Should prostitution be legalised or decriminalised?

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Should prostitution be legalised or decriminalised?

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 Will legalising prostitution, an issue raised by the Supreme

Court, end the exploitation of thousands of women pushed into the flesh trade

and help curb the spread of HIV or would it be better to decriminalise it?

On Wednesday, Justices Dalveer Bhandari and A.K. Patnaik of the apex court told

Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam on the matter of prstitution that " 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 legalize it? You can then monitor the trade, rehabilitate

and provide medical aid to those involved. "

Kerala Education and Culture Minister M.A. Baby said there are countries that

have legalized the world's oldest profession " but in a place like ours which has

a rich cultural ethos, this certainly cannot happen " .

" In order to tackle HIV, basic education has to be provided to all with special

emphasis on adult education at the Plus 2 levels. The present employment

guarantee scheme should also be spread across the length and breadth of the

country. Child marriages should not take place and land reforms should be

undertaken, " Baby told IANS.

S.K. Harikumar, behavior physician and a leading consultant in HIV/AIDS, said

that legalizing and decriminialisation are two different issues.

" As far as I see this, decriminalization of multi-partner sex among both males

and females should take place. This should no longer be a criminal act. The

right to privacy in sexual acts, urges and desires should be vested with the

individual. Legalising this will in no way guarantee anything, " Harikumar said.

According to the latest figures, Harikumar said there are more than 55,000

prostitutes in Kerala and the pattern over the years is that it has been showing

consistent growth.

Fr Thelakat, spokesperson of the Syro Malabar Catholic Church in Kerala,

said there is no guarantee that HIV can be eradicated by legalizing prostitution

but would instead aggravate it.

" We are living in a world where man and woman are equal with full dignity of a

son and daughter of god. A nation must engage in greater efforts to help free

women from the abuses against human dignity that result from prostitution. The

state must not make prostitution a form of employment but provide other

dignified employment opportunities, " Thelakat told IANS.

Nalini Jameela, 56, who has been a sex worker since 1978, is in the news because

of her Malayalam book, translated into English as " Autobiography of a Sex

Worker " , which sold 13,000 copies within 100 days of its release in 2004 and

went through six editions.

Attending a conclave of sex workers in Bangalore, Jameela said she has to

literally fight every day against the stigma attached to her profession. " We

have done our best to be part of various other mainstream groups, but we are

still stigmatised, " lamented the author and sex workers' rights activist.

Nalini feels the biggest battle for her community is to make the profession

legal. " Once our profession is legalised, nobody can harass us, " Nalini told

IANS.

" On one hand, police use force and violence against us. Society also

discriminates against us because of our profession. All this violence and

discrimination will end once our profession is legalised, " she said.

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