourse

A Call for Recognition, Dignity, and Justice

Sex workers in Sri Lanka are equal citizens. They are caregivers, workers, activists, and contributors to the economy and society. They deserve:

Dignity and safety

Legal recognition and protection

Healthcare and social inclusion

Freedom from violence and criminalization

They deserve the opportunity to live full, self-determined lives, free from exploitation, stigma, and systemic injustice.

In a landmark case Fort Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake acquitted a woman arrested in a brothel, ruling that sex work itself is not an offence under Sri Lankan law. He cited past superior court judgments affirming that while the Vagrants Ordinance penalises riotous or disorderly behaviour in public by prostitutes, and the Brothel Ordinance criminalises operating or managing a brothel, there are no laws prohibiting a woman from independently engaging in sex work. The Magistrate further clarified that a woman working in a brothel cannot be charged with aiding or abetting its management.

Praja Dirirya Padanama based in Puttalam district in Sri Lanka operates a dropping center for sex workers. They also provided nutritious meals daily for sex workers and their families during the COVID-19 pandemic. They use theatre to counter patriarchal narratives that discriminate and dehumanize sex workers and to create public awareness about violence and harassment that sex workers face  in their daily lives.

The UNDP 2012 report “Sex Work and the Law in Asia and the Pacific” provides a comprehensive review of how laws, law enforcement practices, and policies across 48 Asian countries impact sex workers’ human rights and HIV vulnerability.

Objectives

1. Describe laws affecting HIV responses in the context of sex work.
2. Assess how legal environments shape HIV prevention and care.
3. Recommend reforms to create enabling environments for health and human rights.

This is a research study conducted by the SWASA partners in Sri Lanka and highlights how sex work in Sri Lanka, long framed only as a public health concern tied to HIV and STIs, is deeply shaped by stigma, discrimination, and violence across all aspects of life. Based on 283 interviews conducted by trained peer researchers and further expert analysis, the findings reveal that sex workers face systemic marginalization: they are criminalized through coerced guilty pleas under vagrancy laws, subjected to compulsory STI testing without legal basis, and routinely abused by health service providers. Many are excluded from education, social safety schemes, and welfare benefits due to stigma, lack of documentation, or demands for sexual bribery. The majority are primary earners supporting multiple dependents, and face unsafe working conditions largely due to clients, hotel owners, and law enforcement itself. Despite this, sex workers consistently express dreams of lives free of violence, with social acceptance and respect. The report underscores that recognising sex work as legitimate work is essential to ensuring justice, dignity, and protection for sex workers in Sri Lanka.