Legalising prostitution is a blanket proposition
Some alterations in law to curb the excesses in prostitution can be cogitated about. But the maxim 'if you can't handle it, legalise it' is akin to asking the exorcist to embrace the ghost in hope it will no more haunt.
AS PER the US Department of state, "While the act of prostitution is not illegal (in India), most activities such as the selling, procuring and exploiting of any person for commercial sex as well as profiting from the prostitution of another individual are illegal.” This is what its ‘2008 Human Rights Reports: India’ says.
However curious that may sound and although it’s the truth, the fact must be borne in mind before setting out to celebrate or pan the recent proposal by two Supreme Court judges to the Government of India to legalise prostitution.
Legalising prostitution is a blanket proposition. It is partly about harassment of victims of the trade by authorities but, also about dealing with criminals. If prostitution as a whole were to become legal, wouldn’t it logically follow that driving someone to prostitution would be legal too? After all, the perpetrator is ‘placing’ the subject in a legal profession, isn’t he? Wouldn’t child prostitution — of an estimated 3 million prostitutes in India, 1.2 million are children — then turn legal as well?
What must change in law are:
- A defence lawyer, fighting for an accused in a rape case, should be debarred from questioning if the victim is a prostitute. Even if she is, sex with her without her consent is rape.
- If a woman willingly wants to use her body as a commodity, the state has no locus standi in the case to protect her morality or prevent her immorality. Arresting her and trying her in court thus makes no sense at all.
- In the light of the right interpretation of law, that soliciting and procuring sex commercially are both criminal activities in India, it becomes a clear case of violation when the preventive Act turns into an instrument to blackmail the sex worker.
- If prostitution is legalised, the illegal flow of money between the sex workers and other operatives in red light areas will end. This could well prove good economics, provided the ‘unemployed’ touts can thereafter be stopped from venturing into other walks of public life to launch some hitherto unexploited means of extortion.
- It will be possible for health agencies to identify and treat this potentially high-risk group for HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, without wrangling over the medical and humane act’s legitimacy.
As for the sociological aspect, it must be impressed upon legislators and the people alike that the view that all prostitutes are oppressed and a result of exploitation by men is ultra-feminist, unrealistic, melodramatic and romantic. For one, matriarchal societies have no less numbers of prostitutes than the patriarchal ones; some comparative international and domestic studies would suggest the former have more!
Notably, the Sex Workers Alliance of Vancouver declares, “Some ‘recovery’ programmes and women's groups like to regard prostitutes as victims, despite the fact that many current and former prostitutes believe themselves to be nothing of the kind. This victim mentality is a convenient way of absolving oneself of blame for making ill-conceived or unwise choices. Typically applied to female rather than male prostitutes, it reinforces the archaic notion that women don't know what's good for them and are incapable not only of making their own decisions, but also of taking responsibility for those decisions.” This is an almost all-women group owning up!
That notwithstanding, during the hearing of a PIL filed by NGOs Bachpan Bachao Andolan and Childline complaining about large-scale child trafficking in the country, Justices Dalveer Bhandari and AK Patnaik of the Supreme 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 terms of status of a country in the international community, many countries that have experimented with the sex industry now realise the folly. A legalised sex industry has not decreased sexual violence against women in any country; rather, the act has turned the spot into an international sex tourism destination. “Over the past decade, the most popular proposed solutions to sex trafficking and ‘out of control’ prostitution is legalisation of prostitution.
Prostitution has been legalised with the expectation that it would bring positive outcomes in Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, and recently, in New Zealand. Although legalisation has resulted in big legal profits for a few, the other benefits have not materialised. Organised crime groups continue to traffic women and children and run illegal prostitution operations along side the legal businesses. In Victoria, Australia, legalisation of brothels was supposed to eliminate street prostitution. It did not; in fact, there are many more women on the street than before legalisation. Last year, there were calls for legalising street prostitution in order to ‘control it.
It will be au fait to remind the apex court and government that the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 has miserably failed to curb corruption. Its telling effects on the nation was amply illustrated by the very court in its judgment in the case KC Sareen vs CBI, Chandigarh. Corruption has only multiplied in all spheres of life rather than witness a decline in the past 20 years for which the stringent law has been in place. Should the government therefore legalise graft and fix the amount of commission or bribe that each public servant be entitled to take?
Some alterations in law to curb the excesses in prostitution can be cogitated about. But the maxim ‘if you can’t handle it, legalise it’ is akin to asking the exorcist to embrace the ghost in hope it will no more haunt.
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The portion "??????Over the past decade, the most popular proposed solutions to sex trafficking and ??????out of control?????? prostitution is legalisation of prostitution... there were calls for legalising street prostitution in order to ??????control it??????:?????? was attributed to Donna M Hughes, Professor & Carlson Endowed Chair in Women??????s Studies, University of Rhode Island, from her exposition, ??????Prostitution: Causes and Solutions??????." The removal of her name is conveying a misleading message. I hope the editors of 'MeriNews' restore that portion unedited from my draft.
Nice to see an article on a bold topic handled with perfection. But my question to the readers is ..............can such laws pass both the houses of the parliament?
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