Organizer of the Centre, lawyer Senaka Perera told Sri Lanka Mirror that sex workers, numbering 60,000 scattered around the country, have the same rights as those of other citizens.

However, they are coming under severe repression due to backward attitude of society, he said.

Their social issues such as marriage, no recognition for their children etc. force their children too, to take to work as sex workers, said the lawyer.

The law relating to them, the vagrants’ ordinance of 1960, is outdated and need to be amended, according to him.

Poverty and being stranded by men are main reasons for women to take to prostitution, he noted.

Also, trafficking of children and women has become a serious issue.

A discussion on the need to legalize prostitution will take place at CSR in Maradana starting at 3.00 pm today (19).