Govt told to reconsider amendments to anti-prostitution law

[Guest guest]

Move to punish clients will stifle our livelihood

9 December, 2005

NATIONAL NETWORK OF SEX WORKERS, DURBAR MAHILA SAMANVAY COMMITTEE (DMSC), LAWYERS COLLECTIVE HIV/AIDS UNIT CALL UPON THE GOVERNMENT TO RECONSIDER AMENDMENTS TO THE ANTI-PROSTITUTION LAW

New Delhi, December 9th 2005- Alarmed at the proposal of the government to punish clients visiting brothels, sex workers from different parts of the country have come to Delhi to protest against the decision that directly affects their livelihood. “Who will look after my children and aged parents if clients stop coming to me for fear of imprisonment?” questioned Swapna Gayen, a sex worker from DMSC, Kolkata.

The Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD), Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, has moved legal amendments to the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA), 1956, the anti-prostitution law, without consulting the community that is most affected by it. “Unknown to us, the DWCD is pushing changes in the law that penalise clients visiting sex workers in brothels”, says Malashree, a sex worker from Andhra Pradesh.

Anand Grover, Advocate and Director of the Lawyers Collective points out that the move to punish clients is not in accordance with the existing legislative policy, as understood in the ITPA, which is to punish third parties who profit from prostitution and not criminalise prostitution per se. The proposed provision punishing clients of sex workers resembles the prostitution law of Sweden, where persons purchasing sexual services are punishable but not those selling sex. “This prohibitionist model has failed to protect sex workers, who are driven underground by clients, wanting to avoid the police. Sex workers are known to have experienced loss of control over their working conditions, and as a result, have become vulnerable to violence, exploitation by pimps and STD and HIV infection”, adds Tripti Tandon of the Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit.

Public health groups and sex workers organisations acknowledge the DWCD’s attempt to review the law including the restrictions placed on sex workers under Section 8 & 20 of ITPA. In fact Section 8 of the existing Act that DWCD seeks to delete under the current proposal is used extensively to harass sex workers who carry safe sex tools such as condoms. “This is a welcome move but what is the point of removing penalties against soliciting, if the police can continue harassment under the provision that criminalizes clients,” argues Mala Singh from Sonagachi, Kolkata.

Dr. Smarjit Jana who pioneered the most successful STD and HIV Intervention Project in Sonagachi, red light area in Kolkata feels that “effective HIV/AIDS programming requires laws that empower sex workers, and not take away their livelihoods.”

Describing the violence that sex workers experience at the hands of the police, Satyawati from Andhra Pradesh also demanded that police powers under the law be brought under scrutiny. Trafficking thrives not because sex workers are party to it, but because of the nexus between the police and the mafia.”

Representatives from Durbar Mahila Samanvay Committee, a collective of over 65,000 sex workers from West Bengal along with their counter parts from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala call on the government and parliamentarians to see their everyday reality before enacting laws on prostitution.

Contacts:

Mrinal Kanti Datta, DMSC (Cell 09831277585)

Dr. Amitrajit Saha (Cell: +9830006784)

Tripti Tandon, Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit (Cell 9811013472)

Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit

1st Floor, 63/2, Masjid Road,

Jangpura,

New Delhi - 110 014

Phone - 011 - 2437 7101, 2437 7102, 2437 2237

Fax - 011 - 2437 2236

e-mail - aidslaw1@...