The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Monday informed the Supreme Court that it was willing to issue Aadhaar card to sex workers without insisting on proof of residence/identity, provided they got a certificate from a gazetted officer of the health departments of the States or from an official with the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO).
The suggestion came in a petition before a Bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao and B.R. Gavai on the lack of food security for lakhs of sex workers across the country, especially during the years of pandemic.
The court has been hearing arguments about how the authorities and community-based organisations could reach out to sex workers and provide them with ration card, voter card and Aadhaar card without disclosing their identities. Sex workers still battle social stigma even at the cost of food security.
