Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Human Rights Commission on Monday directed the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) to provide food and rations to the commercial sex workers in the State.
The OHRC also ordered that the ration items should be provided irrespective of the fact that the sex workers have ration cards or not. It has been brought to the notice of the commission that they were not getting food as they did not have ration cards, it added.
Since it violated their right to food and shelter and the state government has declared that nobody should be deprived of food and ration, the order should be strictly complied and reported in the next hearing, the commission stated.
The OHRC issued the notice on the basis of a petition filed by Namrata Chadda, Chairperson of MADHYAM and Mahila Adhikar Abhiyan, highlighting the plight of the sex workers during the lockdown enforced in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.
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