The panel would suggest the ways for the prevention of trafficking in sex trade and the rehabilitation of sex workers opting out of the flesh trade.
The panel would also suggest steps for improving the conditions of those who want to continue with the trade.
Contending that the right to live also includes right to live with dignity, an apex court bench of Justice Markandey Katju and Justice Gyan Sudha Misra appointed a panel headed by senior counsel Pradeep Ghosh and Jayant Bhushan.
Three NGOs, USHA Multipurpose Co-operative Mahila Society, Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Simiti and Roshni Academy will also be part of panel.
The order came on a petition filed by one Budhadev Karmakar who was convicted and sentenced for killing a sex worker in Kolkata on September 17, 1999.
Justice Katju said that the right to live also includes right to live with dignity.
The court directed the central and the state governments as well as the union territories’ administrations to carry out a survey of sex workers in their jurisdiction and submit their report to the panel.
The court asked the governments to extend full cooperation and assistance to the panel.
During the hearing Justice Misra asked a counsel if panel could tell the court the names of the sex workers willing to opt out of their trade.
The panel would make suggestions for prevention of human trafficking, for rehabilitation of sex workers who want to leave their trade, and for improving the conditions of those who want to continue with it.
Giving another two weeks time to State governments to file affidavit stating the steps taken by them for the rehabilitation of the sex workers and including imparting them vocational training for alternate employment generation and marketing of the product generated from other means of livelihood.
The panel’s appointment came in the wake of the hearing on directions issued by the apex court on February 14 for the rescue and rehabilitation of sex worker and addressing the problems.
The court’s directions came in the order by which its had rejected the plea of the one Budhadev Karmakar who was convicted for battering to death a sex worker in Kolkata on September 19, 1999.
It may be recalled that the apex court in its earlier hearing had described as unfortunate that women were forced to submit to such compulsions (sex trade) because of their abject poverty. “Sex workers are also human beings. They become sex workers not out enjoyment but out of (needs of the) stomach.”
The court had exhorted the people to change their attitude towards sex workers. “No one sells (body) for pleasure. It is out of poverty. The society wrongly regarded them as bad. We have to change our mentality towards them”, the court had said.
