PUNE: The Pune District Legal Aid Services Authority (PDSLA) will soon start a ‘Legal Clinic’ in the red-light area in Budhwar Peth for commercial sex workers (CSW). The clinic will be providing legal services including lawyers to the commercial sex workers.

A meeting in this regard was held at the Pune district court in Shivajinagar. Members of several NGOs including Saheli, Kayakalp, Vanchit Vikas, working in the area also attended the meeting. It was also discussed to get office space from the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) for the clinic.

Officials said that the main objective of the clinic is to address the issues of forced rescue operations, violation of human rights of sex workers by the police, exploitation of sex workers by their customers and other family and property related issues.

NGO members and sex workers alleged that most of the times forced rescue operations are carried out and no lawyers are provided for sex workers when they are sent to observation homes by the police. Furthermore, the problems of repatriation of sex workers from Bangladesh and Nepal remain unresolved because of unavailability of lawyers.