Indian sex workers learn karate

( Original article appears here: BBC NEWS | South Asia | Indian sex workers learn karate )

I'm a bit impressed with this movement -- the Indian Community Welfare Organization is apparently training the female sex workers for free. According to the BBC article mentioned above, there are about 90,000 sex workers in Tamil Nadu state alone, so the group certainly has their work cut out from them!

Although I don't support any kind of sex industry on the grounds of basic morality and its ability to corrode the familial and societal structure of a civilization (this would require another posting in and of itself), the free karate lessons are a great way to aid the women in their on-the-job safety (on woman described being stripped naked left that way), and are a good way to increase their self-esteem -- leading to the possibility of them one day leaving the trade itself.

(But based on the video on the BBC article, the women have some work to do themselves in actually learning the moves....)