WINTER HUMAN RIGHTS TRAINING PROGRAMME

( 26th Dec.2009 to 25th January,2010 )

Organized by:

Dr. RML National Law University,Lucknow

In collaboration with:

National Human Rights Commission, New Delhi

Project on:

PROSTITUTES AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Submitted To:
Dr. A.K.Tiwari (Coordinator)

Submitted By:
Chandra Nath Singh LL.M.-2nd Sem. RMLNLU Roll NO.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I am obliged to coordinator Dr. A. K. TIWARI under whose guidance and supervision I have completed my project. He has kindly extended his help and support through his guidance for discussing the concepts, the means of finding sources and how to identify them and also in providing guidelines as to how to write a project. I am also thankful to library staff for their assistance in guiding as through different sections. I am also obliged to my seniors and friends like sarabjeet singh (LL.M. student), who are fully supporting to me.

CONTENTS
S.no.
1. Introduction 2. History of Prostitution in India 3. legalization of Prostitution 4. Effect of Prohibition 5. Benefits of Legalization 6.Health Safety 7. Data Driven Analysis 8. Conclusion And Suggestion 9.Bibliography

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Prostitutes and Human Rights

1. Introduction:
Prostitution has been one of the social evils since time immemorial. In all the time and in all societies there has been prostitution. The phenomenon of prostitution is linked with sexual pleasure by men and women both, which is a biological need of human beings and some animals such as dolphins. Sex is one of the most beautiful creations of nature which must be given to every one. For this institution of marriage has been developed. Marriage represents one half of sexual life of the world and prostitution the other. Marriage is the front and prostitution the back of medal. When a man finds no satisfaction in marriage he generally resorts to prostitution and when for one reason or the other remains unmarried, it is again prostitution to which he has recourse. The only difference between women, who sell themselves in prostitution and who sell themselves in marriage, is the price and the length of time for which the contract runs. For both, the sexual act is a service, while one is hired for life by one man; the other has several clients who pay for her price. Patriarchal society has developed double standards of morality for men and women. Males have free access to numerous women and this fazing ultimately turns her into prostitution. If women indulge in prostitution for enjoyment as well as for earning money to live a decent life, according to my opinion there should be no hue and cry in society. But problem arises where girls are sold for the purpose of the flesh trade. Girls are lured on promises of jobs or for settling marriage but sold to brothels and are transported from place to place, for purpose of prostitution.1 Prostitution is a social problem and various criminologists have talked about various causative factors which are responsible for prostitution such as poverty, desire for luxuries, material benefit, prospects of easy life, hereditary influences, reduction, infidelity of lover, child abuse, parental neglect, early sex experience, neglect by husband, dissatisfaction with married life, desertion by husband and divorce, bad company, presentation by procurers and pimps, blackmail and intimidation by brothelkeepers, labeling of a women as prostitute by society and thereby rejection of women and her children as outcast, who are destined to indulge in prostitution. The most important cause of prostitution is customers demand. In prostitution less effort is required to satisfy sexual desire, because seducing a respectable women and dating a girl is costly.

Practiclelowyer/index.php?option=com

2. History of prostitution:
(a) In-India:
Prostitution is one of the oldest human activities being practiced throughout the world. Prostitution is practiced in every nation and in every society throughout the world. India which is one of the oldest civilizations on the earth, presents an extensive account of prostitution. Prostitution existed in Rig Vedic times. Girls without brothers were frequently reduced to prostitution. Indian mythology contains many references of Apsaras who have been stated as the women having deliberate sexual contacts with Devatas. Apsaras were courtesans of heaven having multiple sex partners. Prostitution was an accepted profession during Brahamana period. Prostitutes were called Veshyas and were means of entertainment for traders and merchants who led a life cut-off from home. In Epic period the institution of the courtesans is described as having a legal status. Veshyas were common during the reign of Pandavas and Kauravas. Mahabharata has recorded the name of forty-two Apsaras in all. The most important amongst them were Urvashi, Menaka, Tilottama, Rambha and Ghritachee. Epic Ramayana mentions courtesans as well as drinking bars, where adultery and other immoral practices were indulged in. In Gosthi, women of Bandi class used to provide entertainment for king and nobles. At the time of Chandragupta Maurya, Patliputra was a flourishing centre for prostitution. Brothel-keeping was looked upon as a source of government revenue. Vatsayayanas Kamsutra is the most important source of information about prostitution in ancient India. In sixth chapter of Kamsutra there is mention of various types of prostitutes such as Kumbhadasi, Kulta, Paricharika and Ganika, etc. The Purana tells us about nymphs who used to come on earth to break chastity of sages. The love affairs of Pururva and Urvasi have been described in Puranas. Kalidas refers to the presence of dancing girls in Mahakalka temple of Ujjayini at the time of evening worship. The dancing girls used to be offered by their parents to the service of God, the priests misused them for immoral purposes in the garb of religion. This system was known as Devadasi system. During the Muslim period sultans and nawabs used to keep male and female slaves. There was system of keeping concubines and prostitutes in the houses of nawabs.2 In Mughal period prostitution was recognized institution, Akbar maintained a seraglio of 5000 women. The Mughal kings were great patrons of music and dance. Women accompanied the Mughal army and moved with them from place to place for entertainment of army personnel. Prostitution in India increased due to entry of Europeans. Sailors after their long and dull voyages wanted to have some relaxation during their halt in ports and used to visit houses of prostitutes in areas adjoining sea ports. These sailors came to India without their spouses and kept native concubines. Prostitution kept on increasing due to economic hardship faced by the Indian society. Patronage to prostitution in British rule was given by zamindars, talukedars and nawabs. Thus the prostitution existed in India in one form or other since the time immemorial. Its nature has changed from period to period but the evil has continued.
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(b) In other civilizations:

The historical literatures show that the evidence of presence of prostitution, in every civilization of world. In Egypt the prostitution attained the highest peak of perfection in ancient time. In no part of Greek history the prostitution was forbidden, organized prostitution appeared as a result of legislation introduced by Solon. In ancient Rome there were two types of registered house of prostitution, one with rooms rented by prostitutes and other with hired slaves or prostitutes. Prostitutes used to live in cubicles, a cubicle was a small space formed by dividing a larger room. Over the door of each cubicle appeared a signboard with the name of the prostitute and the price. The signboard was reversed when the prostitute was engaged. A cashier collected fee before turning the signboard. Prostitutes were required to be registered in the office of Police Inspector.

3. Legalization of prostitution:
It is quite natural on a biological level for males and females to desire to have an intimate relationship with the opposite sex. One provides sex for love while other provides love for sex. One finds warmth and attention within act of sex. Like ants who send chemical message to each other, the human being also communicates for sex. A primal desire must not be ignored or suppressed but instead managed. It must be ensured that each member of society must get sex because sex is one of the most important instrument to release stress. Sex is not a foreign concept to anyone. When we examine sex as a trade, the combination of philosophy, culture, religious influence and politics becomes a decisive factor in selecting how to manage it. In Singapore sex for money is open and commonplace. In Denmark women can be legal prostitutes. Canada, France and Mexico allow it. In Netherlands brothel prostitution is allowed. In England and Wales prostitution is limited to individual providers. Israel also allows it. But United States has made prostitution illegal in all States except certain counties of Nevada. In India prostitution is prohibited and punishable.

4.Effect of prohibition:3
Like other human instincts such as hunger, thirst and sleep, sex is also a human instinct given by nature and is the most important aspect of human right essential to enjoy life and if a restriction is imposed on this, it may create another social problem. We can compare effect of prohibition on sex with prohibition of distribution and sale of alcohol. The United States Government had imposed prohibition from 1920 to 1933 and Government of India imposed prohibition during the Prime Ministership of late Shri Morarji Desai. We can recall the effect it had on alcohol consumption. People started
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producing alcohol at home. The price of alcohol sky-rocketed in the black market. Bootlegging became a thriving industry. As a result prohibition did literally nothing to prevent alcohol from being consumed by the public. The Government and ultimately the public suffered huge losses from prohibition. The Government lost considerable amount of tax from alcohol sold in the black market and it became impossible to regulate quality i.e. safety of the product. In fact when per capita cost are analyzed, spending more to curb behavior did literally nothing against consumption making total mockery of lawenforcement efforts. Social irresponsibility of this magnitude during depression was horrific when considering how these monies could have been spent to do good for society. Programme could have been developed to help the unemployment, to provide health care and social programme, etc. It was thought prohibition would put an end to many social problems but it actually created many more. We can see over the course of human history that the philosophy of repression and abolition bears no merit.

5.Benefits of legalization :
In countries like the United States and India where legal system penalizes prostitutes and their customers for what they do as consenting adults, money is spent on lawenforcement efforts to catch prostitutes and their customers. Once caught justice departments have to process these people through very expensive systems. Police personnel and courtrooms are overburdened with these cases having little or no impact on prostitution. The prostitutes and their customers pay their fines and are back to the street in no time in a revolving-door process. Catch and release may work for recreational fishing but it has no deterring effect on prostitution. Making prostitution legal, will allow the act to be managed instead of ignored pimps and brothel-keepers, who regularly treat their workers on subhuman level would no longer control women. When prostitutes operate secretly they are subjected to abuse and exploitation by police officials and pimps. Legalizing prostitution would prevent underground prostitution that occurs today. When men want to pay for sex they can find prostitute. If we allow prostitution to remain hidden from view as is today, we allow a number of teens to be swept up into prostitution every year. Legalized, regulated prostitution has many benefits. Encounters can happen within controlled environment that bring about safety for both customer and prostitutes. Prostitutes would no longer be strong armed by pimps or organized crime rings. Underage prostitution would be curtailed. There would also be health safety improvements.

6.Health safety :4
Prostitutes are very prone to sexually transmitted diseases for short STDs like Syphilis, gonorrhoea, chlamydia and herpes. Prostitutes must be monitored to prevent the spread of these afflictions. Chancroid, a STD typically found in third world nations, is occurring in places throughout US due to transmission through illegal prostitution. Chancroid makes ulcers in the vagina that assist the spread of HIV/AIDS. Government can help its citizens by monitoring prostitution and the best way to monitor is by legalizing it and regulating
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it. Legalization would require prostitutes to undergo regular medical examination. STD and HIV/AIDS would be prevented from being spread as well as other communicable diseases like hepatitis and tuberculosis.

7. Data-driven analysis:
Society must decide whether regulated prostitution is better than illegal prostitution and scientists must analyze the wealth of information that exists. Social scientists and common citizens must look at data from countries having legal prostitution and compare them to the United States. Canada, the Netherlands, Mexico and France have legal form of prostitution as does Israel, Greece, Denmark, Singapore and the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia allows polygamy and Iran offers temporary wives. Examining these countries in the broad areas of crime, health care, and social conditions will help to determine if prostitution should be legalized. A. Crime In Table 1 below, we will find comparative statistics on serious crime and information on how criminals are pursued. Murders, rapes, the number of adults prosecuted, and number of prisoners per country are listed. Serious crime is high in the United States. US places second on the murder list. The only country with a higher rate is Mexico. US have nearly half the murders as Mexico, but has two-and-a-half times as many murders as in Canada. When looking at rape data, US is second on the list, with Canada topping it. US rate is slightly less than half of Canadas rate, but more than double of Frances rate. The United States sits firmly in second place with these two violent crimes.5 The United States has problems with violent crime despite great efforts to prosecute criminals and imprison them. US prosecute almost five times the number of people as in Canada and over eight times the number in the Mexico reports. US is also unrivalled in terms of imprisonment. France comes the closest to USs number of inmates, confining one-sixth the number as in US. It is unknown if there is a correlation between laws that prohibit sex and higher crime rates, but the reverse appears to be more enlightening. The countries where prostitution is legal do not suffer from a high number of violent crimes. It appears legalized prostitution does not make societies more of a crime hazard. Contrary to the prohibitionists philosophy, this data may give reason to implement and regulate prostitution to reduce crime because crime in countries where prostitution is legal is lower than the USs rates.

* Table 1: Crime
Canada Denmark Frrance
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Murders per 1000 0.02 0.01 0.02

Rapes per 1000 0.75 0.09 0.14

Adults prosecuted per 1000 11.8 X 0.9

Prisoners per 1000 1.1 0.6 0.9

Crime.about.com/od/prostitution/a/prostitution.htm

Greece Iran Israel Mexico Netherlands /td> SaudiArabia Singapore United Kingdom United States

0.01 X X 0.13 0.01 0 X 0.01 0.05

0.01 X X 0.13 0.1 0 X 0.14 0.32

X X X 0.6 11.0 X X 25.2 50.6

X X X 1.5 0.7 1 X 1.1 6.4

B. Health care we recognize the general level of compassion and technological

ability of a country in part by its ability to provide health care to its citizens. Laws, social trends, and health care distribution also determine how a country will react to these variables. In Table 2 below, we will find data on HIV/AIDS rates and life expectancy levels for various countries. The United States is tied at first place with UK when it comes to the number of people per capita who live with HIV/AIDS. In Israel, where prostitution is legal, they suffer from nearly an eighth of USs number. US is number one on the list for number of people dying of HIV/AIDS. There are many reasons to explain this fact even though UK has an equal number of people infected with HIV/AIDS living in the country, but none of those reasons have to do with the legalization of prostitution. It may be a bit perplexing to prohibitionists when a country with legalized prostitution like Canada, has a seventh of the number of HIV/AIDS infection as US. When looking at mean life expectancy by country, the result is less than special. There appears to be no causal relation between life expectancy and prostitution laws. However, the six countries that have higher life expectancies do have legal forms of prostitution, making it clear that prostitution does not negatively affect longevity.6

Table 2: Health care

People living with HIV/AIDS per 1000 1.5 HIV/AIDS deaths per 1000 0.01 Mean life expectancy 79.7

Canada
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www.healthline.com/.../healthline.../health-concerns-of-prostitutes.html

Denmark 0.8 Frrance 2.2 Greece 0.8 Iran X Israel 0.4 Mexico 1.5 Netherlands 0.9 SaudiArabia X Singapore 0.9 United Kingdom3.0 United States 3

0 0.03 0 X 0 0.05 0.01 0 0.05 0.01 0.07

76.9 79.1 78.7 70.3 78.8 72.0 78.6 68.4 80.3 78.0 77.4

C. Social conditions one way to get a general idea of social structures within a
country is to look at money spent on education, suicide rates and divorce rates. In Table 3 below, details regarding that information can be found which sheds some light on preparedness for the future, happiness and monogamy within each country. How a country view education tells us how its people value children and how its people plan for the future. It is a measure of how evolved its society is as well. US is fifth on the list even though it has the greatest GDP ($10 trillion, 2001) of all countrieseven of those that are not listed in Table 3. However, Saudi Arabia and Denmarks statistics are over 50% more than USs value. Denmark allocates a huge percentage of their limited resources on education, telling us how must its people value education. It is possible Denmark, along with other countries, having legalized prostitution as a result of the education they receive. A measure of the overall citizen happiness may be obtained by looking at suicide rates for each country. US is third highest on the list and has over 50% more suicides per capita than Denmark. Greece and Mexico have higher rates, which may be a result caused by the low socio-economic conditions permeating those countries. Also, we see a trend occurring for countries that have legal prostitution; they have lower suicide rate, suggesting yet another benefit of industry regulation. If we compare divorce rates between countries, we will understand the success of institutional monogamy under different social conditions. The United States is second highest, with eight times the divorces as in Mexico, twice and many as in Canada and 55% more than in Denmark. It is clear that US has a high turnover rate. Meanwhile, most countries with legal prostitution have less of a problem with institutional monogamy.

D. Summary given the three broad categories above (crime, health care, social
conditions) the countries having legal prostitution enjoy many benefits the United States does not. Crime is higher within US despite severe laws, intense prosecution rates and a high number of imprisonments. People infected with HIV/AIDS are higher, as is the number HIV/AIDS deaths in US. Even suicide rates and divorce rates are disproportionately high in US too.

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Upon a close examination of the Netherlands reveal interesting findings. Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands and is internationally known for its red-light district. Critics to prostitution might be stunned to learn that the Netherlands has the least number of murders and rapes. It prosecutes a considerable amount of criminals but has a low number of prisoners. It does not suffer from an HIV/AIDS epidemic, like US and UK and has the second lowest suicide rate listed. This news will literally stop critics (who are open to reason) in their tracks when they are confronted with such information. A scientific study may be able to prove a causal relationship between legalized, regulated prostitution and the benefits of lower crime, better health care, lower suicide rates and lower divorce rates.

8. Conclusion and suggestion:

It can be argued that sex for money is wrong and prostitutes are victims of physical abuse and frequently suffer from homelessness, alcoholism and dependency on drugs. The above discussion shows that prostitutes cannot be removed from society and prohibition is not a solution. There is need to manage the problem through medical and social intervention accompanied by regulation of industry. When critics mention neighborhood safely they do not offer meaningful alternatives. Their plan is to increase police patrol, encourage undercover sting operations and stiffen penalties. We have seen the result of prohibition in above pages, it may drive the industry further underground making it harder to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and various other sexually transmitted diseases in a community and the women who need help will continue their lives on the same harmful paths. There are three strata of prostitutes. In the top there are call girls for the affluent and VIPs, in the middle there are prostitutes living in good bungalows, night clubs, massage parlors who offer back room service and third category belongs to streetwalker and brothel prostitutes. The third category prostitutes occupy the lowest layer and are faced with most problems. It is the group that usually remains perpetually vulnerable. They work in condition that makes them prone to violence due to a lack of supervision and there is health care risk due to unsafe sexual contact with unscreened clients. Those lower strata prostitutes are women who require help. They cannot afford decent medical service and are frequently physically assaulted by pimps and clients and contribute large portion of their revenue to pimps. Bottom strata prostitutes remain trapped but the upper two strata of prostitutes who constitute two-thirds are at free will and are able to convert their gain into real estate or financial investment even within localities having laws against prostitution. They can choose to leave prostitution for other careers or simply retire. Since it is impossible to stop prostitutes, the upper two-thirds will continue to make fiscally respectful living from it and the lowest one-third will suffer.

There are many benefits to legalized prostitution, few of them are:

(1) Allowing law-enforcement agencies to respond to more important cases, (2) Freeing justice system from nuisance cases, 11

(3) Helping women who are trapped by prostitution, and (4) Preventing teens from falling in prostitution. When data from countries that ban prostitution is compared with data from countries that do not, many surprising discoveries can be observed. Countries without anti-prostitution laws have less murder, less rapes, less problems of HIV/AIDS, lower suicide and divorce rates. There is need to monitor prostitution. The best way of monitoring is to legalize it and to regulate it. Legalization would require prostitutes to undergo regular medical examinations. STD would be prevented from being spread as well as other communicable ailments like hepatitis and tuberculosis. It would also reduce gender violence and allow women to escape prostitution. Religionists and moralists can put their argument for preserving moral values. Few years back in US as well as in India abortions were illegal which caused thousands of deaths. Untrained physicians in unsanitary conditions using primitive methods often performed illegal abortions which were hazardous to the health of women, but now abortion is legal as a result health and well-being of women is protected and moralists are not making hue and cry. In the same way legalizing prostitution will be in the best interest of prostitutes. It is very common and interesting news item in television and newspapers, where young girls are seen in police custody hiding their faces in shame. Law concerning the prostitution is serving as an instrument of harassment to the young girls who are more than 18 years of age and want to enjoy sex with their consent. The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 (for short ITPA) is unconstitutional and is in violation of Articles 14, 19, 21 and 23 of the Constitution of India. It violates Article 14, because a man can have sexual relation with so many women whereas if a woman does it, she is known as prostitute, Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution provides freedom of trade but ITPA infringes this. Article 21 provides right to life which means right to enjoy life and sex is the most important activity by which a life can be enjoyed and Article 21 also provides right to privacy which is most flagrantly violated by police officials. Under Article 39(a), men and women equally have right to adequate means of livelihood, whereas prostitutes are denied livelihood on the ground of morality. Article 51-A(e) runs as It shall be duty of every citizen of India to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women ITPA provides an opportunity to put prostitute to indignity by exposing them before media. In international conventions and declarations prostitution has not been prohibited. International Convention for the Suppression of White Slave Traffic, 1910 has prohibited the underage girl for immoral purposes. Article 2 of the Paris Convention on Immoral Trafficking provides for protection of women and girls from fraud and violence and do not prohibit consensual intercourse. Under the United Nations Charter the States have been made responsible to protect human rights of prostitutes who are living in degrading conditions. Article 55 of the United Nations Charter stipulates that the United Nations shall promote respect and observance of human rights and fundamental freedom. Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 prohibits slavery and slave trade which means forced prostitution. Prostitutes should not be exploited on the ground of slave trade. The Indian Penal Code has prohibited wrongful confinement kidnapping, abduction, seduction, sale and purchase of minor girls, ITPA has been drafted in such

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manner that police get an opportunity to exploit prostitutes. The Law Commission in its Sixty-fourth Report has observed that: Prostitution, in so far as it consists of secret acts of consenting individual without exploitation, and in private, is not appropriate for penal sanctions, and the fact that the pleasure derived from such prostitution is one which is socially disapproved, is not in itself a sufficient ground for the imposition of criminal sanction. Therefore it is suggested to abolish the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 because it is a tool of exploitation to those women who want to enjoy sex and live a decent life by earning money by way of prostitution. Instead of banning it totally law in India should try to regulate prostitution so that it may be kept within its legitimate bound without unduly encroaching upon the marriage institution.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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BOOK:
1. Chaudhary, S.N. Human Rights and Poverty in India Concept, 2005,1312,5vol., ISBN-8180691802 Prostitution and Beyond Sage Publication, 2008 PBK, 370p,ISBN-0-76193638-1 The Prostitution of Sexuality Sage publication, 2007 396 pages

2. Sahni,R,

3. Barry, Kathleen

WEBSITES:
www.gateway.nlm.nih.gov www.crime.about.com www.people.exeter.ac.uk www.erces.com www.ebc-india.com www.legalserviceindia.com

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