A fortnight since the sex workers of Kolkata’s Sonagachi sought assistance with the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR), the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal, Manoj Kumar Agarwal, visited the red-light area with other election officials on Tuesday to organise special assistance camps for marginalised electors.
“There are roughly 12,000 electors in the area. Linkage [with the 2002 voters’ list] has been established for 70% of them. The camps have been held to assist those who are remaining,” Mr. Agarwal said on Tuesday at the camp held at Durga Charan Mitra Street.
According to sources in the CEO’s office, around 800 residents participated in the assistance camps. Around 200 electors were given Form 6 for inclusion as new voters and over 50 were given Form 8 for change of address. Nearly a dozen electors submitted their enumeration forms in the camp, according to sources.
On November 21, three welfare bodies from Sonagachi, considered one of Asia’s largest red light areas, had written to Mr. Agarwal, urging him to take note of the difficulties that sex workers are facing while filling up the enumeration form, and to consider alternative identification for those who are unable to provide information or documents as per ECI guidelines.
