HYDERABAD: The currency ban has virtually grounded the underground sex industry with NGOs working with 60,000 sex workers in the state, including 25,000 in the capital, reporting a sharp 90% dip in business. With clients unable to shell out lower denomination notes, majority sex workers are in a fix as they neither have bank accounts to dig into savings or know alternative livelihood skills for survival in a cash-crunch economy.The worst-hit are those who solicit clients on the street, including bus stands and railway stations. They come from villages and are often driven by poverty to take up the profession.“Their daily average income ranges from Rs 200 to Rs 500, but for the last 20 days, they are on verge of starvation. They don’t have bank accounts to deposit old notes,” said B Jayamma, founder of city-based Chaithanya Mahila Mandali, an award winning community-based organisation working with female sex workers (FSWs).On the flip side, she pointed out that demonetisation could be a godsend opportunity to provide FSWs an alternative livelihood mechanism to wean them out of the profession, but rued the absence of government schemes for their rehabilitation. “Given an alternative opportunity, many FSWs are open to the idea of quitting the profession, but are helpless,” added Jayamma.This is because of the limited role of Telangana State Aids Control Society (TSACS) for HIV/AIDS prevention when it comes to helping FSWs with support from Target Intervention (TI) based voluntary organisations, ignoring other aspects of economic, social and financial security. In fact, financial security for FSWs is key to reducing spread of HIV/AIDs.“If FSWs are not financially secure, it would force them to have unsafe sex with customers for higher amounts, thereby raising chances of infection. But it is not possible when an FSW has financial stability with either a bank account or if she is a member of a self-help group,” said P Purna Chandrika, state programme manager of Avahan-Swasti, an NGO working with 8,558 FSWs in four districts of Telangana.Funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Avahan-Swasti networks with seven community-based organisations in Karimnagar, Khammam, Warangal and Nalgonda and assisted over 8,000 FSWs in opening bank and postal accounts, ration cards and Aadhar cards, besides helping half of them to form thrift groups.When contacted, John Babu, additional project director, Telangana State Aids Control Society (TSACS) said they alone cannot work for providing alternative livelihood mechanism for FSWs. “Our primary aim is to control spread of HIV infection, but such an initiative would require support of many departments besides health,” he said.