JOIN USProvide ration to Covid-impacted sex workers: HC to Assam's Cachar district
The Gauhati High Court has directed the administration of South Assam's Cachar district to immediately provide ration items to sex workers in Silchar, who are struggling to meet their basic needs due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
A bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and justice Manash Ranjan Pathak issued the direction on Friday after hearing a PIL filed by Debajit Gupta of Silchar, who complained that sex workers and their family members in the town were almost starving following the Covid-19 second wave.
Silchar has a red light area where several sex workers operate but their income has been severely impacted due to the restrictions put in to contain Covid-19.
"We hereby pass an interim mandamus directing the Deputy Commissioner, Cachar as well as the Secretary, District Legal Services Authority, Cachar to immediately provide ration to these families. We have been informed that Deputy Commissioner, Cachar has already identified these sex workers and their families, since a project is being run under the Deputy Commissioner, by the National AIDS Control Organization. Since it is an urgent situation, let the above ration be provided to them immediately," the HC said.
Assam government has imposed a curfew from 12 noon to 5 am till June 5 in view of more than 5,000 new Covid-19 cases and 80 to 90 deaths daily since May 5. The state at present has over 53,000 active cases.
The petitioner also submitted in the high court about a directive given by the Supreme Court on September 29 last year, in which the apex court issued an order for providing relief to sex workers. The order was issued following a petition filed in connection with a pitiable condition of sex workers in West Bengal due to the impact of Covid-19 last year.