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INDIA – ELIMINATING SEX TRAFFICKING IN INDIA – BATTLE OVER LEGALISATION OF SEX WORK
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http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/01/battle-heats-up-over-legalisation-of-sex-work-in-india/
BATTLE HEATS UP OVER LEGALISATION OF SEX WORK IN INDIA
By Neeta Lal
NEW DELHI, Jan 16 2015 (IPS) - Thirty-six-year-old Chameli
Devi, a sex worker operating out of New Delhi’s G.B. Road – Asia’s largest
red-light district, housing an estimated 12,000 of India’s three million sex
workers – is an unhappy woman these days.
A
contentious debate over the sex trade in India, following a call for
legalisation by the National Commission for Women (NCW) – a state-run body that
advises the government on women-related policy matters – has Devi worried.
She feels
that merely issuing licences or permits to people of her ilk will not lead to
the improvement of the unhealthy and, at times, dangerous conditions under
which commercialised prostitution functions.
According
to U.N. reports, about 70 percent of sex workers in India are abused by their
clients and the police. Abuse, say activists, is often under-reported by sex
workers due to a lack of knowledge of their basic rights.
“Most
of us don’t take to the flesh trade out of choice but are sold by criminal
mafias to brothels. The move to regulate our business will only end up giving
immunity to the pimps and brothels to buy or sell poor women like us while
increasing trafficking of young women and children,” Devi told IPS.
A
recent study
conducted by the Indian philanthropic non-profit Dasra found that roughly half
of trafficking victims are adolescent girls, while the average age of sex
workers has dropped from 14-16, to 10-14, “because young girls are believed to
have a lower risk of carrying a sexually transmitted disease”.
“Most
victims come from rural areas, over 70 percent are illiterate, and almost half
reported that their families earned just about one dollar [per day],” the
report stated.
Other studies
have found that most sex workers in India are form the lower castes,
communities that are routinely subjected to violence and exploitation in a
highly stratified society.
It
is unsurprising, then, that scores of women trapped in the trade remain highly
opposed to legalization.
Sarita,
43, another sex worker, feels that while there may be a sound argument for
legalisation in richer countries like the USA, or even China, such a system is
ill-suited to India.
“In
wealthier countries, many women genuinely choose this trade due to better
income prospects and opportunities. But in India, every woman who enters this
trade has invariably been coerced into it by a trafficker, her family or her
husband,” she asserted. “So the dynamics of our society are very different.”
Curbing the flourishing sex trade
A
2014 study,
‘Economics Behind Forced Labour Trafficking’, spearheaded by Indian Nobel Peace
Prize-winner Kailash Satyarthi, contains some of the most up-to-date data on
the flourishing sex trade.
“The
figures are shocking…In India alone, the money generated through [the] sex
trade so far stands at a whopping 343 billion dollars. Research confirms that
several agencies such as traffickers, brothel owners, money lenders, law
enforcement officials, lawyers, judiciary and to a certain level even the
victims of CSE (commercial sexual exploitation) eventually receive money for
participation,” Satyarthi said in the study.
According
to a 2009 United Nations report, sex trafficking is the commonest form of human
trafficking in the world, making it the largest slave trade; about 79 percent
of all human trafficking is for sex work and it is the fastest growing criminal
industry globally.
Countries
that have legalised prostitution are not much better off. The Netherlands,
which legalised prostitution in 2000, continues to grapple with human
traffickers smuggling women into the country’s brothels, point out non-profits
working in the area.
With
the legalisation debate gaining traction, public opinion in India is also
splintered over the issue. Those who favour the move feel that it will whittle
down harassment, legal intimidation, entrapment and exploitation of sex
workers.
NCW
Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam, who set the ball rolling with her
suggestion that the trade be brought under state control last month, feels that
such a step will ensure better living conditions for women engaged in
commercial sex work.
She
contends it will reducing trafficking of both girls and women and improve the
health conditions of sex workers who are presently forced to serve clients in
unhygienic conditions and without condoms, which has caused HIV and other
sexually transmitted diseases to spread.
In
fact health care experts extend some of the strongest arguments in favour of
legalising prostitution, or regulating it. They feel that the rapid spread of
HIV/AIDS across the world, especially in Asia and Africa, can be checked by
bringing the business under the state umbrella as this will help health workers
to better educate those in the trade about condom usage and basic hygiene.
Safer sex work or a massive bureaucracy?
Opponents
of legalisation, however, are wary of the consequences of adding layers of
regulation to India’s massive bureaucracy. They fear that government
intervention could trigger harassment of the very people it seeks to protect.
“Legalising
prostitution is legalising the profiteers of the sex-industry and their
customers,” Ranjana Kumari, director for the New Delhi-based think tank Centre
for Social Research, told IPS.
“It
means rape of poor, lower-caste women with impunity. Not only that, it will
make India a world magnet for sex trafficking and sex tourism.”
Donna
M. Hughes, professor of Women’s Studies at the University of Rhode Island,
writes in her essay ‘Prostitution: Causes and Solutions’ that legalisation does
not reduce prostitution or trafficking.
“In
fact,” she writes, “both activities increase because men can legally buy sex
acts, and pimps and brothel keepers can legally sell and profit from them … In
the Netherlands, since legalisation, there has been an increase in the use of
children in prostitution.”
Activists
working with sex workers are also deeply divided over the issue. While Dr S.
Jana, who launched the 65,000-strong sex workers’ forum — Durbar Mahila
Samanwaya Committee — based out of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, has
supported the legalisation call, others fear that it will further embolden
traffickers and the prostitution mafia.
“Indian
law and government policies have failed to protect sex workers due to the
loopholes in law which makes them vulnerable to abuse. If the trade is
legalised, the situation will worsen,” Meena Seshu, a feminist activist and
founder of SANGRAM, a voluntary organisation working in the field of HIV
control based in Sangli, a city in the western state of Maharashtra, told IPS.
Legalisation,
adds the activist, could also scupper attempts by many women’s
organisations and NGOs to rehabilitate women and children forced into
prostitution.
“The
state should formulate policies and schemes for the rehabilitation of sex
workers who are coming out of this commercial sexual exploitation. This will
offer a better solution to this complex problem,” Seshu contends.