Sex workers demand right to funeral

People do not allow sex workers' or their children's bodies to be buried according to religious rituals though every citizen has equal rights in the country, said leaders of Sex-workers Network of Bangladesh, a combined platform of different sex workers' organisation, at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) in the city yesterday demanding burial right.

Terming the right to funeral as a constitutional right for every citizen, they urged the government to ensure the right in the society.

They said people do not allow their bodies to be buried at the graveyards abhorring them as prostitutes.

"Sex workers face a lot of troubles when they go to bury any sex worker's body at any graveyard but the government remains indifferent," said Momtaz, president of the Network, while reading out a written statement.

Citing an example, she said, "Sonia, a sex worker, died at Faridpur brothel on May 9. Local Sex-workers Network unit took initiative to bury Sonia's body. But locals and the chairman did not allow them to bury her body at the local graveyard."

Parul, organising secretary of the Network, said they want to live in the society as women and human beings but they face tremendous discrimination at every stage of their life.

She urged all progressive people and the civil society to take initiative to create mass awareness so that people treat them as human beings, not prostitutes.

Office Secretary Ivan Ahmed Maya and other sex-workers were present at the conference.