My Take on Prostitution
The 1994 report of Asian Age reported the presence of at least 70,000 women sex workers in Delhi, Madras, Calcutta, Bangalore and Hyderabad. About 85% Hindus and nearly 66% scheduled castes and tribal women were a part of this about 70,000 crowd. Bangalore and Mumbai have the highest proportion of girl prostitutes. High prostitute supply regions include Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
After reading these facts, what comes first to your mind? Please ponder!
In India, prostitution is technically illegal but widely tolerated. It is linked to professions like bar dancing, Call Centre jobs or vaguely anything where the woman earns not more than three grands a month! In 1998, owing to the rise of prostitutes and negligence by the government towards their safety, prostitutes started to organize and lobby for legalization. Sonagachi in Kolkata, Kamathipura in Mumbai, G.B. Road in New Delhi and Budhwar Peth in Pune host thousands of sex workers there and they are some of the famous red light areas in India. Where one needs to get an official license for prostitution in the developed countries, on the other hand, prostitutes in some Muslim dominated nations are subjected to death sentences. And in between these two extremes lies India, where this profession is neither legal nor illegal! Amazing, indeed! (Hasn’t India always been dancing at the fence in many other issues as well?)
Girl prostitutes are primarily located in low-middle income areas and business districts and are pretty famous amongst officials. People keep talking about them, slugging their reputation and moving them to legal authorities. But hardly anyone thinks of it in true terms (except some sociologists of course). The causes of prostitution though known to the world are taken as unknown facts. Everyone is well versed that the causes include ill treatment by parents, bad company, family prostitutes, social customs, inability to arrange marriage, lack of sex education, media, prior incest and rape, early marriage and desertion, poverty, economic distress, greed, dejection, desire for physical pleasure, lack of recreational facilities and ignorance. But how many of us think of trying to provide these sex workers with either rehabilitation centres or fight for the acceptance of their profession?
The current laws in India that legislate sex workers are somewhat vague, which allows prostitution to legally thrive but attempts to hide it from public. The primary law dealing with the status of sex workers is the 1956 law referred to as ‘The Immoral Traffic (Suppression) Act (SITA)’. According to this law, sex work in India is neither legal nor illegal; it is tolerated since prostitutes can practice their trade privately but cannot legally solicit customers in public. What hurts me is the fact that sex workers are not protected under normal workers laws, and are not entitled to minimum wage benefits, compensation for injury or other benefits that are common in other types of work. They do, however, possess the right to rescue and rehabilitation if they desire and possess all the rights of other citizens. But what remains an unanswered question is when will they get a status which entitles them to being a dignified sex worker who would not be looked-down-at, instead will be looked-up-at?
Writing Credits: Aaishwari Chouhan
Editing Credits: Piyush Singh
After reading these facts, what comes first to your mind? Please ponder!
In India, prostitution is technically illegal but widely tolerated. It is linked to professions like bar dancing, Call Centre jobs or vaguely anything where the woman earns not more than three grands a month! In 1998, owing to the rise of prostitutes and negligence by the government towards their safety, prostitutes started to organize and lobby for legalization. Sonagachi in Kolkata, Kamathipura in Mumbai, G.B. Road in New Delhi and Budhwar Peth in Pune host thousands of sex workers there and they are some of the famous red light areas in India. Where one needs to get an official license for prostitution in the developed countries, on the other hand, prostitutes in some Muslim dominated nations are subjected to death sentences. And in between these two extremes lies India, where this profession is neither legal nor illegal! Amazing, indeed! (Hasn’t India always been dancing at the fence in many other issues as well?)
Girl prostitutes are primarily located in low-middle income areas and business districts and are pretty famous amongst officials. People keep talking about them, slugging their reputation and moving them to legal authorities. But hardly anyone thinks of it in true terms (except some sociologists of course). The causes of prostitution though known to the world are taken as unknown facts. Everyone is well versed that the causes include ill treatment by parents, bad company, family prostitutes, social customs, inability to arrange marriage, lack of sex education, media, prior incest and rape, early marriage and desertion, poverty, economic distress, greed, dejection, desire for physical pleasure, lack of recreational facilities and ignorance. But how many of us think of trying to provide these sex workers with either rehabilitation centres or fight for the acceptance of their profession?
The current laws in India that legislate sex workers are somewhat vague, which allows prostitution to legally thrive but attempts to hide it from public. The primary law dealing with the status of sex workers is the 1956 law referred to as ‘The Immoral Traffic (Suppression) Act (SITA)’. According to this law, sex work in India is neither legal nor illegal; it is tolerated since prostitutes can practice their trade privately but cannot legally solicit customers in public. What hurts me is the fact that sex workers are not protected under normal workers laws, and are not entitled to minimum wage benefits, compensation for injury or other benefits that are common in other types of work. They do, however, possess the right to rescue and rehabilitation if they desire and possess all the rights of other citizens. But what remains an unanswered question is when will they get a status which entitles them to being a dignified sex worker who would not be looked-down-at, instead will be looked-up-at?
Writing Credits: Aaishwari Chouhan
Editing Credits: Piyush Singh
posted by cAfE eXpReSsiOn at 12:12 AM
1 Comments:
can u believe it??they say legalising prostitution wil 2 increase the gdp of India 2 a gr8 extent..
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