Re: Legalizing sex work in India

[Guest guest]

Sex for sale? The argument doesn't sell

The Planning Commission has joined the ranks of those who want

prostitution legalised. Look at the West to see why they are wrong

REMYA LARA MOHAN

Posted online: Monday, November 14, 2005 at 0000 hours IST

Decriminalisation of prostitution, as suggested by the Planning

Commission, institutionalises the abuse of human beings and is an

obstacle to women's emancipation. Most women enter prostitution

involuntarily for survival or out of ignorance and are unable to

move out of it because of the high exit barriers which are made even

higher by decriminalisation. It is naïve to talk about women

entering prostitution by 'choice' as the average age of entry is

around 13. We must analyse the disastrous consequences of

decriminalisation policy worldwide before embarking on pseudo-

liberal policies which are detrimental to society as a whole.

Many women under the legalization regime will not want to register

and undergo health checks as it makes them more open to abuse by

authorities and robs them of their anonymity. Hence, the clandestine

black-market will flourish all the more. Legal prostitution that

enforces health checks and certification for women alone makes no

common sense and does not protect prostitutes from HIV/AIDS or STDs,

as male " clients " go scot-free with no responsibility whatsoever. It

is also impossible to ensure that all prostitutes use condoms and

are protected from physical or verbal abuse, as services are

rendered in the private domain and only a minority of women will

dare to complain against powerful customers or employers.

In countries that decriminalized prostitution, competitive market

mechanics ensured that 'sex without condoms' is offered as a premium

illegal service at higher rates. When the legal barriers disappear,

the social and ethical barriers to treating women as marketable

items are lifted. Under Germany's welfare reform policy, any woman

under 55 unemployed for more than a year can be forced to take an

available job in the sex industry or forgo her unemployment wages.

This resulted in unemployed Call Centre professionals being offered

jobs on telephone sex lines and waitresses being asked to become

prostitutes. Is this the utopia that we are looking at?

Decriminalised prostitution transforms international trafficking

into voluntary migration for sex work. It exploits the helplessness

and poverty of women worldwide and turns prostitution in to an

accepted component of tourism spawning branded corporate brothels

vying with one another.

Governments that legalise prostitution reap huge economic benefits

from the sex industry which becomes yet another economic sector like

manufacturing or agriculture. State-sanctioned prostitution ignores

the responsibility of democratic governments for making available

sustainable employment for women which does not rob them of their

basic dignity and human rights. No state must condone any trade

which crushes human lives under the pretext of inevitability. Does

the state ponder on legalising slavery? When a woman chooses to

tolerate domestic violence for lack of alternatives, does civil

society sit back and 'legalise' her plight?

Unionising sex-workers and providing condoms to them are beneficial

short term steps, but does not take care of the long term 'big

picture' which must provide women with reasonable options. The

practical approach to combat the sex industry is to prevent entry

and remove exit barriers as much as possible. Successful regulation

of prostitution has already been experimented in Sweden in 1999,

where the buyer of sexual services is prosecuted, thus deterring

demand.

The failure of decriminalisation policy of the 1960s in

Sweden led to this holistic approach which eases prostitutes out of

the business by providing social services and alternative life-

skills. As a result, street prostitution has declined up to 50 per

cent in that country. Contrary to what sceptics may think, illegal

prostitution has not burgeoned. This approach is on the legislative

anvil in Finland, France and Norway where it has dawned upon has

dawned upon governments that 'decriminalisation' is a Pandora's Box,

which should never have been opened in the first place.

The writer, a freelance journalist can be reached at:

remyalara@...

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