On November 26, the Maharashtra government decided to provide financial assistance and 5-kg ration to 5,600 female sex workers every month. As per a government resolution, this aid will be given from October 2020 to December 2020.
Each sex worker will receive ₹5,000 per month along with three kg of wheat and two kg of rice. Children of sex workers who go to school will receive 2,500 per month to support their online education.
This came into effect after the Supreme Court, on September 29, directed all states to provide dry ration to sex workers without insisting on proof of identity. The court asked the states to not only provide ration to those sex workers who had approached them but also to make efforts and reach out to more workers.
Maharashtra became the first state in October to issue a government resolution to this effect.
Yashomati Thakur, Women and Child Development (WCD) Minister of Maharashtra said that the state government will be spending over ₹50 crores towards the scheme. A special allowance will also be extended towards sex workers who have school-going children.
The state WCD department has so far prepared a list of 5,600 sex workers and their 1,592 children in Mumbai with the help of Mumbai District Aids Control Society (MDACS). However, many NGOs have pointed that a larger share of sex workers – including some with no proof of identity like ration card, Aadhaar card or bank account – are missing from government’s list of beneficiaries to get the financial aid.
Mumbai’s vast community of sex workers are one of the worst-hit by the pandemic. Physical distancing norms have forced their business to shut. Hence, in September, Durbar Mahila Samanvay Committee, a collective of sex workers, had approached the Supreme Court highlighting that the community was facing a shortage of food and shelter as well as the financial crisis.
Meanwhile, Mumbai reported 1,147 new coronavirus positive cases on November 26, which took its overall case count to 2,79,737. This is for the second day in a row the city has recorded over 1,100 cases in a 24-hour period. The death toll due to the virus has now mounted to 10,739 with 16 fresh fatalities reported from the city. Maharashtra's COVID-19 case count on November 26 crossed 18 lakh to reach 18,02,365 as 6,406 new infections came to light. The state also reported 65 deaths, taking the death toll due to the pandemic to 46,813.
Share
Tweet
