SC directs Centre, states to provide ration, voter ID, Aadhaar to sex workers

Observing that fundamental rights are guaranteed to every citizen irrespective of vocation the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre all the states and union territories to commence the process of issuing voter Aadhaar and ration cards to sex workers and keep providing dry ration to themThe apex court hearing a plea that has raised the problems faced by sex workers due to the Covid19 pandemic has been passing orders for their welfare and on September 29 last year it had asked the Centre and others to provide dry ration to them without insisting on their identity proofA bench comprising justices L Nageswara Rao BR Gavai and B V Nagarathna rued that the directions of the apex court on providing ration cards to the sex workers were passed in 2011 but they are yet to be implementedThe state governments and UTs were directed to issue ration cards and identity cards to sex workers almost a decade back and there is no reason as to why such directions are not implemented till now the bench saidThe fundamental rights are guaranteed to every citizen of the country irrespective of hisher vocation There is a bounden duty on the government to provide basic amenities to the citizens of the country The central government state governments and other authorities are directed to commence the process of issuance of ration cards voter ID cards and Aadhaar cards immediately the bench orderedAlso read Maharashtra Sex workers stage protest against police in NagpurThe bench directed that authorities can take assistance National AIDS Control Organisation NACO and state AIDS control societies who in turn will prepare a list of sex workers after verifying the information provided to them by the communitybased organisationsThe status report related to issuance of ration cards voter ID cards and Aadhaar cards to the sex workers be filed in a period of four weeks from today and in the meanwhile state governments and UTs are directed to continue distribution of dry ration to sex workers without insisting on ration cards and other proofs of identity as mentioned in earlier orders it saidThe bench which said that the copy of the order be sent to state and district legal services authorities for necessary action also asked the government to keep the names and identity of sex worker confidential while preparing the various ID cardsEarlier the apex court on September 29 2020 had directed all the states to provide dry rations to sex workers who are identified by NACO without insisting on any proof of identity and had sought status report on complianceThe apex court was hearing a plea filed by NGO Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee which has highlighted the destitution faced by sex workers on account of COVID19 and sought relief measures for over nine lakh female and transgender sex workers across IndiaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever