Show green light to red light areas.
Show green light to red light areas.
Introduction:
Lalitha Kumaramangalam, chairperson of the National Commission for Women, has recently advocated legalizing sex work with a view that it would help fight trafficking of women and improve the condition of sex workers. There are people who are of the view that legalizing prostitution would make India unethical and is a dishonorable step for the tradition of the country. There are others who believe that legalizing prostitution is important if the government wants to improve their living conditions. Let us consider both the approaches.
Yes, it will be good for those involved:
1. Preventing AIDS: Though there has been tremendous development in the field of medicine and treatments as well as protective measures have been introduced to safeguard the nation of the deadly disease. However, the sex workers have no access to this development since what for them is work, is a sin for us. Legalizing prostitution would make it easier to prevent this disease altogether.
2. Victim and culprit: Legalizing prostitution is necessary since it would make the difference between victim and culprit easier to scrutinize. Sex workers across the nation face problems of injustice, exploitation and other serious crimes against women. Many of them are forced into the flesh-trade without their own will and the worst part is that there is no way for them to get out of it. When these groups of women go with a complaint of rape or other torture, there are hardly any actions taken for they are themselves regarded as the ones who invite problems willingly.
3. Prevention of human trafficking: Legalizing prostitution would help prevent human trafficking to a great extent. Child prostitution and those forced into the skin trade could be rescued by the government with the help of sex worker, to whom the government can in turn provide support and option to come out of it and decide their course of life ahead.
4. Prevent violence: Legalizing prostitution would give the sex workers the freedom to stop the violent treatment they have to deal with. There have been cases where a man who killed more than 40 prostitutes was not punished even after he accepted the murder. Sex workers too have the right to be treated as humans and not merely toys to be played with and then broken and thrown out.
5. Prevent rape: Kirby R. Cundiff, Associate Professor of Finance at Northeastern State University, has rightly said, “It is estimated that if prostitution were legalized in the United States, the rape rate would decrease by roughly 25% for a decrease of approximately 25,000 rapes per year. The same applies to India.
No, prostitution is immoral and legalization won't help the plight of sex workers:
1. Legalizing prostitution would not ensure that the sex workers would not be forced by the pimps to submit to their demands even if the woman is not ready for it. Instead, these pimps would take advantage of the legalization law and would hide the traces of offense in the name of legalized law.
2. On moral grounds, prostitution is still a crime and there is no justification to sell a woman merely for money or to satisfy the needs of men. This is considered an offense and every culture of the Indian society finds it unacceptable.
3. Prostitution has, and shall always be a degradation of women owing to poverty or illiteracy. Inability to secure
good education and job forces women to join prostitution against their will. Legalization of it would only worsen the situation.
4. Legalized prostitution would put marriages and relationships on stake. There would be more single men than there are now and the numbers of divorce cases are more likely to increase.
5. There would be an increase in spread of HIV diseases since the detection of the disease takes a period of time and many of the prostitutes remain unaware of it until they get deeply affected by the consequences.
6. Legalizing prostitution would increase in the women trafficking. So, it is basically not going to improve the plight of the women.
Conclusion:
The SC could consider the consequences of legalizing prostitution in India since it might even worsen the condition and increase human trafficking to meet high demands. In my opinion, though there are some pros of legalization, it would be safer if prostitution remains a crime in India.
Discussion
- RE: Show green light to red light areas. -Deepa Kaushik (11/02/14)
- Making prostitution legal can be an aspect to be discussed, but we need to think very rationally the outcome of the same, especially keeping in mind the mindset of the Indians, our culture and its importance, and the social stigma in the Indian society. Though we can be very much forward in our thinking and follow the western trends to our satisfaction, still we need to accept the fact that we have to live in this society and their virtues definitely create some impact on our lives.
Red light areas are considered a stigma in Indian minds. The cases of rape and prostitution should not be compared in any aspect. The rape is a violence and the prostitution is something accepted by the women as profession. Again if any woman is dragged in to this profession, then the offense is no less than a rape and should be convicted before law. But, if we make prostitution legal, the pimps who force the small girls and females in to this flesh trade would get a wall to hide their offense and will make this a loophole for their escapism. When we call for not convicting a person for murdering the prostitutes, then it is the failure of law and order in our country and this has nothing to do with making prostitution legal. A murder is a crime, be that a prostitute or someone else, the crime needs to be convicted and the law remains same for every human. No law gives freedom to any citizen to kill a prostitute.
Getting the poor girls out of this pit needs some firm step by government which should start with the fastening of law and order situation in the country and security for the women. Making prostitution legal cannot help in getting these girls out, instead they’ll be forced to continue with the same by their pimps. Human trafficking would also continue without a firm law to check these offenders. The human trafficking occurs in order to earn multifold which would not find any change with legalising the prostitution.
Coming on to the medical grounds for the prevention of diseases like AIDS, government has made every necessary step to spread awareness regarding AIDS. Any person who goes in to this physical commitment needs to take appropriate caution beforehand. The sex workers also share an equal responsibility towards the society and the country. Such diseases like HIV is not only a disease that will ruin their life but also compromise with the lives of the other person involved along with their family.
Rightly said, legalising prostitution may lead to increase in the divorce cases and the extra marital affairs might show a marked increase. As the Indian culture and mind-set still prevails on one-to-one relationship, which is a lot different from the foreign nations, we cannot follow their trend of making prostitution legal. Hence, with deep introspection and analysis, it would be better to leave prostitution to be a crime in our country.
