Sex workers seen walking with a placard during the rally. Sex Workers of Sonagachi Kolkata, the largest Red light area of South East Asia took part in a Torch rally with a demand of dignity, labor right & social protection on the eve of International Labor Day on 30. April 2019. Photo Credit: SOPA Images via Getty Images
Society IndiaSex Workers Have Rights, Rules Top Court
The highest court in India urges authorities to grant rights to sex workers, helping thousands of women and transgender people to live better lives and gain long-awaited recognition.
“It is great achievement providing citizenry identity to sex workers,” says Biplab Mukheerjee, an adviser for the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee. “This involves years of struggle and decades of suffering of hundreds of thousands of sex workers in this country.”
Indeed, the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, a collective of sex workers, first filed a petition ten years ago to get its 130,000 registered members protection under the Indian Constitution. Its plea has been heard, and the Supreme Court states that governments should enroll sex workers in Aadhaar, the biometric system that grants access to welfare benefits and voting, among other things. Prostitution is legal in India, and the country has around 900,000 sex workers.
