Abstract.
What do we mean by the term Sex Workers?
Sex workers are the persons who are employed in the sex industry. This term is used for all those who are working in this industry, which includes the people who are directly involved or the people who are working as a staff in this industry.
The debate over sex work is often characterized as an issue of women’s rights, especially by those who argue that prostitution is inherently oppressive and seek to criminalize it or keep it illegal, but in fact there are also many male and gender non-binary individuals engaged in providing sexual services. Most sex workers, naturally, do not wish to be branded as criminals, and tend to regard laws against prostitution.
They are paid for being engaged in sex acts or sexually explicit behavior with their clients, which may be live or in any other way. This term is oftenly to avoid the word “prostitutes”.
What do we mean by Voting Rights?
The right to vote is a basic human right which empowers the citizens to influence the governmental decision making and also to safeguard their other Human Rights.Despite consensus on the importance of the right to vote, its inclusion in many international human rights instruments, and its significance in protecting other human rights, derogations of voting rights remain widespread. The “HRA”– Human Rights Advocates also seeks to ensure that the voting Right is guaranteed to the entire citizens of the country as mandated by the International Law.
Introduction.
The topic should sex workers be given the Right to Vote is a debatable topic as sex workers are not seen in a good way in not only our Indian society but also in the world.
If we look in Indian scenario only we will be highly disappoint to know that in India the Sex Workers are denied from their Voting Rights. They are not allowed to Vote, the main criteria of their deprivation of Right to Vote is either they are Sex Worker or Children of their. The election commission has denied them to issue the voter ID card because they are not having the proper address proof. In an area of west Bengal called Sonagachi200 residentswere deprived of their voting rights as they did not have valid voter identification cards. Several of them are sex workers; the others are their children.The Election Commission this year had refused to accept the bank details of the Usha Cooperative Bank, as a valid address proof. The sex workers run this bank under the Usha multipurpose cooperative society. However, in 2007, when Debashish Sen was the chief electoral officer, nearly 400 sex workers of Sonagachi were given voter cards on the basis of their bank account passbooks and ID card of the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya (DMS) Committee.
“This year when our girls went to apply for the voter card with the same address proof, election officials told them that a valid address proof is needed to issue any new voter card,’ said Mahasweta Mukherjee, liaison officer of the DMS Committee. According to the sex workers, they were deprived of their rights because the commission had asked them to provide their birth certificates.
The Sonagachi area in Kolkata has more than 20,000 sex workers, most of them living with their families, but among them only those who had received their voter cards earlier were allowed to cast their votes. “Until we provide the order copy to the EC we cannot prove that in 2007 the EC had accepted the bank details as a valid address proof,” said Mukherjee.EC officials have said that they will look into the matter once the polls are over. The sex workers said that voting rights are just one issue; there are many other things that they are not allowed to enjoy as freely as other citizens. In this case only they were deprived of their voting rights because EC did not accept their bank details as they their permanent address proof, government is only not helping them to live like other citizens of the country, they are only not letting them to live an ordinary life then from whom.
Laws Governing
The right to vote and right to public participation in government is a right of every individual in each and every country.
There are many Articles and laws which state that Right to Vote is a Right of each and every individual.
- The right to vote and the right to public participation in government are asserted in Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (“UDHR”).
- Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“ICCPR”) also codifies these rights, it says that (a) To take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives;(c) To have access, on general terms of equality, to public service in his country.
- (b) To vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections this shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors;
- Every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity, without any of the distinctions mentioned in article 2 and without unreasonable restrictions:
Furthermore, the right to vote is protected under several regional human rights instruments, including Article 326 of our Indian Constitution.
My view
According to me Sex workers should also be given the right to vote and take part in the government making process of our country, as they are also citizen of our country. So why they can’t take part in the process of government making, they also live in this country, they are also born here so they should be given the Rights as like other citizens of our country.
They entered this profession not by choice but their condition made them to choose this profession. Government should provide a hand of help towards them by giving them the rights as other citizens of our country.
BY
Jasjit Pranjal
2nd semester
Symbiosis Law school, Hyderabad.