Identify sex workers in metros willing to quit: SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the government to identify sex workers willing to give up the trade in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai and suggest mode and manner of imparting vocational training to enable them earn a dignified livelihood.

A bench of Justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Misra also set up a panel headed by senior advocate Pradeep Ghosh and asked the Centre and state governments to conduct a survey and report to the panel, which will then suggest and assist the court in passing appropriate orders.

Other members of the panel are senior advocate Jayant Bhushan, Usha Multi-purpose Cooperative Society through its president and Delhi-based NGO 'Rohini' through Salma Hasan.

The panel was set up to assist the court after the bench learnt that neither the Centre nor the states had filed an affidavit in response to its February 14 order asking them to suggest schemes to impart vocational training to sex workers, who number between 7-12 lakh.

The Union health ministry says there are 6,88,751 "registered" sex workers, while National Aids Control Authority ( NACO) estimates their population at 12.63 lakh. Andhra Pradesh has more than one lakh registered sex workers while Karnataka has 79,000. They are followed by Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and West Bengal. Among the metros, Delhi leads the list with 37,900 sex workers.

The bench asked the governments to file their affidavits in two weeks, posted further hearing on August 2 and said it would give directions to the Centre and states from time to time based on the panel's recommendations.

"Since this is a continuing mandamus, to begin with, we will focus on the metropolitan cities of India, namely, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai as this problem of sex workers is more acute and on a much larger scales in these metropolitan cites. However, this does not mean that we will not take up other cities into consideration," it said.

The court said it was taking up the exercise to give a chance to sex workers to live a life with dignity, a right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.

"It is only if a sex worker is able to earn a livelihood through technical skills rather than by selling her body that she can live with dignity, and that is why we have requested all the states and the Union of India to submit schemes for giving technical training to these sex workers," it said.

The SC order for survey of sex workers followed senior advocate Anand Grover's suggestion for ascertaining how many sex workers wanted rehabilitation and the type of vocational training.

The court on February 14 had said, "A woman is compelled to indulge in prostitution not for pleasure but because of abject poverty. If such a woman is granted opportunity to avail some technical or vocational training, she would be able to earn her livelihood by such vocational training and skill instead of selling her body."

It had directed the governments to prepare schemes for giving technical or vocational training to sex workers and sexually abused women and ensure that goods produced by vocationally trained sex workers had a market.

The order came on a petition filed by one Budhadev Karmakar who was convicted and sentenced for killing a sex worker in Kolkata on September 17, 1999.