Kolkata, Dec. 7 -- The office of the Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) will hold a special assistance camp for sex workers in Sonagachi on December 9, after many reported difficulty in tracing records from 2002, a mandatory requirement under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.
An official in the CEO's office said three organisations working in the locality had informed CEO Manoj Kumar Agarwal about gaps faced, particularly by women who never lived with their parents, were abandoned, or have lost family connections.
"Our main intention is to ensure that not a single legitimate voter is left out of the electoral rolls. We have received reports that sex workers in these areas are filling up the forms, but many were unable to find any linkage to the 2002 voter list. We will extend support on how they should proceed," the official said.
The three organisations-Society of Human Development and Social Action, Usha Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd, and Amra Padatik-wrote to the CEO saying many sex workers feared filling up enumeration forms due to concerns about losing citizenship, while others had moved elsewhere. They requested a camp to help them complete the forms.
The CEO's office has agreed, and senior officials, including Agarwal himself, are slated to be present at the camp on Tuesday, December 9, to hear the issues and assist workers.
Sonagachi, under the Shyampukur Assembly constituency in north Kolkata, is known as Asia's largest red-light district.
With December 11 being the last date for submitting enumeration forms, the camp will be held two days before the deadline.
According to the poll body, over 7.62 crore forms-99.54 per cent-have been digitised across the state. The total number of forms distributed stands at more than 7.66 crore, accounting for 99.98 per cent.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.