Khairati Lal Bhola, president of NGO Bhartiya Patita Uddhar Sabha (BPUS), told IANS: "Around 5,000 sex workers, excluding woman pimps and touts, reside in the 116 brothels situated in 25 buildings on G.B. Road. But till the 2008 assembly elections only 1,200 of them had voter ID cards."
Bhola said the 2008 assembly election saw over 80 percent sex workers cast their votes. "These sex workers should be given sympathy and provided rights like other citizens so that they can come forward to cast their vote," said Bhola.
An election commission official told IANS: "We have taken several special measures to enroll the sex workers as voters, including setting up camps in G.B. Road."
"We noticed in the past that sex workers generally avoid going to the general enrolment centres. They feel embarrassed to be among the other people. We have also seen them getting beaten by pimps who try to stop them from exercising their rights fearing they might flee. We then decided to reach out to them," added the official.
Earlier, only the brothel madams would go to cast their votes. But now all those who have got voter ID cards are raring to exercise their franchise.
