Is country ready for legalised sex trade?

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Is country ready for legalised sex trade?

Karanjeet Kaur/ Sujit Nath. New Delhi/Kolkata, December 13, 2009

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.

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