An Experiment with Approaches to Interview Hard to Access Respondents: A Study of Male Clients of FSWs in Mumbai, India

Sudipta Mondal, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Rajendra Singh, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Shrikant Singh, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Ravi K. Verma, Population Council

Scarcity of studies on 'actual' male clients of Female Sex Workers (FSWs) can mainly be attributed to the invisibility and inaccessibility of clients to researchers. Even when they are visible as the clients of brothel based FSWs, reaching them and winning their confidence for interview is really difficult. There are only few approaches tried out in different studies. Most of these in India are based on networks developed through FSWs/ ‘gharwalis’ or NGOs. The present paper deals with the critical assessment of various non-conventional approaches to reach the clients of FSWs such as 'individual follow-up', 'link with LKIs', 'mystery peer', 'mock chit-chat', etc. and examine their relative efficacy in terms of refusal rate, rapport development, reliability, ethical strength, financial constraints and operational convenience. The study has noted that ‘mock chit-chat between two investigators’ is the best way to rope in the clients for any program or intervention in the field.