Lockdown has hit Sex Workers very hard, here is how you can help
Outbreak of COVID 19 has changed our life entirely. People all across the world are fighting with this pandemic. It has brought our lives on a standstill. COVID 19 is not only the health emergency, but a financial emergency too. India is currently undergoing a 21 day lockdown. Amid this lockdown, a lot of people have lost their jobs, especially people who earn on a daily basis. Visuals from Delhi and other metro cities were heartbreaking. People were seen walking miles to go back to their hometowns because they didn’t have money & food.
A lot of videos went viral where people were not getting food. After then, Indian government came into action. NGOs, community groups too came forward to offer a helping hand. But there is one more section of society which is suffering a lot due to this lockdown. Sex workers all across the country are facing a tough time. They are running out of food and can’t go to hunger relief shelter as society doesn’t accept them.
Talking about basic hygiene and social distancing, four people are living together in a small cubicle. We talked to one of the sex worker Payal ( name changed) she said, “We haven’t seen such a time in our entire life. There are no customers, we are running out of money. Here our kids are also living.Government has organised hunger relief shelter but when we go out people treat us as untouchables. We don’t have sanitizers and masks. Most of the owners of brothels left when the lockdown was announced. “
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Around 80 brothels house close to 3,000 sex workers in multi-storeyed dingy buildings located in the busy market area of GB Road. The busy and chaotic roads are in silence these days. One more sex worker added, “Few sex workers went back to their families with the help of people who were running brothels. Who couldn’t go are suffering. ”
Few of them said, “Government, NGO and some police personnels are helping but it is reaching to very few.”
Well, we all are stand it together to fight with this pandemic & doing our bit by donating. In that case, you can offer help to them too. But we would request you to do through a verified source.
We found one NGO which is working to provide help to sex workers:
Citizen for Justice and Peace. They are raising funds to help sex workers. cjp.org.in
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