The United Democratic Party (UDP) has weighed in on the matter of sex workers in Shillong, an issue that has come to the fore of late.
UDP Vice-President and Adviser to the Chief Minister, Allantry F Dkhar, said today that social intervention by the government is required to provide alternate livelihoods to sex workers.
“We have witnessed that such a grim situation has devoured some of our youths and I think some sort of social intervention in the form of counseling is immediately required to assist and help them,” he told reporters today.
He opined that the Social Welfare Department should involve field workers to trace all the people who are in such a situation and to encourage them to come forward and get some sort of assistance from the government so as to refrain from sex work.
“The government can help them by providing stipends for skill development and the Dorbar Shnong, NGOs and women’s organizations can also intervene and find ways and means to help our youth who are stuck in such a situation,” Dkhar said.
Quoting the saying “Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future,” he said that it is easy to pinpoint someone else’s mistakes but it is more important to help and guide the youth back on the right track.
