SOME TAMALE commercial sex workers have urged government to consider legitimizing prostitution and further advised citizens to avoid discriminating and stigmatizing them.
According to them they should be seen as human beings who are only trying to keep body and soul moving, for that matter the profession ought not to be treated with contempt.
They advised that government should construct well-furnished brothel or allocate them to a particular street in the metropolis and then tax them at the end of the month. This they said could be an avenue for revenue mobilization for the metropolitan assembly.
�In some countries sex workers pay taxes and are given the space to operate freely, they also sue individuals who break their laws, but in this part of the country, people rain insults on us, as well as harass.�
In a statement copied to the paper in Tamale, they added that �We are not armed robbers, neither are we criminals, but professionals who have agreed to exchange our bodies for money, so the public should respect us as humans.� They appealed.
A 34-year-old sex worker, who gave her name as Malisa, narrated that she was impregnated by one married man who used to offer her money after the demise of her father and forced her to abort the pregnancy, �I refused to adhere to his request, because I might die in the process.� She said that brought her to Tamale.
Malisa said she had never dreamt of being a sex worker, but since her father died, the family members turned down her desire to educate herself.
�I initially wanted to be a nurse or teacher, but little did I know that dreams become futile whenever bread winners pass on.�
Most of them attributed their involvement in the commercial work business to lack of employment and dismissal from work places.
The commercial workers constitute children of school going age from other parts of the country, young ladies and women who are at their menopause stage.
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