India’s Sex Workers’ Battle For Identity: No Light At The End Of the Tunnel

With a red light area address on Aadhar, country's sex workers struggle to procure a government-verified identity.

Despite The Supreme Court’s orders, sex workers and grassroots functionaries in red light areas detail how the burden of getting an identity proof made or updated falls on the community with little to no aid from the authorities responsible for a time-bound identification process.

Vibhushita Singh/The Quint

A crumbling flight of stairs along the narrow bylanes of Shraddhanand Marg leads up to a room the size of a toilet. This room, located in New Delhi’s GB Road is where Kunal Kumar, 22, has lived his entire life. Situated in the kilometre-long stretch between Ajmeri Gate and Lahori Gate, the Garstin Bastion Road or GB Road is home to an estimated 2,000 sex workers.

“There are entire families here that survive on a five rupees packet of glucose biscuits dipped in water. Incomes are highly uncertain and sex workers don’t have the documentation required to access subsidised ration or possess a ration card,” said Kumar, who started the Maan Foundation, a community-based organisation (CBO) to aid the community of sex workers in Shraddhanand Marg.

With a red light area’s address on their identity proofs including Aadhaar, ration card, or voter ID, sex workers across some of the country’s largest red light districts struggle to procure a government-verified identity.

Spotted by the Trade

In 2019, the National Network of Sex Workers in India (NNSW), a collective led by sex workers across India to protect and promote the rights of those in the profession at the local, national, and international levels, gathered community data from sex workers’ households in Maharashtra and Telangana, as part of the Wada Na Todo Abhiyan, promoting government accountability to end poverty and social exclusion.

The findings reported that less than 35% of the people living in such households had a birth certificate. The lack of identity documents limited their access to basic services like scholarships, housing, public distribution system, and other government benefits. As per the study, most sex workers’ households lack economic and social security because they are unable to own land or homes.

Prone to ostracisation from locals, tenants and their own families, sex workers are often unable to access original documents or produce a proof of residence.

Supreme Court’s Landmark Intervention Legalises Identity

According to the National Aids Control Organisation (NACO), of the nine lakh transgender and Female Sex Workers (FSWs) in India, over 1.3 lakh are from Delhi, Maharashtra, and West Bengal. In May 2022, a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court upheld sex workers’ right to identity and issued detailed directions for their protection and upliftment.

The court observed how sex workers across India suffer from a lack of legal identity. Making suggestions to Unique Identification Authority of India's(UIDAI) proposal of issuing Aadhar cards to the sex workers on NACO's list without residence proofs , the bench further said that, “Aadhaar cards shall be issued to all sex workers identified by CBOs after verification provided, 'a proforma certificate' issued by the UIDAI is submitted by a Gazetted Officer at NACO or the project director of State AIDS Control Society along with the enrolment form.”

'Aadhar For All Sex Workers'

In December 2021, the top court had directed the Union and state governments to immediately begin the process of issuing Aadhaar cards, ration cards, and voter identity cards to sex workers, observing that fundamental rights are guaranteed to every citizen, irrespective of vocation.

The order added that issuance should not be restricted to sex workers on the NACO list but also be extended to those identified by CBOs.The court emphasized, “There shall be no breach of confidentiality in the process, including assignment of any code in the Aadhaar enrolment numbers that identify the card holder as a sex worker.”

Bishakha Laskar, president of Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC), the largest collective of sex workers based out of Kolkata’s Songachi area, said, the court’s interventions provide hope that the profession will be treated with respect and sex workers as equal citizens. “We don’t exist outside the society. We should be identified as such, be able to get these documents and proofs made in order to access all related schemes,” she added.

In an earlier plea filed by the DMSC at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the court also asked the Centre and state governments to provide dry ration to the community without insisting on an identity proof. CBOs like DMSC were tasked with identifying sex workers by organising camps across brothels and red light areas and sharing the lists with NACO.

Incorrect Data, Delayed Updates Plague The Community 

Despite the court’s orders, sex workers and grassroots functionaries in red light areas detail how the burden of getting an identity proof made or updated falls on the community with little to no aid from the authorities responsible for a time-bound identification process.

“Most sex workers somehow managed to get an Aadhaar made the first time around through references of CBOs. But almost everyone faces problems of incorrect data on their Aadhar, like different ages and spelling mistakes in names,” said Pragya Baseria, program lead and a field research manager at Kat-Katha, a non-profit that creates educational spaces for sex workers and their children in GB Road. She explained how many sex workers could not get this data updated because it required a second identity proof, and most do not even have a single updated proof.

Sex Workers Continue To Bear The Burden of Proof 

Social workers such as Baseria, receive multiple such requests daily from sex workers, who find themselves stuck in an endless loop of visits to government offices and months of paperwork. “In cases of loss and damage, it’s next to impossible to get it made again,” she added.

“Landlords refuse to give you a written letter for proof of residence because you’re a sex worker. It’s impossible to get a room on rent by presenting an ID with a GB Road address,” said S*, a 34-year-old sex worker who has lived in the area for a decade. She cited how several women had to update their phone numbers, but the fear of mistreatment at government offices or Aadhar centres stopped them from visiting these spaces alone.

In one instance, a woman wished to leave the column for the father’s name blank on her child’s Aadhar card. “However, the guard there (Aadhar centre) kept insisting on putting a father’s name. In cases like this, most women return home, helpless,” mentioned Kumar of Maan Foundation.

Discrimination An Impediment To Better Education, Employment 

Sex workers from the NNSW in a report shared that the residence proof, father’s name and caste, and ration card were some of the documents required for getting their children registered in schools. “Sex workers aspire to better education and employment opportunities for our children, but discrimination and stigma deter our children from schooling, and especially through local government schools,” a member of the NNSW stated.

Kumar recalled how, growing up as a resident of GB Road, he had to hide his identity. “Do people associate themselves to the streets, addresses, roads they belong to? The road is now supposed to be called Sharaddhanand Marg, not GB Road,” he said.

Schools in Delhi mandate the Aadhaar card details of a child’s parents along with address and ID proof of the parents for admission. “Even if a woman wants to get her child admitted, the other person views you with immense stigma.

Every woman I know wants her address to be changed from GB Road to literally anywhere else. For that change of address too, they need a second identity proof,” stated Baseria. She explained how school dropout rates remained high in the area, as children of sex workers are isolated in classrooms by their peers and teachers.

Pandemic Add To the Destitution Woes 

With lakhs of sex workers left without work during government mandated lockdowns, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how the community struggled to make ends meet. While state governments disbursed relief in the form of ration and cash, most sex workers were unable to access them due to lack of valid identity proofs, which is when organisations working towards their welfare stepped in to aid the process.

Addressing the destitution faced by the community during the pandemic, Laskar said, “Days and nights simply passed by. If anyone gave us food, only then could we eat. We tried to procure ration, make lists and circulate it to those in dire need. It was a time when we just had to ensure all of us somehow survived, as a community.”

Compromised Access To Food And Relief Aid 

In 2020, the Maharashtra state government declared a monthly relief financial assistance of Rs. 5000 to FSWs along with food coupons. However, most women failed to access them, according to Chaya Jagtap, a senior project coordinator at Prerana, a non-governmental organisation that works for the upliftment of children and women in the red-light districts of Mumbai.

“Several sex workers in Kamathipura and Khetwadi did not have any documents whatsoever. We helped them open a temporary bank account with the aid of banks in the area,” said Jagtap. The passbook of these accounts were then used to access relief schemes and initiate the process of getting an Aadhaar and ration card made for them, added Jagtap.

Right To Dignified Living: A Never-ending battle 

Sex workers struggle to access existing ID proofs and documents issued from their native villages, as most of them do not manage to return to their homes. “If someone wants a new identity proof with a Mumbai-based address, they first need to get it cancelled from their native villages. This process can be very exhausting for the woman,” Jagtap said.

CBOs help coordinate such access with the help of local police stations, MLAs or pradhans in the native villages of sex workers to get their IDs transferred. “We’re finally at a point where at least a majority of the sex workers in Sonagachi would have at least one ID proof, whether it’s registered here or in their villages,” Laskar noted.

“These are people who’ve lived in this area (Sonagachi) for at least a decade or more and are still struggling to prove that they deserve to exist and be treated as equal citizens, on paper,” she said.

*Indicates names have been changed to protect identity.

(Mansi Vijay is an independent journalist based out of Delhi. An alum of AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, she covers matters on gender, health and surveillance technology.She tweets at @cinamann.This is an opinion article and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them)