legitimising prostitution should be the way forward to tackle the problem a IPS officer in Goa has said sparking off a debate on the controversial subject, even as she has maintained that it is her
personal ‘opinion’. At a function organised by a Rotary Club, Priyanka Kashyap the North Goa Superintendent of Police, who along with her husband Kartik Kashyap, also an IPS Superindent of Police of the Anti-Narcotics Control Bureau was addressing the Rotary Club event said that it was a dicey issue that had both its pros and cons. Priyanka Kashyap, a 2009 batch officer newly appointed as North district Superintendent of Police had said this at a function organized by the Rotary club last week: “I am in favour of legalisation of prostitution. It’s a purely personal opinion.”
Her comments, which come close on the heels of another seemingly brash statement by the ruling BJP party with its vice president saying that he has no problem with dance bars in Goa in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict allowing for dance bars.
The comments have however not been well received by the Goan populace. “Just sometime back a BJP vice president said he backed dance bars, but he also added that it was his personal opinion. And now police want prostitution legalized. Is a back door is being opened by this government for such vicesIJ There is no smoke without fire,” Durgadas Kamat, a Congress youth leader has said.
The state has been trying to fight off a not so subtle image of being a sex tourism destination. There have also been several raids on massage parlours and prostitution dens which blow a lid off the rackets.
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar himself in his speech at the state function on independence day, Parrikar had said that “Prostitution and drugs are ruining Goa’s tourism sector, but my government is determined to rid Goa of these ills…”.
Kartik Kashyap, however supplementing his wife’s comments said that the decision would be a double edged sword. “It (legalising prostitution) has its advantages and disadvantages. They are two sides to a coin. Some countries have done well. Our country has a different view about all this thing. Morality… immorality and all those things. It’s a policy level question,” said Kashyap, who was also speaking at the same function. He frankly added that his comment also had potential to attract “trouble”. Swetlana Cardoso, a woman entrepreneur agrees with Kashyap about legalizing prostitution being a double edged affair.
“legalising it in Goa would be inappropriate at the moment, as we are still involved in many other rackets like mining, drugs and more which are still not taken care of,” she claims, but also adds that “if prostitution is made legal, women wouldn’t be forced into prostitution. It would be a matter of choice by them, which would also create job opportunities for some.”
The comments by the IPS duo have also been attracted flak on Facebook. “Every other government officer is ready to give an opinion,” says Aelred Pereira, while Marius Fernandes seems to point that such statements are ill-conceived because officers from central services do not factor in ground realities of the places they are posted in. “Can he experiment in his own state firstIJ” Marius says.