A group of sex workers in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district have donated Rs 21,000 for relief work after floods in Kerala, PTI reported on Tuesday. They will raise Rs 1 lakh more by the end of the month, said Dipak Buram, the coordinator of nonprofit Snehalaya that works with sex workers in the city.
The group made the donation through a cheque drawn in favour of the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund. They presented the cheque to the district’s resident deputy collector on Monday, Buram told PTI.
Sex workers have contributed funds for relief work in the past as well, including during the Chennai floods in 2015, the tsunami of 2004 and the Gujarat earthquake in 2001, he said.
Donations have been pouring in from all quarters. On Monday, 13 fishermen from Kozhikode’s Kappad beach had organised a donation collection drive to buy amenities worth Rs 2 lakh for flood victims in Ernakulam.
Various state governments have donated to the relief work in recent days. Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra has said that judges of the Supreme Court will contribute to the relief fund too.
Rescue and relief work is under way after Kerala experienced its worst floods in a century. At least 223 people have lost their lives in the rains, floods and landslides in the state since August 8 and more than 360 people since May 29.
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