Red light area residents not in poll loop

Red light area residents not in poll loop

ExpressIndia.com
Pune, March 18, 2009 – Democracy does not really come easy for the sizeable segment of nearly 5,000 sex workers in Budhwarpeth, the biggest red light area of the city. Volunteers of various NGOs had helped several commercial sex workers in the 2004 elections to enrol themselves but five years later the situation has not improved much. If the ration card is one of the documents accepted by the government as proof of residence, then only 150 of these sex workers were issued ration cards in the last three years. Nirmala, a brothel-owner who hails from Andhra Pradesh and has settled in Pune eight years ago, still does not have her ration card. At a meeting of some 20-odd brothel-owners held at Dani Galli on Tuesday, featuring high priority was the issue of sex workers enlisted as voters.

It was in 2004 that a huge drive was taken up by local NGOs like Saheli and others to enlist the sex workers as voters and a charter of demands including ration cards, water supply, clearance of garbage put up.

However, the campaign has slackened, admitted Tejaswi Sevekari of Saheli. “We have helped several women procure basic documents, and even a bank passbook,’’ said Sevekari who also pointed out that ration cards are no longer being issued to Nepali and Bangladeshi women even if they are settled in the city for 10 years.

Seema Waghmode, project coordinator of Kayakalp, another NGO working in the field of creating awareness about HIV among prostitutes, had convened the meeting of brothel-owners. She admitted that while many did manage to get voting rights in the previous elections there has been little follow-up during this election season.

Meenakshi Navale, project coordinator of Vanchit Vikas, the NGO that has helped various women groups enlist as voters, said most of them keep changing their names and move to other parts of the city. Asim Sarode, a human rights activist and director of Human Rights and Defenders, pointed out that there was a united effort among NGOs to create awareness among the sex workers about their political rights. Sadly however, they have not got benefits and somehow feel reluctant in participating, he said.

Most NGOs agreed that the campaign launched in 2004 to enlist sex workers as voters had lost steam and with barely 20 per cent of them registered as voters; a campaign for this needed to be undertaken yet again.

Source: ExpressIndia.com