The Supreme Court today said highly-educated girls from very good families are stepping into the sex trade "driven with the desire of high lifestyle" and asked the government to spell out its rehabilitation programme for sex workers. "We find girls from very good families even at the university level education entering the profession driven with desire of high lifestyle and going to the malls every second day. If they join it (trade) voluntarily,what do you have for them"? the apex court said. A bench of justices Altamas Kabir and Gyan Sudha Mishra asked the question to advocate Pradeep Ghosh,earlier appointed along with another counsel Jayant Bhushan,to head a special panel to look into the rehabilitation and other measures for sex workers in the country. The apex court directed Additional Solicitor General P P Malhotra to ensure that within three weeks,a suitable accommodation was provided in the Law Commission office for the committee to carry out its tasks. The bench,during the hearing,also said it would like to regularly monitor the rehabilitation measures by the Centre and states so that the whole exercise does not become an "eye wash." "We regularly have conferences and seminars on these issues. But the matter ends there. There are no concrete measures. We want to make sure that something is being done. It must satisfy our conscience. It should not be a mere eyewash," the bench said. The apex court said the National Legal Services Authority and the State Legal Services Authority shall also be involved in taking up the rehabilitation measures for sex workers. The bench said since there are reports that Delhi government wants to close down 9 care/shelter homes,it can instead be utilised for taking up rehabilitation work of the workers. An earlier bench of justices Markandeya Katju (since retd) and Gyan Sudha Mishra had asked the Centre and states to consider the idea of providing ration cards and voter identity cards to sex workers without insisting on strict verification like seeking their professional status. The bench had passed the order while accepting the third report of a panel constituted by it to suggest measures for recommending rehabilitation of sex workers. "Sex workers face great difficulty in getting ration cards,voter's identity cards or in opening bank accounts. We are of the opinion that the authorities should see to it that sex workers do not face these difficulties as they are also citizens of India and have the same fundamental rights as others. "We,therefore,recommend that the suggestions made by the panel in its third interim report shall be seriously taken into consideration by the central government,state governments and other authorities and hence all efforts shall be made to implement these suggestions expeditiously," the bench had said. The apex court had also said sex workers too had a Constitutional right under Article 21 to "live with dignity."
