PROSTITUTION – WHY AN OFFENCE?

A fierce debate can presently be observed among civil society organisations, academics,

politicians and public opinion makers worldwide about the “right way” to regulate the

prostitution business, or more clearly: women selling and men buying sex.1 The answer to

this turns at this stage in the first place around a question whether a difference can be made

between women selling and men buying sex and men exploiting women’s bodies to fulfil

their desires.

Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange

for payment either as money2. The legal status of prostitution differs from nation to nation,

from being legitimate and considered a calling to being deserving of death. A few wards ban

the demonstration of prostitution, different nations don't forbid prostitution itself, yet boycott

the exercises ordinarily connected with it and in couple of nations prostitution is legitimate

and controlled, similar to Netherlands and Germany, acquainted new enactments with

authorizing prostitution and to empower prostitutes to function as specialist organizations. Be

that as it may, UK has criminalized the utilization of prostitution administrations in the event

that they are conveyed under compulsion or power.

As far as laws are concerned, prostitution in India is not illegal per se. However, Indian penal

code states that certain activities related to prostitution are contraventions of law i.e.

soliciting such services at public places, carrying out such activities in hotels, kerb crawling,

pandering, being an owner of a brothel or even running one, pimping etc. Clients can be

1
In line with the practice of the study Shifting Sands: A comparison of prostitution regimes across 9 countries.
Child & Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU), London Metropolitan University, 2007, the wording of
“women selling and men buying sex will be used throughout this paper rather than sex worker or prostitute with
the intention to avoid categorisation.
2
Prostitution is sometimes described as commercial sex or hooking.

1
arrested if they indulge in any sexual activity in public according to the Immoral Traffic

(Suppression) Act.3 Even though exchange of sex for money is permissible on an individual

capacity, a lady cannot do it in within a span of 200 yards of a public place.

There emerges an inquiry whether prostitution ought to be legitimized. According to official

insights there are 3 million sex specialists in India. There are a few ladies in India who get in

the business since they need cash. Be that as it may, there are additionally a lot of individuals,

who are constrained into the business. The All India Network of Sex Workers President,

Bharati Dey states that individuals move toward becoming whores voluntarily and they

should be given indistinguishable rights from others.

Prostitution ought to be legitimized as if prostitution is legitimately managed then specialists

would be in a superior position to quit trafficking, particularly in youngsters. It would

likewise help in enhancing the unsanitary conditions in which the customers and labourers

work and decrease the spread of HIV-AIDS and some other ailments. All the sex labourers

wished to be agreed lawful status while cooperating with Mayank Austen Soofi who has been

expounding on the houses of ill-repute of GB Road, Delhi. They likewise live with the

likelihood of being removed by their proprietors in the event that they come to recognize

what they improve the situation a living. Authorizing and directing prostitution will influence

to more secure life for sex specialists and help breaking the pimps and trafficking packs who

misuse them. Whores would feel more secure heading off to the police in the event that they

never again fear arraignment. On the off chance that prostitution were not a secret action it

would enable us to substantially more successfully address the major issues of constrained

prostitution and adolescent prostitution and alternate misuse which are a piece of an industry

that works totally in the shadows.

3
The Act was passed in 1956. The act was further amended and changed in 1986, resulting in the Immoral
Traffic Prevention Act also known as PITA.

2
Prostitution ought not to be legitimized as with more noteworthy interest for sex, the measure

of trafficking will just increment. A report by Germany's Family Ministry found a time of

sanctioning had "not realized any quantifiable real change in the social scope of whores," nor

was there any "strong verification" that the law had decreased wrongdoing. The larger part of

those trafficked for sexual misuse is ladies and young ladies. While there is agreement that

sexual abuse ought to be annihilated, the idea is making strides that prostitution can't be

upheld as a true blue business since it is in opposition to the standards cherished in the

Charter of Fundamental Rights, among which is sex equity4 Authorizing prostitution urges

men to request sex and have numerous accomplices, expanding STD dangers. Being distant

from everyone else with interesting men in a shut room will dependably leave ladies in

danger from viciousness. Especially in light of the way that numerous ladies in prostitution in

nations that have legitimized prostitution are initially casualties of trafficking in ladies."

Overall, it can be reasoned that the topic of whether sex administrations are consensually

conveyed is exceptionally hard to demonstrate, and in this manner laws criminalizing the

utilization of administrations without the assent of the casualty confront genuine troubles in

execution and can't be adequately actualized.

4
Same status, rights, and respondents for male and female people provided in the constitution.