Sonagachi sorrowful, but no boycott

Sonagachi is the largest red-light district in Asia, with more than 10,000 sex workers.

Members of the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, an organisation of sex workers of Sonagachi in Kolkata, did not give a poll boycott call. —Photo: Soumya Das

Members of the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, the most networked organisation of sex workers of Sonagachi in north Kolkata, have voted in large numbers despite their discontent. They told The Hindu that though none of the political parties had listened to their demands so far, they would not go for NOTA.

Sonagachi is the largest red-light district in Asia, with more than 10,000 sex workers.

For Purnima Chatterjee (56), it all started more than two decades ago. Born in a remote village in Nadia district, her family was forced to come to Kolkata after her father was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Poverty and her father’s illness prevented her from going to school. “I came to Sonagachi when I was 19. People often point a finger at us, but they should remember that we are into this profession to survive,” she told

The Hindu . She voted early on Thursday in a booth inside the red-light district.

Mincing no words against the political parties, Ms. Chatterjee said “these party leaders only drop in during the polls and for the next five years they disappear”. Pointing out that neither the ruling Trinamool Congress nor the Communist Party of India (Marxist) addressed any of their issues in the election manifesto, she said that for them “we are nothing but vote-banks”.

Highlighting the issues they face, they said that several provisions of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956, were “coercive”. Their demand for recognition of sex workers as labourers had fallen on deaf ears, they said.

“We have repeatedly demanded that our Self-Regulatory Body be provided government registration, but to no avail,” said Shefali Roy (52).