Sakina Tashrifwala
Published on: September 6, 2022 at 22:10 IST
The Allahabad High Court has issued a notice to the State government and the Union of India on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea filed by Jaya Pandey, a law student to ensure improved life standards of sex workers.
She sought out to the Centre and state government that the sex workers have dignified standards and understand the fundamental rights like any other citizen under various laws relating to social welfare measures.
In accordance to this, she referred to a document of an International convention “Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women” that India signed in 09th July 1993.
She further submitted arguments that as mentioned in Article 51(c) Constitution of India, the Union of India and State of U.P should take adequate measures to improve the quality of the life of sex workers.
Article 7 of the covenant was also referred to, according to which State Parties are required to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination.
The Article 11 (e) of the covenant which stated that the state parties are required to ensure that sex workers are enjoyed the same rights, particularly the right to social security in cases of unemployment, sickness, invalidity and old age and incapacity to work etc.
Furthermore, the Article 13 provides that all state parties shall take appropriate steps to eliminate discrimination against women in economic and social life particularly the right to family benefits, the right to loan and financial credit/help and further, the right to participate in recreational activities, etc.
The Court directed the respondents to file their response to the writ petition within a period of four weeks, and the next hearing will be heard after the expiry period.
