India's hijras spread safe sex message in life or death AIDS fight

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gk8K-1gfKKEDby7Lh4yN8H2dVAlQ
11/28/2008

MADANAYAKANA HALLI, India (AFP) — Savitha was born a boy but became a girl at the age of 16. Nine years on, she sells cheap sex to lorry drivers at a dusty truck stop outside the southern Indian city of Bangalore.

As one of the hijra community -- the cross-dressers, pre- and post-operative transsexuals known here as eunuchs -- she is used to the prejudice and discrimination that comes with being bottom of India's rigid social ladder.

But she and others like her who sell their bodies, sometimes for less than the cost of a packet of cigarettes, are helping India's fight against HIV-AIDS.