The West Bengal government has launched a special drive to vaccinate the sex workers of Kolkata. In the Sonagachi red light area, the biggest colony of sex workers in Asia, the drive was launched on Tuesday.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was given a report by Dr. Smarajit Jana, a leading doctor who used to run the biggest NGO in Sonagachi, during the first wave, about the abject poverty of the sex workers in Sonagachi and other areas. Many had to abandon their jobs and left for other places of the country in search of jobs. Ironically, Jana died due to COVID-19 last month.
In an interaction with THE WEEK, Jana had said, “Apathy of the government is making the situation very complex in the biggest red light area of Sonagachi. Even the workers could not get daily morsel of food, and we have to work hard to get them access to food. Due to lockdown, they have all lost their jobs and their kids who used to go to school are being employed as child labour.”
Sex workers are not considered labourers under the labour laws of the country as the profession itself is illegal in India. There are around 25,000 to 30,000 sex workers employed in Kolkata and majority of them belong to Sonagachi.
Apart from sex workers, the Banerjee government has also decided to vaccinate transgenders of Kolkata. Woman and Child Development Minister Dr Sashi Panja on Tuesday inaugurated the project in Kolkata. About 139 sex workers have been vaccinated in Tollygunj alone on Tuesday. In Sonagachi, around 295 sex workers have been vaccinated. The drive will continue till 6pm every day.
The camps have been organised at community hall near Masjid Bari Lane near Sonagachi. In other places, various schools and colleges have been earmarked by the government to vaccinate the deprived sections of society.
With a raging controversy over fake vaccination across Kolkata recently grabbing the headlines, the Banerjee government has decided to strictly enforce laws on private bodies holding vaccination camps.
“Any private organisation that would like to hold the vaccination camps would have to take permission from the health department of government of West Bengal,” said a senior official of health department of West Bengal.
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Presently, the state has a shortage of Covishield vaccine and it is mostly giving Covaxin to the residents of the state.