The Hindu : New Delhi News : `Rehabilitate evicted sex workers'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 09, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

`Rehabilitate evicted sex workers'

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, DEC. 8. The Delhi High Court today directed the Social Welfare Department of the Delhi Government to rehabilitate all 101 sex workers who had been evicted from their rooms here following conviction of some of their roommates over the years in several Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act cases.

A Division Bench comprising Justice B.C. Patel and Justice B.D. Ahmed issued the direction on a public interest litigation filed by Shakti Vahini, a non-governmental organisation.

The petitioner said that the city police had evicted several sex workers from their rooms on Swami Shradhanand Marg, Capital's red light area, following conviction of their mates over the years.

The Bench had last year asked the Delhi Government and the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) to file their respective replies to the query raised in the petition.

The petitioner through his counsel, Jayant Bhushan, said that these evicts had been made to suffer for no fault of theirs as they were evicted just because they were sharing the rooms of the convicted sex workers.

Their eviction was a violation of the Fundamental Right to live with dignity, Mr. Bhushan said.

The petitioner urged the court to direct the Government to disclose rehabilitation package, if it had one, and provide compensation and alternative homes for the ousted sex workers.

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