Declaring that the ‘basic protection of human decency and dignity extends to sex workers and their children’, a three-judge Supreme Court bench of Justices L. Nageshwar Rao, B.R. Gavai and A.S. Bopanna has made a slew of recommendations to protect these rights.
Beyond the recommendations, is the unequivocal recognition of adult sex workers as equal citizens deserving of the same rights as anyone else.
“Sex workers are treated like non humans even though they are in work that is not illegal,” said senior advocate Anand Grover who represented the Darbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC), a sex worker collective based in Kolkata. “The real story here is the recognition of their status as equal citizens and the accord of respect and dignity in ensuring them rations during Covid after ensuring they get Aadhar and ration cards.”
Mala Singh of the DBMC welcomed the order saying it would put an end to police violence at least. “Sex workers are subject to violence from goondas and the police. At least now this will end,” she said on the phone from Kolkata.
Recommendations
“The attitude of the police to sex workers is often brutal and violent,” the judges noted. “Police should treat all sex workers with dignity and should not abuse them, both verbally and physically, subject them to violence or coerce them into any sexual activity.”
The Supreme Court has issued directions to the government, police and even media.
Police cannot take criminal action against adult sex workers practicing their profession as a matter of choice. When a sex worker makes a complaint of any type of offence, including sexual assault, the police ‘must take it seriously’ and she must be provided with all the facilities available to any survivor of sexual assault, the court said.
Since sex work is not illegal, sex workers cannot be harassed or penalised when there is a raid on a brothel, states the order.
The central and state governments must involve sex workers in decision-making processes regarding policies and laws relating to sex work. Government must also conduct workshops to make sex workers aware of their rights.
The bench also called upon the Press Council of India to issue ‘appropriate guidelines’ so as to not reveal the identity of sex workers during arrests and raid and rescue operations. It reminded electronic media that voyeurism is a crime and it could not telecast photos of sex workers with their clients during rescue operations.
Crucially, the children cannot be separated from their mothers merely on the ground that she is in the sex trade.
Genesis
On the night of 17 September 1999, Budhadev Karmaskar bludgeoned a sex worker in Kolkata to death. A trial court sentenced him to life imprisonment, a verdict upheld by the high court. When the case landed before a two-judge Supreme Court bench of Justices M Katju and Gyan Sudha Mishra in 2011, the verdict was upheld.
But the judges went a step further. Sex workers, they said, have the right to live with dignity. Their problems needed to be addressed comprehensively.
It ordered the setting up of a panel with three objectives:
1. To prevent trafficking.
2. To rehabilitate sex workers who wished to leave the profession.
3. To look at conditions conducive to sex workers who wished to continue with sex work with dignity.
Within a few months in September 2011, the panel recommended that state governments issue ration cards to sex workers without insisting on proof of address or mentioning their profession in the document. Municipal corporations were asked to ensure the admission of the children of sex workers to government-recognised schools.
A question of identity
Sex workers suffer from the lack of legal status. It is difficult for them to acquire proof of identity such as ration cards and voter ID cards since they often lacked proof of residence.
This means that sex workers can’t access schemes meant for their rehabilitation.
The pandemic only exacerbated this lack of official identification. Although the government had given orders for the distribution of dry rations, this was not easily available to sex workers who had already taken a hit on livelihood during the lockdown and its aftermath.
There was one way out. Thanks to activism at the height of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, sex workers had already organised particularly in Kolkata, Bengaluru and large parts of Maharashtra. Many had registered also with the National AIDS Control Programme (NACO). “We have a history of 26 years of andolan (activism) behind us,” Mala Singh said.
Moreover, state and district legal services authorities had since 2011 been working with sex workers and transgender people for access to legal and social protection. Many sex workers themselves had trained as para-legals so that they could support the more vulnerable within the community.
In December 2021, the court directed the government to issue ration cards and voter ID cards immediately on the basis of the list maintained by NACO. But Anand Grover told the court that dry rations were still being distributed only sporadically to sex workers.
What sex workers have won so far
The government must seek concrete information from the states about alternative livelihood options offered to those sex workers who wish to quit the profession.
Schemes meant for rescued trafficking victims must include sex workers who wish to be rehabilitated.
Government is also required to provide a range of facilities for the children of sex workers including creches and day and night care centres.
But, said Mala Singh: “We are grateful for the Supreme Court order but this is only half the battle won.” Sex workers are still awaiting legislation based on the recommendations made by the Supreme Court-appointed panel. The government had assured the court it would be passed. That was back in 2016.
Weigh in: Do sex workers deserve a life of dignity? What steps should be taken to ensure this? Write to me at namita.bhandare@gmail.com
GOING PLACES:
I had written about Geetanjali Shree in the April 10 issue of this newsletter when her novel Ret Samadhi (Tomb of Sand) was shortlisted for the International Booker prize. I am happy to report that Ret Samadhi, translated into English by Daisy Rockwell, is now the first Hindi language book to win the literary world’s most prestigious award.
The novel deals with the transformative journey of a 80-year-old woman. Accepting the award, Shree called it an “elegy for the world we inhabit, a lasting energy that retains hope in the face of impending doom”.
REST IN POWER
Amreen Bhat was shot dead by unidentified militants in her village of Hushroo, deep in central Kashmir’s Budgam district on May 25. Her family suspect she was killed for her videos of Kashmiri songs, remixes, lip synched sequences and short skits. Her head was mostly covered and many videos carried the text, “Love you Ma” in honour of her mother who died 14 years ago. Pushed into work after a troubled marriage and an ailing father, Bhat was determined to change things for the better and supported her family.
WE HEAR YOU
“Why are you even in politics? Go home and cook.”
BJP Maharashtra president Chandrakant Patil dished up some casual misogyny with his remarks to NCP member of Parliament Supriya Sule. He later claimed that his remarks had been twisted and taken out of context.
India’s Parliament has only 14% women MPs.
WATCH
Since its May 23 debut, Sri Lanka-born, Paris-based Usha Jey’s dance video, What the f_ though?/Where the love go? has been breaking the internet with over 3 million views already on Instagram. The choreographer of what she calls Hybrid Bharatham blends hip-hop with Bharatanatyam. “My aim is to keep the essence of each dance and create something that does justice to who I am,” she tweeted.
Watch here.
[credit: Instagram account of @Usha_Jey]
STORIES YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED
Jail for dowry harassment
A Kerala court has held S Kiran Kumar, the husband of 22-year-old Ayurveda medical student Vismaya Nair guilty of harassing her for dowry and pushing her to die by suicide. Kumar has been sentenced to 10 years in jail and has been fined Rs 12.55 lakh.
Kumar and Vismaya were married in 2020. Her family said he was not happy with the dowry of a car, 80 gold sovereigns and land.
Before she hung herself in the bathroom, Vismaya posted photographs of her bruises and injuries caused by her husband.
Even though dowry has been illegal in India since 1961, India recorded nearly 7,000 dowry deaths for 2020, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.
Dying for love
In Baghpat, a woman and her two daughters consumed poison during a police raid at their home in Bachaud village. Both the daughters died.
The family belongs to the backward caste Lohar community. The woman’s son had eloped with a Dalit woman a fortnight ago and the police raid was conducted after the Dalit woman’s father had filed a complaint.
In Karnataka’s Wadi town in Kalaburagi, two Muslim men killed a Hindu man for being in a relationship with one of the men. Shahabuddin and Nawaz, both 19-years-old, met Vijaya Kamble on May 23 when an argument broke out during which the two men attacked and killed Kamble with a knife and an iron rod.
Women log out due to hybrid work culture
Hybrid work culture is driving even more women out of the workforce, reports Devina Sengupta in Mint. Primary reasons include the lack of childcare infrastructure in offices and pressure from schools for a dedicated focus on the child’s education. Companies that offer hybrid work also expect employees to be available 24×7. Employment among urban women fell by 10%, against a 2% increase for urban men, from January to April 2022, according the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy.
AROUND THE WORLD
Does this make sense to you?
The deadliest U.S. school shooting in a decade by an 18-year-old shooter at a rural elementary school in Uvalde, Texas has left 19 children and two teachers dead.
With 400 million guns in circulation in 2018, America has more guns than its 331 million people.
In 2020, 45,222 Americans died of gunshot injuries, representing a 25% increase over five years. Of these 24,292 were deaths by suicide.
Nearly 80% of all homicides were carried out with guns, more than any other country in the world.
There were 345 ‘active shooter incidents’ between 2000 and 2020, resulting in 1,024 deaths. The deadliest such attack took place in 2017 in Las Vegas and killed 50 people and left 500 injured.
Active shooter incidents have gone up from three in 2000 to 40 in 2020.
There were 288 school shootings between 2009 and 2018. That’s 280 more than the next leading country, Mexico.
Just over half, 52% of Americans want stricter gun control laws; amongst Republicans only 24%.
In Afghanistan, children stare at starvation
In Afghanistan, 1.1 million children under the age of 5 will likely face the most severe form of malnutrition this year according to the United Nations. The U.N. and other aid agencies, reports Associated Press, were able to stave off outright famine after the Taliban takeover last year. But poverty is spiraling, food prices are mounting, and more and more Afghans are in need of aid.
Wimbledon inches towards 2022
The honours board at Wimbledon will, for the first time since the tournament began in 1877, be dropping the use of titles, Miss or Mrs, for women winners, reports The Times. Men are recorded with just their first initial and full last name (R. Federer) but women are referred to along with their titles.
Who’s Mrs. J.M. Lloyd? I’ll give you the answer next week!
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| That’s it for this week. If you have a tip or information on gender-related developments that you would like to share write to me at: namita.bhandare@gmail.com. |