Biosocial factors influencing women to become prostitutes in India

Based on materials collected during a study of risk factors associated with cervix cancer among prostitutes in Domjur, Howrah, West Bengal, this report explores various biosocial factors which may lead women to prostitution. When family and marital ties fail or disintegrate for various reasons, the life situations which a woman encounters may themselves generate a "process" of anchorlessness. The failure of family support along with the lack of ability to provide for themselves due to poverty and illiteracy were key factors why the women in this study had adopted prostitution.