‘Violence, stigma are big problems’

The biggest problem is the stigma and discrimination associated with them. Another issue is the violence faced through law enforcement agencies and their clients. This puts them under mental and physical trauma. Also many of them do not have places to stay as the landlords as most of them are single parents and are looked down upon. 

The lives of sex workers can drastically improve if the violence by the brothel owners, managers, and clients is curbed. One needs to work on the abolition of the stigma attached to the profession. The most important step will be to legalise prostitution. This is will give them long term benefits and make it easier for them to lead their lives in peace. The government should include sex workers and their families in various schemes offered by them for the development of the public. 

Most rehab programmes do not provide the kind of empathy required for the sex workers and make the entire process a forced activity. They are not consulted and their opinions, ideas, views and abilities are not taken into consideration. No ground work is done before the program commences. No feedback is taken from the workers. Ideally any rehabilitation programme must focus on providing useful long term benefits.