No bank accounts leave sex workers in Pune worried about receiving Rs 15,000 aid from MVA govt
MVA government’s decision to provide financial help to sex workers was a welcome move since they were facing an unprecedented financial crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic
A visible elation was reported among sex workers in the Budhwar peth area when they got to know that the government of Maharashtra has decided to provide financial help of Rs 15,000 for a period of three months from October to December 2020.
However, many are now worried of the transfer of funds since they do not possess an active bank account.
The Uddhav Thackeray led Maha Vikas Aghadi government’s decision to provide financial help to sex workers was a welcome move since they were facing an unprecedented financial crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the data shared by the state, Pune district has 7,011 sex workers and around 1,000 children between the age group of six to 18 years, completely dependent upon their mothers, while the government has identified 31,000 beneficiaries across the state.
“This financial aid was first requested via a petition in the Supreme Court by the Durbar Mahila Samanvay Samiti, West Bengal, which is a collective of sex workers in Sonagachi,” said Tejasvi Sevekari, executive director of Pune based NGO Saheli.
The organisation approached the court to get Covid relief for sex workers. The Supreme Court in September announced that all the states should take the onus and disbursing Rs 5,000 per sex worker per month from October to December 2020.
In Maharashtra, it was taken further proactively by the women and child development department who had lent a hand during the lockdown by providing ration kits to the women in few of the red-light areas.
Sevekari pointed out a hurdle sex worker faced is that many of them do not have an active bank account, and according to the state government resolution, the sum of Rs 5,000 per month would only be disbursed through banks.
“If a community-based organization were to be part of the disbursement committee, we could help in verifying the sex workers and also ease out the problems of many of the workers who are not on the list provided to the government,” said Sevekari.
“According to the list, there are 7,011 sex workers in Pune district but this list is ever increasing, what happens to those women who are not on the list? How does one determine or verify whether they have an active bank account or even have opened one,” asked Sevekari.
Before the announcement, NGO Saheli in fact began a program through the national network of sex workers Sahayak Setu in helping sex workers disseminate information on assistance through government welfare schemes.
“We were helping them to procure their Aadhaar cards and other proper identification options to help them open their accounts in banks, which while surveying we found that not many had accounts,” she said.
Seema Thapa has been in this business for 10 years and has never felt the need to open a bank account.
“I would simply keep the money with me and spend it as I wanted to. It has been six months that I have had no work, no business and was happy when I was informed that the government will be giving us money, but now I am disappointed as I do not have a bank account or any identification card to open an account,” Thapa said.
Babita Sheikk who has been a sex worker for eight years assertively said, “I have a bank account but it is used to only send money to my relatives in the village and I hardly keep any savings. I have loans, which I borrowed from the brothel keeper for basic needs, hence money is never enough to be called savings.”
Seema Waghmode, founder member of Kaya Kalp and executive member of Maharashtra State Aids Control Society (MSACS) who is heading the committee for the disbursement of the financial aid said, “It is a difficult task since many of the sex workers do not have bank accounts nor possess any identification or UID card. We have in fact launched a process whereupon we have given them a form to authenticate that they are in this business. The city has about 4,000 sex workers within the red-light area.”