The Supreme Court has issued a directive that says that sex workers should be issued Aadhaar cards. The top court observed that every person has a fundamental right to be treated with dignity irrespective of their professional activity.
- Petition on issues faced by Sex Workers: The apex court, hearing a plea on the problems faced by sex workers due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The court has been passing orders for their welfare and on September 29 last year, had asked the Centre and others to provide dry ration to them without insisting on their identity proof. The court also said that there should be no breach of confidentiality of sex workers and their identity should not be revealed. The verdict was passed by a bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao.
- Right of equality extended: The decision has come as a major boost to empower sex workers and maintain equality.
- Identification drive of sex workers: The Supreme Court had directed states and Union Territories to continue the process of identification of the sex workers who don’t have any identity proof and are denied ration.
- Not just a lip service in identification: The State Governments shall take support of the Community Based Organisation and not merely rely on the lists prepared by NACO for the purpose of implementing the earlier directions issued by this Court. Apart from ration cards, the State Governments shall also take steps to issue voter ID cards to the sex workers identified by NACO and Community Based Organisations after verification of the lists,” the apex court had earlier said. The bench had directed that authorities can take the assistance of NACO and state AIDS control societies which, in turn, will prepare a list of sex workers after verifying the information provided to them by the community-based organisations.
“Aadhaar cards shall be issued to sex workers on the basis of a proforma certificate issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and submitted by a gazetted officer at the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) or the project director of State AIDS Control Society along with the enrolment form,” PTI quoted from the bench comprising Justices B R Gavai and A S Bopanna.
“This should not be a symbolic exercise. The authorities should implement the Supreme Court decision on the ground with seriousness and objectivity. If the authorities are able to bridge the accessibility gap between people and sex worker community for welfare schemes, then only this idea of giving them Aadhaar cards is important,” Yogesh Pawar, a senior journalist, who works on the subject of sex workers, told Mirror Now.
While passing the order, the bench observed that “every person has the right to be treated with dignity irrespective of activity. This should be kept in mind.”
HON’BLE MR JUSTICE NAGESWAR RAO
Judge Supreme Court of India
