Neha (name changed), 33, proudly showcased a handmade laptop bag and said, “I make these in the brothel and I also make small pouches, but only in the time I find after sex work”. She has been living in the lanes of Budhwar Peth for over 15 years now after she migrated to Pune from Kolkata. But every now and then somebody advises her to quit her work and find another way to earn a living.
“But why should I? Sex work is work. It’s a choice I made. What is so wrong with this that I should look for something else? It’s you who need to learn to give me the respect I deserve,” she said.
Ahead of polling, the national network of sex workers, Maharashtra, has released a manifesto to put forth the demands of CSWs. It includes special drives to provide ration cards for CSWs. They also want a pension scheme to ensure that CSWs above 50 years of age get a pension of at least Rs 3,000 per month.
To be treated with dignity is only one of the many basic rights that Neha along with all commercial sex workers (CSWs) have been deprived of year after year and election after election. This is even though in the Budhadev Karmaskar v State of West Bengal, the Supreme Court held that sex workers have a right to dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution. But the stigma still persists and they are also deprived of access to ration, housing and healthcare due to lack of identity verification documents.
On January 10, 2022, the SC had asked states and UTs to complete the process of issuing ration cards and voter cards to all sex workers. Yet, when CSWs try to avail ration cards, Neha says they are rebuked with statements like, “This ration card is not for those from Budhwar Peth”. After that it all boils down to lack of an address proof.
Most CSWs are migrants from other parts of the country. They end up in Pune without any documents and can’t go back to their village. Once here, they live in a brothel which means there will be no rent agreement. So even after living in the city for years, there will be no proof of them being residents.
Aasha (name changed), 47, has lived in Pune for half her life. But when she tried to avail the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, she couldn’t produce a domicile certificate and hence was considered ineligible for it. CSWs also can’t produce documents like income proof as it is unorganised work. About availing ration cards, she says, “Ration card is a basic need that everyone should get. Why do we need so many documents for it and from where do we get these documents?”
Neha said, “Once we turn 50, we can’t earn money through sex work. Our families don’t take us back and we have no one else to support us. So we should at least get enough pension to afford food and medical facilities. When we go to hospitals, we need money for treatment, from where should we get that money? Other women have so many facilities that we never see”.
The manifesto also states: Implement a general health programme beyond just reproductive health programmes for CSWs. Be sensitive to the health needs of women of all ages and prioritise scientific healthcare. Increase the coverage and effectiveness of preventive and curative services for malnutrition and leukaemia as the numbers are increasing.
Another CSW says that doctors and other staff in the hospitals don’t even touch them when they visit for any treatment. Neha says, “I took a friend’s daughter to the hospital when she got pneumonia. The minute they heard Budhwar Peth, everyone made faces and doctors started asking inappropriate questions. I fought with them and asked are we not people? But after all of this, my friend’s daughter was too scared to get admitted at the hospital”.
Apart from all of this at hospitals and at schools, lack of documents for children of sex workers means hindrance in getting admission. “Birth certificate is compulsory now for school admission, earlier a certificate verifying age of the child was enough. We also have to put the father’s name, as the app doesn’t accept the form without it,” said Asha.
The manifesto also wants implementation of the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in the case of Budhadev Karmaskar vs West Bengal which include providing equal rights under law in case of sexual assault.
“When we go to file a complaint they say ‘but you are a sex worker, you do this everyday, how can you be a victim of rape? They rather threaten us and ask for money,” said Neha. She says in a recent incident, the police refused to take any action against a man accused of domestic violence as the sex worker didn’t have a marriage certificate.
Amidst all of this, Asha says, “People come and ask who will I vote for? But no matter who comes to power, we are on our own. If I vote for party A, they are not giving us anything. If I vote for party B they are not going to take care of us. By the end of the day, we survive on our own”
Yet, a lot of CSWs from Budhwar Peth will be voting for the first time this election season. From August 2023, Saheli Sangh, a community-based Female Sex Workers Collective conducted camps to get voter IDs made. Sharmala Pawar, project coordinator said, “There were issues like lack of documents and different names on Aadhaar and PAN cards. A lot of them change their identity or names of their partners when they move here from somewhere else. So we had to solve all those problems before getting through with the procedure”. Pawar says they got over 1000 voter IDs made.
Most CSWs are migrants from other parts of the country. They end up in Pune without any documents and can’t go back to their village. (Representational Image) 
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