Sex workers in Kolkata will receive trade licences from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) after the Lok Sabha polls, Mayor Subrata Mukherjee said on Friday.

This has been a long-standing demand of the sex workers, he told reporters.

Whether legal or illegal, Mukherjee said, sex workers had been plying their trade for at least 200 years in the metropolis, particularly Sonagachi, the largest red light area in Kolkata.

Incidentally, the Mayor is the Trinamool Congress nominee for the Calcutta Northwest Lok Sabha seat under which Sonagachi falls.

Detractors suspect the announcement is aimed at winning the support of the 15,000-odd sex workers living in that area.