The sex workers of Asia's biggest red light area — Sonagachi in Kolkata — will reportedly wear the chef's cap in this year's Durga Puja at various food pavilions run by the fisheries department of West Bengal.
An NGO named Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC) is collaborating with State Fisheries Development Corporation (SFDC) to make this project work by training the sex workers.
"During Pujas we run about eight food pavilions in various parts of Kolkata and two in Bangalore. Most of our cooks have been sent to Bangalore. As we need cooks we approached Durbar and they agreed," SFDC managing director Soumyajit Das told PTI
"We will be training the manpower in both cooking and in fish processing — right from handling a live fish to packaging a finished product. They will cook for our food pavilions during Pujas," he added.
As part of the training conducted by the SFDC, as many as 30 sex workers will be sent to learn to cook various dishes for the food pavilions and also cut and process raw fish that are sent to various departmental stores across the state.
The selected sex workers will be working as chefs in eight food pavilions in Kolkata. After the festival ends, they will be given employment by the state fisheries department and will draw a salary.
"As we need people in our processing units where we regularly have to cater to huge orders from various food chains, online grocery shops and super markets, their (sex workers') employment will not be limited to the pujas," Das said.
The remuneration of the workers will depend on the amount of fish they process, scale, cut fillets out of or dry every day.
