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Plea to make available all govt benefits to sex workers
The stigma around sex work should be done away with and sex workers should be considered part of the informal sector, according to Nalini Jameela, author and former sex worker.
“Sex work is different from trafficking and it is a form of self-employment that is stigmatised,” said Ms. Jameela, who is the coordinator of the Sex Workers’ Forum of Kerala. “The discrimination we face when we try to get ration cards or health insurance must end. If there is a legal framework, it will strengthen our voice and we can openly ask for our rights. We are often arrested even without a client present,” she said, while speaking at a discussion conducted online by Raising Our Voices Foundation, a Kochi-based NGO, on whether sex work should be legalised.