The prostitute in Indian cinema and ancient literature is glamoursied, even glorified. But the reality couldn’t be more different.
A recent comment by the Supreme Court, however, may mark the beginning of a change.
A bench comprising Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice A. K. Patnaik on Wednesday suggested to the government to legalise sex trade.
During the hearing of a public interest litigation filed by NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan, seeking to check largescale child trafficking, the court told solicitor- general Gopal Subramaniam: ” When you say it is the world’s oldest profession and when you are not able to curb it by laws, why don’t you legalise it? You can then monitor the trade, rehabilitate and provide medical aid to those involved in it.” The suggestion has reignited the debate over legalising the world’s oldest profession in India, with both the supporters and the opponents forwarding strong arguments.
Legalising or even decriminalising sex trade could potentially open up the proverbial Pandora’s box.
Even if the stigma associated with prostitution were to be kept out of consideration, experts say the move could potentially lead to rampant, uninhibited trafficking, especially of minors.
On the other hand, there are others who argue that decriminalisation of the trade is important for according legal status to prostitutes, who are not protected by labour laws and are constantly harassed by corrupt policemen.
The move could also give a fillip to the fight against HIV/ AIDS by ensuring that sex workers have greater access to medical and preventive facilities.
Prostitution is not illegal in India. It is only commercialised vice that is criminal, according to Immoral Traffic ( Suppression) Act, 1956, also known as SITA. This means while a woman can use her body in private for a commercial purpose – male sex workers are not recognised by the law – but she can be punished for soliciting business or seducing clients in public.
Organised prostitution – running brothels, pimping and prostitution rings – is illegal. The clients can be punished for sexual activity at or close to a public place.
The law was later amended and re- designated as Immoral Traffic ( Prevention Act) 1986, but its substance remained unchanged.
The Act, though, is rarely used by the police to charge sex workers; instead, they are usually prosecuted under the Indian Penal Code for charges such as ‘ public indecency’. Experts who work with sex workers are virulently divided on the issue of decriminalisation.
Praveen Patkar, the founder of Prerana, a Mumbai- based NGO that works towards the rehabilitation and education of sex workers’ children, said legalising or even decriminalising the trade will open the floodgates and trafficking of women and children will acquire a legal edge.
” Despite having a well- formulated law against trafficking, we have been unable to check the menace. By what stretch of imagination can we believe that trafficking can be curbed when the trade itself is decriminalised?” he said.
There is a need, though, to delink sex work from trafficking.
Jamia Milia Islamia professor Shohini Ghosh, who made the 2002 film Tales of the Night Fairies on the sex workers of Sonagachi in Kolkata, said if the trade is decriminalised, it’ll be organised like any other profession and the rights of sex workers will be easier to protect. ” At present, a sex worker can’t report any crime against her for fear of retribution,” she said.
Bharati Dey, the programme director of Durbar Mahila Samanwnay Samity, an NGO working for the welfare of sex workers in West Bengal, welcomed the Supreme Court’s suggestion.
” This will help sex workers find access to a good livelihood,” said Dey, who’s now in the Capital for a conference by the National Network of Sex Workers, who are debating, among other things, the demand to decriminalise the trade.
She said the step would help children of sex workers who find it difficult to get admission in schools.
There is, of course, the issue of health. Anjali Gopalan, the founder and executive director of Naz Foundation Trust, said decriminalisation will help sex workers to be more assertive about condom use.
Pointing to the Sonagachi project, run largely by the sex workers themselves, Gopalan said it has helped keep HIV infection rate at 5 per cent, the lowest in India.
Patkar, though, said decriminalisation will just lead to a false sense of security. ” Customers usually throw caution to the winds. Compulsory testing also depends on budgets. Also, it is not possible to check the customers, who eventually spread the infection,” he said.
Arvind Narrain, founder of the Bangalore- based Alternative Law Forum, said the court’s comment is not the same thing as a move towards decriminalisation.
” Sure, it will help bring down cases of police harassment. But a judgment, if ever there is to be one, is really far away,” he says.
Nevertheless, hope floats. As Sonam, a sex worker from Agra in a Sonagachi brothel, said: ” Our pleas usually get suppressed in these dingy lanes. I wish we weren’t treated like criminals.” If the country’s highest court were to take action on its suggestion, the muffled prayers of lakhs of women such as Sonam may finally get heard.
source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/74799/India/Is+country+ready+for+legalised+sex+trade.html