Usha: A New Beginning for Sex Workers
Channel: VideoVolunteers
Date: 2017-11-22

A co-operative bank run for and by sex workers is changing lives across West Bengal. 

Putul Singh is a former sex worker who knows the struggle women face trying to break the poverty trap when they are in this profession. “Landlords don’t want to give rental contracts, bank employees turn them away. The only option for loans is to go to the local moneylenders whose high interest rates mean a lifetime of debt. The only way sex workers can save is to keep money with the brothel madam who often is dishonest in her dealings,” she says. To solve the issue, thirteen sex workers came together 22 years ago, pooling their savings and creating Usha: a co-operative bank. From it’s humble beginnings in a small corner of Kolkata’s Sonagachhi, the largest red light district in India and Asia, today Usha helps over 30,000 sex workers. Recently it has also opened up its services for marginalised women in other professions as well as working class men.

Rebeka Parvin reports from West Bengal for Video Volunteers.
 
This video was made by a Video Volunteers Community Correspondent. Community Correspondents come from marginalised communities in India and produce videos on unreported stories. These stories are ’news by those who live it’ and give the hyperlocal context to global human rights and development challenges. Take action for a more just global media by sharing their videos and joining in their call for change.
 
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