The organisation has not received it’s annual fund, nearly Rs 28 lakh, from the central government, even as half a year has passed by. Their staff of sixty has not received salary for five months now.
A former commercial sex worker from Gadak district in Karnataka is now in a fix. Her community-based organisation (CBO) that takes care of the needs of women involved in sex work hasn't received its annual fund.
It has not received around Rs 28 lakh, from the central government, even as half a year has passed by. Their staff of sixty has not received salary for five months now.
Her organisation, like hundreds of other CBOs, works in close co-ordination with NACO to provide targetted intervention (TI) services like HIV testing, condom distribution, awareness about sexually transmitted infections, amid other activities to up to 2,000 vulnerable women. NACO funds CBOs to carry out HIV awareness and prevention work.
The number of districts with functional CBOs has plummeted to 113 now, according to NACO’s annual report. The government claims that the number of Link-worker Schemes districts has reduced due to non-replacement or self-withdrawal of agencies followed by third party performance evaluations.
She says otherwise. “The staff is reducing or the CBOs are discontinuing work because of lack of funds. Our annual sanctioned fund of Rs 28 lakhs has not arrived even as half a year has passed. We had received full fund only in 2016-17; in the preceding years of 14-15 and 15-16, we had received only 75 per cent of the sanctioned funds,” she rues.
The field staff continue ground-level work despite not receiving salary. It costs the staff Rs 150 a day to travel.
Working at the organisation doesn’t help the staff fend for themselves. They are compelled to resort to sex work to earn their livelihood.
Lack of funds will affect the functioning of projects, said Kallan Gowda, National level co-ordinator, Taaras Secretariat, an NGO which works with CSWs. “If the field workers are not able to supply condoms to sex workers, and she caters to five clients a day, it will have a ripple effect over months of non-intervention,” Gowda said.
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