Gates gives 500 hookers smart cards

A PROJECT backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given chip-embedded smart cards to 500 prostitutes in Mysore, India.

The card allows them to get discounts in shops and hotels and earns them loyalty points that can be redeemed for discounts on later purchases.

But the cards also have the medical record of the prostitute who has to compulsorily get his or her health check up at a clinic once in three months. The card becomes inactive if the holder fails to do this.

The big idea is that it will mean that more prostitutes will be checked for sexually transmitted diseases and get treatment.

Doctors are being given a Simputer, the Indian handheld computer and a reader which connects to the prostitutes' data on a central site.

The smart card initiative is being implemented by Ashodaya Women's Co-ordination Committee, Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT) and Pennant Consulting Services.

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