Imphal, January 06: Stressing on the importance of sensitising society towards the plight of commercial sex workers in the State, the co-ordinator of the Meetei Leimarol Shinnaishang, MC Rita said that during the past few years, instances of subjecting commercial sex workers to immense indignity have been on the rise.

In an exclusive chat with The Sangai Express Rita said that parading such women, tonsuring their heads and splashing their pictures in the newspapers will not help the situation in any way but instill a deep sense of alienation and create negative impact on the minds of all women.

The Meetei Leimarol Shinnaishang is set up under the Manipur AIDS Control Society and its activities centre around counselling CSWs, providing them treatment, initiating group discussions amongst the CSWs, conducting workshops etc.

The project started functioning from February, 1999, said Rita and informed that till date 1117 CSWs have been offered counselling while 140 have given up their trade and have settled down.

According to a Centennial Surveillance, 12.41 pc of all sex workers are HIV positive.

The co-ordinator said that the CSWs in Manipur can be broadly classified into three categories.

One category belongs to those forced into this trade to help maintain their family, another group can be classified as those willingly taking up this trade without any economic compulsions while the third can be categorised as those going into this trade to help them sustain their dependency on drugs and other intoxicants.

To help rehabilitate the HIV positive CSWs, a small amount of money has been kept aside and self groups have been formed to engage them in economically viable work, said Rita.

Answering to a query, the co-ordinator said that four other projects like the Meetei Leimarol Shinnai-shang have been set up by MACS to help CSWs.

The other four projects are Peoples' Progressive Organisation at Churachandpur, New Generation at Moreh, one at Jiri and another at Senapati.

To check the growing number of CSWs in the State, due to a number of reasons, Rita said the Government should step in and try to initiate income generating schemes for them.

Micro credit schemes can also be taken up to help them lead an economically independent life, added the co-ordinator.

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