Late Maharashtra MP Jambuwantrao Dhote's daughter Jwala Dhote turns 'brother' for sex workers on Raksha Bandhan

Jwala Dhote, daughter of late MP 'Vidarbhaveer' Jambuwantrao Dhote said that she is keeping alive the tradition of her father who she said believed that those who did not have anyone to look after were his own family members.

Nagpur: Jwala Dhote, daughter of late Maharashtra MP 'Vidarbhaveer' Jambuwantrao Dhote is also a brother this Raksha Bandhan. With men declining to accept the sex workers in the Ganga-Jamuna red light area of Nagpur as their sisters, Jwala on Wednesday turned up to get the rakhi tied from the women to uphold the legacy of her late father.

Rakshabandhan is a festival that binds the loving and tender relationship of brother and sister in silk bonds. Today, on the occasion of Rakshabandhan, there is an atmosphere of excitement everywhere, but the Ganga-Jamuna settlement of the sex workers of Nagpur, has become desolate. Jwala said that after the death of her father Jambuwantrao Dhote in 2017, she has continued the tradition started by her father.

For the past seven years, she has been visiting the Ganga Jamuna settlement and tying rakhi from the sex workers, she said. “Jambuwantrao Dhote had said that the one who has nobody to look after, we are there to take care,” Jwala said. Jwala said that she is fighting a legal battle for the rights of the sex workers, so they are tying rakhis to her as their brother.

The sex workers in the red light area told ETV Bharat that their own families had turned their backs on them. “We are also human beings. We have feelings too, but for this 'civilized' society, we have become mere objects. We feel that our brothers should come and tie rakhi from us,” a sex worker said. Significantly, Vidarbhaveer Jambuwantrao Dhote, the late MP of Nagpur, had tied rakhi from sex workers for 50 consecutive years.