SOCIETY

Kolkata sex workers demand right to work

     Kolkata: Around three thousand sex workers from across West Bengal took out a protest demonstration in the state capital Kolkata to show their disapproval to the proposed amendment to the Immoral Trafficking Prevention (ITP) Act. The sex workers, including women, men and transgender, took part in the rally organised by a women's organisation, Durbar Mahilla Samannay Samity (DMSS), demanding rollback of the proposed amendment which, they say, would harm their interests. Protestors said that the new amendments would prevent any house owner to rent their space to anybody who would use that for flesh trade. They feel that if sex-workers are not allowed to hire a place to run their business, it means they are jobless. The proposal also says that anyone more than 18 years of age will not be allowed to be dependent on a sex worker. Sex workers feel this new law will actually force their children to take up the same flesh trade because in that case a sex worker's child would not get scope to finish his or her study. Participants furious over the government's move to amend the existing Immoral Trafficking Prevention (ITP) Act 1965, which will allow a six-month jail and hefty penalty on those visiting brothels, raised the issue that who would take care of their elderly parents. Under the existing law, there is no punishment for the client. DMSS secretary Swapna Gayen said that sex workers should be allowed their rights as workers. "Our demand is that the new amendments that are going to be made in the law, the provisions in it will create a lot of problems for the sex workers. We want that the ITPA (Immoral Traffic Prevention Act) amendments should be rolled back. As sex workers we do work, so should have our rights too," she said. Though prostitution is illegal in India, all major cities have "red light areas" where prostitutes can be hired for as little as two dollars.

     Most women with no social backup face extreme violence and exploitation by the middlemen and police, who use them as easy extortion targets and their children, refused admission into schools and denied jobs fall prey to drugs and the girls are forced to follow their mothers. Besides, the Section 20 provides a magistrate with powers to order the removal of a prostitute from any place within his jurisdiction, if he deems it necessary to the general interest of the public. Women's rights groups have been demanding a legislation to ensure labour status for the prostitutes for over nearly a decade, but to no avail. Recently, they had also gheroed the Parliament. Estimates by voluntary groups show at least 600,000 minors are also employed in the profession and their number is said to be increasing by almost 10 percent every year.
-April 5, 2006

Previous File