HUBLI, 2 September, 2007 — Manjula (name changed) was entrusted with an important job. Being a sex worker she was involved with a local NGO as a peer educator’ to identify hidden sex workers and educate them on HIV/AIDS. However, on June 13, as she was counselling some sex workers on health issues at the old bus stand in Hubli, a police constable approached the group and began assaulting Manjula.
The constable, in a fit of rage, beat her with his lathi and she sustained fractures and swelling on her back and legs. She was admitted to KIMS for 3 days in the casualty ward. More
Manjula’s case is just a drop in the ocean of the police apathy that the sex workers community is subjected to. This extends from an inhumane interpretation of the law to downright illegal exploitation of sex workers.Anecdotes of physical abuse, slander and extortion by the police abound.
There have been instances where police officials wait till the client has approached the sex worker so that money can be extorted from both.
According to a lawyer dealing with trafficking cases, around 10 cases are filed under the Immoral Traffic Prevention (ITP) Act, 1956 every month in Hubli-Dharwad.Almost none of these cases have been filed against brothel keepers or lodge owners.
This is in direct contravention to a circular issued by the Karnataka Director General and Inspector General of Police on November 22, 2005.
It states ‘police action should be primarily against the traffickers of human beings, exploiters, pimps, brothel keepers, those living on the earnings of sex workers, etc and not against the sex worker, women who are victims of the trafficking pimps.’
The circular also notes ‘booking of a sex worker is tantamount to revictimising the woman when she is already a victim of exploitation. It is, therefore instructed that henceforth no woman sex worker should be booked under the ITP Act unless the women in question is a ‘Madam’ or a brothel keeper.’
Says Rajendra Prasad, who heads a local NGO,
“The net effect of police harassment is that the sex workers tend to go underground. This makes the task of agencies doubly difficult as it becomes impossible to track them.”Dharwad district, according to a recent survey, has the highest HIV prevalence rate of 6 per cent in the country.
However, some effort has been taken on to sensitise police officials to the problems of the sex workers community. But the lack of participation by senior officials have been glaring.
Police participation in the District AIDS Committee meetings have also been fickle. At a meeting held 5 months back, the police representative promised to look into issuing ID cards for ‘peer educators’.
The subsequent meetings did not see any further representation from them and the ID cards have been promptly forgotten.
Source: Newindpress – Chennai,Tamil Nadu,India