Sex workers fight for Mumbai bar girls

Kolkata, September 1:

Thousands of women under Asia’s biggest conglomerate of sex workers on Thursday took to the street to protest Maharashtra government’s ban on dance bars girls.

The sex workers, representing Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, raised slogans and took out a huge rally in the heart of the metropolis along with peers from the Binodini Shramik Union.

The protesters said the ban would tell upon the basic human rights of over 50,000 of them and others working in Mumbai.

“The ban by Maharashtra government means thousands of dance bar girls, many of them from Bengal, will be rendered jobless when they have registered trade unions and protected rights,” DMSC joint secretary Sapna Gayen said.

Gayen said the Indian Bar Girls Union had appealed in the Mumbai High Court for withdrawal of the ban. “We hope the court would take a humanitarian stand and protect the human rights of this section of society,” she said.

Representatives of various trade unions, NGOs and rights bodies also attended the rally.

From: http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=53802