Work for society,budding lawyers urged

French lawyer Elizabeth Aolinge urged law students to work in social fields rather than being lured by fat-paying corporate jobs.

French lawyer Elizabeth Aolinge urged law students to work in social fields rather than being lured by fat-paying corporate jobs. Aolinge,who has worked on a thesis about socio-economic conditions of sex workers in India,interacted with law students in the city recently.

Soumi Banerji,a second year student of ILS Law College said,”Her talk made me aware that if I were to work in the field of human rights,I am bound to face opposition from bureaucracy as the government provides no backing for human rights activists.”

In her speech,Elizabeth drew parallels between laws relating to prostitution in France and India. “While prostitution is legalised in France,soliciting it is illegal. In India,its neither legal nor illegal. It is like within closed doors with the government taking no stand, she said. Under both circumstances,socio-economic progress of commercial sex workers is difficult unless they themselves unite and fight for themselves,she added. Aolinge,who had worked in Pune’s red light area three years ago,observed that most voluntary organisations in the area work on project-basis. This creates a divide among commercial sex workers as only some CSWs are part of one project. Unless there is a common welfare project for all the CSWs here,their growth will be limited to the projects, she said. The interaction was organised by Human Rights and Law Defenders (HRLD).

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