Desire for high lifestyle driving educated girls to sex trade:SC

The Supreme Court today said even highly-educated girls from very good families are stepping into sex trade "driven with 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.