Introduction:
Immoral Traffic (prevention Act),1956 defines prostitution as sexual exploitation or abuse of a female for monetary purpose and a “Prostitute” is a person who gains the commercial benefits. Prostitution is a matter of debate since ancient times. Prostitution is considered a taboo in India and all over the world. People engaged in prostitution are never given respect and there is no effective law to protect their human rights. People all over the world judge prostitutes without giving it a second thought about why and how they got engaged in prostitution as nobody on their own will without a many times young girl and children’s are forced into prostitution and other take prostitution as their profession because there is no other way for them to earn a living. But we should respect prostitutes as they sell their bodies and not their soul. And they have every right to live in a healthy environment free of fear and free of shame.
Laws for Protecting Prostitutes and Their Rights
The right to life given to the citizens under the Indian constitution is also applicable to the sex workers or the prostitutes. This was explained in the case of Budhadev karmaskar vs. State of West Bengal, it was explained in the case that sex workers and prostitutes are human beings and no other person has a right to assault or murder them as they also have a right to live. Immoral Traffic (prevention Act), 1956 criminalized certain areas of prostitution and imposed high punishment for such crimes. These are solicitation for prostitution and the punishment for the same is six months imprisonment, owning and managing a brothel is also illegal and punishment for the same can be extended from one year to seven-year of imprisonment and also a fine which can be up to 2000 rs. Kidnapping or trafficking of girls and children for prostitution is a huge crime and the punishment for the same can be rigorous imprisonment which can extend up to seven years to life imprisonment.
Section 370(A) of IPC states a punishment of five to seven years for child trafficking for prostitution. Carrying out prostitution within 200 meters of a public place like schools, hospitals, temple and hospitals is also illegal. Indian penal code, 1860 under section 372 and section 373 penalized the buying and selling of minors for prostitution and awards a punishment which can be extended to ten years to life imprisonment. However, this is applicable only for girls and not boys.
Legalization of Prostitution
Prostitution is considered as a taboo in India and legalization of it will be a difficult task. However, legalization of prostitution can help the prostitutes to live a life of dignity but it may worsen the situation too as
Pros of Legalization of Prostitution
- Improving mental health and traumatic conditions of prostitutes
- Better living conditions for prostitutes
- Force prostitution can be controlled
- Can keep a check on sexually transmitted diseases.
- Given place for prostitutes in the law.
- A great revenue generation for the government.
Cons of Legalization of Prostitution:
- Can be identified as the promulgation of prostitution
- Encourage more women in prostitution
- Can increase the sexually transmitted diseases
- Threat to culture and moral values.
- Can increase the client of prostitution and damaging families.
The number of prostitutes in Delhi is 38000 according to a government report, the situation in Mumbai is even depressing and legalization of it can promote more people to do such business. Although prostitution is not illegal in India it can be regulated. Delhi, Mumbai Kolkata are hubs of prostitution in India.
Prostitutes: Victims or Criminals?
In my opinion, they are both, some are victims and some are criminals although we should respect their profession and rights their impact on the Indian society is equally bad. Victims are those who are forced in prostitution and have to come prostitution because they did not have any other means for living and criminals are those who force others and manipulate them to engage in prostitution.
A survey conducted by the Sarvojna Coalition, an NGO that works for Protection and empowerment of prostitutes revealed that 68% women enter into prostitution because of monetary issues and no other to way to earn a living but many of this women hide the reality of their profession even from their family members and this leads them to live a life of dualism and this results in making difficult for them to differentiate between the reality and beliefs and thus causes mental trauma. About 17% of women agreed that they were forced into prostitution by their family members, relatives or husband. This causes them to always feel alone even in the crowds and they don’t even trust their families. The children of such women are forced into prostitution from a very young age and there is no rule or law to protect such children. The income of the prostitutes depends on themselves their appearance plays a huge rule in their income. The income of prostitute can be two thousand rupees to eight lakh rupees per month.
According to the Crime Investigation Bureau, about 2300 cases were filed in 2016 under ITPA and most of them were girls. Another issue of prostitution is that there is gender discrimination as prostitutes are believed to be girls or women only but man, children, transgender are also the victims of the prostitution but no laws or no government talks about their rights. Many Prostitutes provides discounts to the student clients and this is a huge issue and for such crimes, prostitutes should be punished as they involve youngsters and children’s as their clients because it improves the chances of sexually transmitted diseases and also exploits their thinking and this students later involves their friends too in such activities and this is something which should be prohibited. No one talks about the mental health issues of the prostitutes as the working conditions of them are very depressing even if they earn good money they are forced to live like animals. They are not considered as humans and often people think that it is ok to rape or molest a prostitute as this is their profession but this causes mental trauma in the prostitutes. And even if they go to reports crimes committed against them, they are taken seriously and in worst cases the people they for help exploits or humiliate them and due to this reason, many Prostitutes don’t even report crimes committed against them. And in this condition in the survey conducted many Prostitutes says that the inner human inside them has died a long time ago and they cannot even tell what is right and what is wrong. And such statements prove that their human rights are never given to them.
Conclusion
Prostitution is an old age social issue and dealing with such h chronic problem will not be easy. And during this research, I observed that prostitutes are mostly victims of society. Giving them a respectable position and their rights which they deserve will not be easy. This situation can only be improved by combining the effort of the government and all the other and the efforts of us as Society is required. The government should come up with special laws and schemes for such prostitutes so their exploitation could be reduced. We have to understand that the prostitutes are human as we are. The government should also take steps to provide employment to women as in the survey report it is identified that many women are forced into prostitution only because of the monetary issues so if the government provides them with good employment opportunities, their Life can be saved. Also, the people who force others in Prostitution should be given the biggest punishment possible as it spoils the whole life of an individual it is worse than dying.
The government should also take care and make rules of male or transgender Prostitutes as currently there is no law to protect their rights and save them from the exploitation of prostitution. Many awareness programs or events can be organized by Ngo’s and government to make either people aware about the right of the Prostitutes and the punishment they can have if they are exploiting a Prostitute. So lastly, we as a society can change the lives of the Prostitutes by changing our mentality towards them and providing them with the same human status as we have and also the Prostitutes should have to stop the activities which are illegal in their profession and not involving children’s or students as their clients. So, by working two ways the situation of the Prostitutes can be improved so they are neither the victim’s or criminals if the society but are referred only as humans of society.
References
- Budhadev karmaskar vs state of West Bengal, (2011) 10 scc 283
- INDIAN CONSTI. art 21
- Immoral Traffic (Prevention Act),1956.
- Paul Armento, the case of legalization of Prostitution,1993. https://web.archive.org/web/20100613122617/http://fff.org/freedom/1293e.asp
- Bay swan, Prostitution legal reforms: defining terms, http://www.bayswan.org/defining.html
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