Anxious over SIR, sex workers in Kolkata's Sonagachi hold meeting before moving EC

Kolkata: Amid the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls in West Bengal, sex workers in Kolkata's Sonagachi area, one of the largest red light districts in Asia, held a preliminary meeting among themselves to know what official documents they possess to take part in the enumeration exercise, as a large number of them lack papers.

Of the 8,000-odd sex workers of Sonagachi, many have no connection with their parents for decades and are not in a position to get documents from them. Newcomers also do not have their names on the voter list.

Organisations working for the sex workers are now planning to move the Election Commission to inform it of their situation and held an internal meeting on Thursday.

Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, an NGO that works for sex workers, said that the issue is complicated.

The process of issuing voter IDs to sex workers in Sonagachi began in 2002, and the same year’s voters list is used as the base of this SIR, said Durbar’s Secretary Bisakha Laskar.

"Many newcomers are not on the voter list. Many have been estranged from their families for years, making it difficult for them to find documents. It is impossible for many to know their family’s polling booth," Laskar told PTI when contacted.

So, where will they get the necessary documentation from, she questioned.

Besides, not all here are citizens of India, Laskar said.

"That is why we are planning to write to the EC to inform them of our problems," she said.

But before that, the situation of each sex worker of Sonagachi has to be ascertained.

"We visit every room and building here and talk to the sex workers in this context to get their opinion. Then we will decide when to move to the poll panel," said Bharati Dey, ex-president of Usha Multipurpose Cooperative Society, which also works for sex workers.

The room visit and the internal meeting has begun on Thursday.

Sex worker Lipika, who left her home in Canning in South 24 Parganas district at a young age in search of work, eventually found herself in Sonagachi.

"I have had no ties to my birthplace for decades. I, like many of us here, have no official document to show under the SIR process. I don’t know what to do… I am worried,” she told PTI.

Padma Majumdar, another sex worker, said she fears losing her voting rights and eventually ending up in a detention centre.

"I do not have any knowledge of where to find the record of my parents or my ancestors. I come to Sonagachi every day from another place near Kolkata, where I have been staying for the last 30 years. I do not know what will happen," Majumdar said.

'Amra Padatik', a community-based organisation formed by the children of sex workers in West Bengal, to work for their rights and development, was also part of the initiative to formulate the next course of action, advocacy officer Mahasweta Mukherjee said.

"We are worried that even after the 2022 verdict of the Supreme Court, we have to struggle for our identities and our rights," she told PTI.

The apex court in 2022 said that prostitution is a profession and sex workers are entitled to dignity and equal protection under the law.

Talking to PTI, 'Amra Padatik' Secretary Ratan Dalui, son of a sex worker in Sonagachi, echoed what Dey and Mukherjee said.

"I have been fighting for my rights and for the rights of my mother and others. We are thinking of moving the EC," Dalui said.