Without Aadhaar, sex workers deprived of benefits due to them

Pune: Shalmili* drags a creaking chair into the small patch of sunlight that comes into her dingy room in Budhwar Peth. She is taking a 15-minute breather from the morning chores to soak up a bit of warmth. Next to her, on the cot, her four-year-old is trying to reattach the broken wheel of a toy. As a sex worker, Shalmili does not have great expectations frim what the future holds for her. All she wants is for her only child to get admission into a school. But without an Aadhaar card, the possibilities are slim.
“Everyone asks to see our Aadhaar cards. We do not have access to any government benefit because we do not have valid identity proof. Without an education, what chance does my child really have?” asks the 30-year-old as she pulls out a tattered box containing her most valuable possessions. Inside is her PAN card, one that she got after shelling out a large sum to an agent. But this document is not good for even a bank account, which too needs an Aadhaar card.

In another equally tiny room in the neighbourhood, Mukta* takes out a cup of rice from a small aluminium drum to cook for lunch. After a brief thought, she puts two fist-fulls back. She says she needs to make her supplies last. As she rinses the rice, Mukta reveals she does not have a ration card, which ideally would have got her 10 kg wheat, 5 kg rice, three litres of kerosene and one litre of palm oil. The 35-year-old, who was sold into flesh trade by her husband, says a few years ago, an Aadhaar camp was held in the area. However, not many women were able to get the cards. “The camps should have been conducted regularly to benefit the women here. We are not even getting our ration cards due to some police verification criteria. We are told to furnish documents from our villages. How are we going to get these papers? An Aadhaar card would have helped us, but most of us still do not have one,” Mukta says.

Like Shalmili and Mukta, there are many sex workers in the area who have been deprived of government welfare schemes — which could improve the quality of their lives — seemingly, for the want of Aadhaar cards. But why do so few of them have Aadhaar cards despite a 2015 government resolution (GR) recognising the difficulties faced by sex workers in producing ID and residential proofs and asking officials to hold special camps for them?

To be fair, a special Aadhaar drive was indeed conducted in the Budhwar Peth area by the Pune district administration. However, the camp lasted just a week, and of the estimated 3,500 sex workers here, less than 1,000 could be enrolled. Compounding the problem is the fact that the administration itself does not have an adequate number of Aadhaar enrolment machines. Pune district Aadhaar officials say while a requisition for more machines has been placed, the government is yet to issue the machines. “Once the machines are issued, we can restart the camps in different pockets of the city,” say the officials.

Moreover, the Union government recently clarified that the absence of an Aadhaar card cannot be the reason to deny benefits of welfare schemes to the intended beneficiaries. Law and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had categorically told state IT ministers and secretaries: “If the person is not having an Aadhaar, ask him to get an Aadhaar but you should give him benefit using alternative mode.”

As per the rules, documents required by sex workers to enrol for Aadhaar include PAN card, bank passbook and ration card. However, even if a sex worker has none of these documents, an Aadhaar application can be made with an attestation from the local corporator, with the help of an NGO.

Meanwhile, some who have managed to get Aadhaar cards too say they have not simplified their lives by much. Sumedha* has an Aadhaar card. But the Budhwar Peth resident claims it is the lack of a ration card that is creating problems now. “I have an Aadhaar card. However, I am not getting all benefits as I do not have a ration card. It seems, no document proof is enough,” she says.

(Names changed to protect identity)