-PTI/ The Telegraph Hailing the apex court's decision, CID officer Shanti Das says every adult woman should have the right to choose her profession Winding by-lanes and the narrow streets of Calcutta's Sonagachi, one of the largest red-light districts in Asia, came alive amid music and merry-making on Friday as sex workers rejoiced over the recent Supreme Court verdict that recognised prostitution as a profession. Coloured powder was smeared on faces and sweets...

-PTI The state government says that approximately 1 lakh people beneficiaries will be identified from the state. Kolkata: In a first, the West Bengal government has decided to provide rice at Rs two per kg to sex workers and poor HIV patients in the state. “This project is the brainchild of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. For the first time in the country, a state government has decided that sex workers and poor HIV...

-PTI 'Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis' (PrEP), regular medicine would be given to HIV-negative sex workers who engage sexually with HIV-positive persons. Kolkata: One of Asia’s largest red light districts, Sonagachi will roll out an experimental project for providing HIV-preventive medicine to sex workers from next month. It will be the first such initiative in the country. The feasibility project recently received clearance from the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) and Union Health Ministry and is...

-PTI Kolkata: Retired sex workers from Asia's largest red-light district of Kolkata's Sonagachi, who are forced to live a life of penury after falling out of favour with customers because of advanced age, would soon be rehabilitated in a new home. As part of the West Bengal government's plan to rehabilitate disabled, sick and old sex workers living in Kolkata, two buildings would house the rehabilitation centres which would have all facilities...

-AFP KOLKATA: Sex workers are being trained to identify counterfeit currency to prevent punters from conning them in the dimly-lit brothels of one of Asia's biggest red light districts. Prostitution is illegal in India, meaning the country's estimated three million sex workers cannot complain to police if they are paid with fake notes. But a campaign group known as the Committee for Indomitable Women has now begun a training programme in Kolkata's notorious...