Kolkata, Aug 22 (IANS): Sex workers from the Sonagachi area in Kolkata, the country's biggest red light area, have refused to give soil from their courtyards which is used for making idols for Bengal's biggest festival Durga Puja.

The refusal comes as a protest to the rape and murder of a junior doctor in the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata within the hospital premises earlier this month, according to an office bearer of the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, an association of sex workers in the state.

As per tradition, for making idols of Goddess Durga, soil from a brothel is mixed with clay.

The soil from the brothels is considered sacred as it is believed that a person sheds all his good qualities when he enters the sex workers' houses.

According to the office bearer, the sex workers had been demanding legal sanctity for the profession for quite some time.

"This year we are not offering the courtyard soil as a mark of protest against the rape and murder of the woman doctor. Often the victims of rape do not get justice. It is high time that we raise our voices of protest in the matter and hence we decided to refuse to provide our courtyard soil,” the office bearer said.

During the last few days, the sex workers from different red-light areas in the state had brought out rallies in protest against the heinous crime. The common slogan in all their protests was - "If necessary, come to us, but do not rape a woman."

Already some community Durga Puja committees in Kolkata have refused the annual donations offered by the state government to them. This year, the donation amount has been increased to Rs 85,000 from the previous year's figure of Rs 70,000.

The body of a female doctor was found under suspicious circumstances in the seminar hall of the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.