The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has directed the Odisha Government to formulate a strategy to tackle the problem of sex trade and exploitation of women in the coastal State.
Disposing a petition filed by human rights lawyer Radhakanta Tripathy, the NHRC passed the order recently.
”The petition contended the plight of the girls and women working as sex workers in brothels in the Master Canteen/Mali Sahi and other Areas of Bhubaneswar. Even if there is an Anti Traffic Unit in the Police Stations but it is not working effectively and police don’t take sincere steps to prohibit recurrence of sex trade and the functioning of the State Level Coordination Committee to combat trafficking is not satisfactory. The statutory Institution, set up under Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act, 1956, is not functional. The Supreme Court judgment with regard to the rights of the Sex workers has not been complied with by the State,” Tripathy alleged.
The petition sought NHRC’s intervention for holistic measures and permanent solution of the issues faced by the sex workers and their children.
The NHRC is of the view that it is not a one-time effort which will end such a problem but requires continuous and multi-pronged efforts, including steps for better health, better education, strict legal action, and providing new opportunities to the persons involved, and their family members.
”Chief Secretary, Governmentt of Odisha as well as DGP, Odisha are recommended to take into account the points raised by the complainant in his complaint and subsequent comments, and to evolve a joint strategy involving all the stakeholders and related government departments and organizations, to tackle the problem of sex trade and exploitation of women,” the top rights panel ordered.