New Delhi, December 16: The number of sex workers in the country may touch a whopping five million in just a few years, if the world’s oldest profession is legalised as suggested by the Supreme Court, warn activists.
Hearing a PIL by NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan about large scale child trafficking, the apex court had last week said that if the trade can’t be curbed through punitive measures, legalising it would be a better option to avoid trafficking of women and children.
However, this suggestion has divided activists who work for the welfare of sex workers in the country. Though some welcomed it, many feared that such a move could aggravate the situation.
“By legalising prostitution, you are going to give immunity to the pimps and brothels to buy or sell human beings. It will in turn increase trafficking of young women and children,” said Ruchira Gupta, founder of Apne Aap Women Worldwide, an anti-trafficking organistaion.
“If this trade is legalised, the number of prostitutes in the country might double in just a few years,” she said.
According to the Women and Child Welfare Ministry, there are over three million women working as sex workers in India as of 2003. Of them 1.3 million are children below the age of 14.
But activists, who believe the real number is much more than the official figure, fear once the profession is legalised, the number of sex workers would surpass the population of some European countries like Finland, which has a population of about 5 million.
“Once it is legalised, buyers will seek more young girls. It would in turn increase trafficking and brothels will flourish in the country,” says Gupta.
Echoing similar views, Praveen Patkar, the founder of Mumbai-based NGO Prerana, which works for rehabilitation of children of sex workers, said decriminalisation of the profession will open the floodgates for human trafficking.
“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.
In India, prostitution is not illegal. Only commercialisation of the profession is criminal, as per the Immoral Traffic (Suppression) Act, 1956.
According to the Act, a woman can use her body for a commercial purpose in private, but she cannot solicit business or seduce clients in public. The law, which doesn’t recognise male sex workers, also bars organised prostitution – running brothels, pimping and prostitution rings. The clients can be punished for sexual activity at or close to a public place.
According to Gupta, the countries which have legalised prostitution, have witnessed a sharp rise in trafficking and also in the number of sex workers.
She said, “Besides, an increase in the number of sex workers, the rates of assault and rape against prostituted persons has also increased in Australia and the Netherlands – where prostitution is legalised.”
Following the legalisation of prostitution in Victoria, Australia, not just legal brothels proliferated, it gave also rise to illegal brothels – by 300 per cent in one year.
It also created a conducive environment for sex tourists. As a result, women and girls are being trafficked from South-East Asia to meet the demand.
The same is the case with Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where there are more Eastern European and North African girls than Dutch ones in the brothel district, which according to the city mayor, Job Cohen, has become a centre for illegal immigration and money laundering.
“Being developed nations, if Australia and Netherlands cannot curb illegal trafficking by legalising prostitution, how will it serve the purpose in a country like India,” asked Gupta.
Madhu Kishwar of Centre for the Study of Developing Societies is also opposed to that legalisation of the trade.
“How many of us are willing to let our young children grow up amidst an atmosphere where renting a woman’s body for sex is considered a perfectly legitimate activity?” he asked.
However, some other experts welcomed the court suggestion by saying decriminalisation of the trade is important as it would accord legal status to prostitutes.
“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,” said Anjali Gopalan, the founder and executive director of Naz Foundation Trust.
Arvind Narrain of Alternative Law said such a move would obviously help bring down cases of police harassment.
-PTI