This is an excerpt from the sixth edition of the India Exclusion Report, a collaborative effort involving institutions and individuals work...
This is an excerpt from the sixth edition of the India Exclusion Report, a collaborative effort involving institutions and individuals working with a shared notion of social and economic equity, justice and rights. The report seeks to inform public opinion around exclusion and the role of the state and to influence policy-making towards creating a more inclusive, equitable and just society. The annual publication is anchored by the Centre for Equity Studies and edited by its director, Harsh Mander.
Covid-19 brought the entire community of sex workers to a complete halt overnight. It was sudden and it was chaotic and for women in sex work, it was dreadful. When a country of 1.3 billion people is forced to lock themselves wherever they are, the most marginalised, the most deprived and invisible population are best forgotten and left to their fate.
This is not new as sex workers in India continue to live in hiding through various kinds and levels of exclusion.
A recent primary survey conducted among 600 cis-female sex workers by the All India Network of Sex Workers for the India Exclusion Report in North Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata and first-person narratives of women in sex work recorded between January and April 2019 in...
