NEW DELHI: The NHRC sought a compliance report from the Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal, and others to submit a detailed report on the implementation of recommendations made by the NHRC survey for women.
The survey dealt with work, rehabilitation, poverty eradication, and employment generation for women in Kolkata and its surrounding, North-24 Parganas and South-24 Parganas districts.
The NHRC while monitoring a case on the plight and sufferings of the Asia’s largest red-light area passed the order and sought for reply within six weeks. The case was filed by Supreme Court advocate and noted human rights activist, Radhakanta Tripathy in 2018, wherein a series of directions have been issued and a survey by Calcutta University was conducted.
The NHRC took the inaction and failure of the State seriously as the final action taken cum status report on the implementation of directions in the survey work of the Sonagachi area etc, is still awaited. Regrettably, no status report has been received as of date despite granting additional time to file a reply.
Tripathy has successfully brought a ray of hope in case of the Delhi redlight area by ensuring a Policy on Sex workers through his petition in NHRC. He stated that the continued sufferings of women due to rape/sexual abuse and human trafficking at Sonagachi, Kolkata is due to the negligence and inaction of the State.
Pursuant to the direction of the Commission, Govt. of West Bengal has finished the research study with the help of University of Calcutta with a series of recommendations. The NHRC asked the Chief Secretary, to implement the recommendation given their social, medical and legal needs and submit further compliance reports within eight weeks.
The report prepared under the leadership of Professor Dr. Lipi Ghosh, Ex-Director, Women's Studies Research Centre, University of Calcutta, inter-alia, reveals that out of the 500 samples, about 70% of the sex workers are residents of Kolkata and surrounding districts.
Out of these 500, 60 workers were trafficked, 16 were brought on false promise for jobs, and 325 were working due to their poverty. Only, 29 are working on their willingness, while 101 have shown an unwillingness to join the sex work. Most of them are earning merely 10-20 thousand per month, and have no property etc.
The data mentioned in the report may be utilised by the authorities of the Government of West Bengal for the welfare of these poor women, as well as to protect the unwilling women from sex work, who have been/ are being compelled to live their life by compromising their dignity.
The Centre conducted a Social and Medico-Legal Study with aim at understanding and identifying their basic needs of the sex workers of the area i.e., their social, medical and legal needs. Also, within the parameter of social needs, the project also looked into the aspect of skill development. It specifically attempted to understand the response and attitude of the sex workers towards any prospective development-oriented future projects.