According to one of the duo interviewed, the police has no proof that the 30 women in Rajmundry jail have AIDS. ``The police just caught them, and got their blood tested and declared they have AIDS,'' she said, adding that the arrested women have consistently been denied bail because of this.

Similar tales of harassment by the police were narrated by many sex workers who are in the Capital as part of an AIDS Day programme by Jan Shakti, a non-governmental organisation.

Padma (not her real name), a sex worker from Tirupati, said that she was arrested along with three others a couple of months ago because they were carrying condoms -- and therefore presumed to be AIDS virus carriers -- while 10 others were arrested and `accused of having AIDS'. They were released on bail later.

In Delhi's G.B. Road, sex workers said that most clients not only refuse to use condoms, sometimes the police are insensitive to unsafe sex. Sarika (name changed) said: ``As a result of this, we either contract the disease and spread it or we get pregnant because we are compelled to indulge in unsafe sex. After the abortions, we get weaker and also have to spend around Rs 3,000 for three months' of treatment,'' she said.

``When we refuse to have unsafe sex, a customer could go to the police post there and complain that we denied him service after receiving payment for it. The police then come to our rooms with the customer or summon us to the station and ask us why we are insisting on condoms.

``You are a randi and yet you refuse to meet your client's needs? You had better not insist on condoms,'' said one of an encounter with the beat constable. ``They then take us to the chowki and make a case against us. They ask the client to say that we took Rs 500 from him (when we may have been paid only Rs 100). Then the police keep the extra money and lock us up,'' said Sarika, who has been behind bars five or six times.

Selvi, an itinerant sex worker from Salem in Tamil Nadu, said that she always insisted on her clients using a condom. Most of the women said they would not like to undergo HIV tests. Said one woman from Delhi: ``Were I suffering from AIDS, my makan malkin won't keep me.'' Selvi felt that unless there is a support-system for AIDS sufferers, particularly after they are rejected by society, HIV tests should not be conducted.

To mark World AIDS day, the month-old Delhi AIDS Control Society of the National AIDS Control Organsation, organised a mobile health check up van through the red light area of G.B. Road. A sex worker from G.B. Road who attended the programme said that she did not know about AIDS till today and wanted to know if there could be a separate hospital for sex workers.