legalisation of prostitution gives more power and muscle to the brothel owners and makes men more demanding of practices that women do not like, but often feel powerless to resist because of greater competition
In a public interest litigation filed by NGOs — Bachpan Bachao Andolan and Childline India Foundation, the Supreme Court of India suggested that legalisation of prostitution would help the authorities to effectively monitor sex trade and also provide for better rehabilitation and medical help to the victims. The same view is being held by many human rights activists and feminists who strongly advocate the need for de-criminalisation and legalisation of prostitution. They state that prostitution should be given the status of an industry.
Kolkata-based Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, a 65,000 strong sex workers’ forum, champions the view that sex workers from both brothels and streets should be recognised as workers and that the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act should not be applied to them. No amount of punitive action, according to the protagonists of this view, can prevent prostitution. Coercive action will further lead to violence and penalisation of sex trade. Sangram, a voluntary organisation in Maharashtra vigorously champions the cause of prostitutes and glorifies the freedom that is supposed to be inherent.
The chairperson of the National Commission for Women is also of the view that legalisation of prostitution will better help to control forcible trafficking and violence against sex workers. It will also help improve hygiene and control HIV/AIDS.
International experience, however, tells a different story. Prostitution has been legalised in countries like Germany, Netherland, Australia and New Zealand. It was hoped that legalisation would provide safety to prostituted women. But research studies have revealed that practices in legal brothels expose women to greater health hazards. They face greater risks of unwanted pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases because men don’t use condoms.
A study in Victoria in Australia found that 40 per cent of the clients enjoyed prostituted women without using condoms. Mary Sullivan’s research on ‘Occupational Health and Safety Codes for the Brothels’ developed in Amsterdam by the State Government and a prostitutes’ rights organisation documents the kind of violence that exists in such industry. legalisation gives more power and muscle to the brothel owners and makes men more demanding of practices that women do not like, but often feel powerless to resist because of greater competition.
One important object behind the legalisation of prostitution is to control the involvement of criminal gangs who run the brothels and exploit the prostitutes. But in practice, it has been found that wherever sex trade has been legalised, illegal sector has grown much larger than the legitimate sector. In Victoria, it has been estimated by the police that the number of illegal brothels is four times more than the legal ones.
In 2002, prostitution in Germany was established as a legitimate job after being legalised. The lawmakers thought that they would mop-up huge tax revenue when prostitution was legalised. But because of the criminal nature of the operation, many of the brothel keepers and staff did not pay-off and it was estimated by the Federal officers that the Government lost about two million Euros a year from the unpaid tax revenue.
It has been argued by the protagonists of the legalisation of prostitution that if prostitution is legalised, the rape rate would decrease, but there are no empirical data to corroborate it. A culture in which women can be bought for use is one where rape also flourishes.
In countries like Netherlands, Germany, Australia, normalisation of prostitution has not followed legalisation. Many women join prostitution as a temporary mean to earn some money. They will be most unwilling to register themselves with any undertaking and create a permanent record of being a prostitute.
In Netherlands, an argument advanced in favour of legalisation was that it would end the exploitation of immigrant women trafficked for prostitution. But as early as 1994, the International Organisation of Migration stated that in Netherlands about nearly 70 per cent of trafficked women were from East European countries. Most of the foreign women had been trafficked to the country since it is difficult for the poor women to facilitate their migration and underwrite the cost of travel and travel documents.
The International labour Organisation report of 1998 said that prostitution was “one of the most alienated forms of labour, where women worked with a heavy heart and felt forced or conscience-stricken.”
legalisation of prostitution sends a wrong message to the younger generation that women are sexual commodities and prostitution is harmless fun. The Government cannot abdicate its responsibility to provide decent livelihood options to women and pull them out of the inferno of prostitution.
(The writer is a former Director General of the National Human Rights Commission and former Director of National Police Academy)