Insurance victory for Indian prostitutes
Wed Apr 30, 2008 4:05pm IST

By Sujoy Dhar

KOLKATA (Reuters Life!) - Bharati Dey, a former prostitute, has been granted a life insurance cover which she says is a step forward in her campaign to legalise the profession in India.

Once practising her trade in the run-down quarters of Kolkata's Sonagachi, one of Asia's largest red light districts, she is now a proud holder of a policy from India's largest state-owned life insurance company.

"The policy won't change much in our life, but this small step is a giant leap forward in our struggle for legal recognition of sex work," said Dey.

"We live in a no-man's land in India where we are harassed by cops and rowdies," added the 45-year-old.

Prostitution is still illegal in India, although it is a thriving underground industry. Voluntary groups estimate that there are about 2 million female sex workers, most of them trafficked or forced into the work by poverty.

Over the last month around 250 sex workers in the city have been given life insurance policies by the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India. Prostitutes say it is a breakthrough in their efforts to get legal recognition for their work.

Without many official documents, prostitutes are rarely able to open accounts in banks or join the financial mainstream.

Dey is a member of the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (Indomitable Women's Coordination Committee), a forum of 65,000 sex workers in West Bengal.

The committee was set up in 1995 to campaign for safe sex and the legalisation of prostitution.

Activists say legalisation could help bring prostitutes into the mainstream and help them fight poverty and discrimination.

"We are fighting for legalisation of sex work for over a decade. There are debates and a flurry of misleading promises. But this is the first time that a government company as big as LIC has recognised us as professionals," said Dey.

The policies, which are spreading to sex workers outside Kolkata, are not the only advance for women in the industry. In Mumbai, a bank run by sex workers was set up to help prostitutes escape poverty that keeps them indebted to brothel owners.

Started by a handful of sex workers in Kamathipura, Mumbai's red light district, it now has hundreds of clients.

Mamata Nandy, 35, a sex worker and a policy holder, said recognition by a company like LIC would only strengthen the fight against AIDS and the women's demand for legalisation.

"I had a policy before but that was after hiding my profession," she said.

"I never entertain any client without a condom. If we could behave responsibly and help in the fight against deadly viruses, why can't we be recognised as workers?" she said.

http://in.reuters.com/

I might be the minority here with this point of view, but I believe that prostitution should be legalized and sex workers need to be protected and be granted the same rights as anyone else. Believe it not, escorts here in America do get checked on a regular basis and might be "cleaner" than the average person.

The only problem I have is when people are letting children into the sex industry. Sex workers should be consenting adults.

ooooh i cant wait till manisha koirala does a movie on this! im SO gonna watch it. anybody seen 'market'? i think the best depiction of indian sex workers is 'chandni bar'. tabu is such a great actress.

The the article is stating the same thing, that the prostitution should be legalized. Sex workers are demanding to legalize their profession for a long time, but I don't know what is stopping the lawmakers all these years. Maybe morality because in India people don't talk or acknowledge things about sex and prostitution openly, though there are red light districts in all of India's major cities. There is a silent acknowledgment like yes we are aware of it that prostitution exists, we see and do all types of bad things but we are afraid to talk about it. There is lot of hypocrisy involved, on the part of society and politicians. But as this article states that there is some positive development that the sex workers got insurance policies from LIC (Life Insurance Corporation of India). I don't know whether you're aware of it, LIC is the largest insurance corporation in India, and it is fully owned by the government if India. So the development is very positive in that there is some acknowledgment by the government to the fact that the sex workers exist and they really need help. There is some hope that prostitution business would be legalized in India and things would be better for the people involved in it.

Morality and religion is the same reason why prostitution isn't legal here either (except in one state). And, I think some people find it a demeaning profession.

is that your picture in the avatar??