Several Pune women return monetary relief meant for CSWs
Several women on Friday in Pune, Maharashtra who got Rs. 15,000 meant as relief for commercial sex workers amid the coronavirus outbreak, approached district authorities to return the amount. The Supreme Court, in September last year, directed states to provide dry rations to sex workers identified by the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) and Legal Services authorities without insisting on any proof of identity.
Some unscrupulous people took advantage of illiterate women
Accordingly, the Pune district administration had recently offered assistance of Rs. 15,000 each for the months of October, November, and December to over 5,000 CSWs through direct transfer of benefits. Members of a social organization said the irregularity took place as some unscrupulous people approached women living in the Hadapsar area, several of them illiterate, and got forms filled to claim relief.
These men then demanded a 50 percent cut from them
The unsuspecting women had filled up the forms and gave their documents. Around 20 received the amount in their accounts recently. "After this, the people who had got them to fill up the forms approached them demanding a 50 percent cut from the relief amount," said Nitin Pawar, Hamal Panchayat convener, and social worker.
Later found that money was meant for commercial sex workers
"After these women found that the money credited into their accounts was relief meant for commercial sex workers, they, along with functionaries of social welfare outfits, approached the district administration," Pawar said.
Concerned groups have demanded a probe
Tejaswi Sevekari, executive director, Saheli Sangh, a collective of sex workers in Pune, said the Akhil Bhartiya Bahujan Sena, National Network of Sex Workers, and Saheli Sangh had given memorandums to authorities seeking a probe in the incident. When contacted, District Collector Rajesh Deshmukh said a report has been sought in the matter by the administration.
