Pune sex workers join Anna Hazare's stir
More than 300 sex workers from Budhwar Peth from the NGO Kayakalp in Pune took out a procession sporting black ribbons to support Anna Hazare's campaign.
After the Dabbawallas in Mumbai, the jail inmates from Karnataka and the transgenders, it is now the turn of sex workers to join the Anna Hazare-led agitation against corruption.
More than 300 sex workers from Budhwar Peth from the NGO Kayakalp in Pune took out a procession sporting black ribbons to support Hazare's campaign.
"Who knows more about corruption than us? We are exploited by the cops as well as the clients for no fault of ours. We live in a society that can neither support, nor rehabilitate us. The sex workers are at the bottom of the ladder in India," said Shanti Wagle, who along with 28 other commercial sex workers have decided travel to Delhi from Pune to join Anna Hazare's fast for the Jan Lokpal Bill.
"We don't know the details of the Bill, and we don't want to know. We trust Annaji, he's provided a ray of hope for all of us," adds Renuka Rani, a CSW from Bangalore who has joined Wagle's group.
The group was inspired by the Dabbawallas of Mumbai, who had never taken a single day off in over 120 years.
"We have been forced into the flesh trade, and let's face it, prostitution is as old as humanity, we can't eradicate it, what we can try to do is reduce the exploitation," said Renuka.