A long-awaited ruling by India’s Supreme Court has expanded the rights of sex workers by defining prostitution as a profession, ordering an end to police violence and affirming health and labor protections introduced during coronavirus lock downs.
Sex workers, long marginalized in India, hailed the court’s landmark May 19 decision but said guaranteeing their hard-won rights will be an ongoing battle.
“The backlash is already beginning,” said Meena Saraswathi Seshu, general secretary of SANGRAM, a collective advocating for sex workers that is based in Sangli, Maharashtra state. “The police are going to start looking for any kinds of arguments not to follow the Supreme Court.”
But now, she said, “when the police do not follow the [Supreme Court] order, we have language and space that we did not have before. That’s our biggest weapon to fight against police violence.”
Sex workers are falling through the cracks in coronavirus assistance programs around the world
In recent years, more countries have moved toward regulating sex work. But despite some changes, the pandemic was a particularly punishing time for prostitutes, who were suddenly without work and excluded from most social services and relief programs.
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