The Supreme Court on Tuesday has directed all the state governments to provide dry ration to sex workers without insisting on identity proof.
The Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Ajay Rastogi made a big decision as the bench directed that sex workers who are identified by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) and state committees be given this benefit.
The decision was taken in a hearing of the application which was filed by the NGO Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, to highlight the problems faced by sex workers due to COVID-19.
The application seeks relief measures for over nine lakh female and transgender sex workers across the country.
The Supreme Court has asked State Governments to inform the court about the implementation of this order and the number of sex workers who have benefitted from the same in four weeks.
“None of the states or the Centre has taken an adversarial stand†the Court noted.
The Court said, “We are at this point concerned with points raised in this application. We are concerned that sex workers can’t access dry ration, cash transfers, and other facilities due to lack of identity proofâ€.