Obscene, immoral, debauched – these are adjectives often used for people selling their bodies for sex.
But the Indian government has now taken steps to put an end to this debauchery. Or at least, to have it happen underground and keep the ‘obscenity’ away from the public eye.
On 13 June, the government issued a ban on 240 internet sites offering escort services – believed to be a front for prostitution.
Having said that, going by the Indian constitution, selling sex or buying sex by consenting adults is not illegal. So why should the government ban sites offering these services? And more importantly, is this driving the sex worker industry further underground?
The ‘oldest profession in the world’ is an often-used refrain for sex work or prostitution. Naturally then, the demand for commercial sex has existed unabated. It will continue to exist, whether or not sex work is criminalised.
The allure of the metropolises and the relative anonymity of large cities means people from small towns and rural areas flock to them in the pursuit of opportunities.
Many get subsumed into the sex worker industry, sometimes out of coercion, often by the glamour of a stupendous cash inflow.
There has been an influx of the “foreign escort” – women from Russia, Ukraine and the erstwhile Soviet nations. These women are able to demand higher rates from customers, often multiplying the income of their Indian handlers.
The 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi gave the business an unprecedented thrust as thousands of tourists, foreign dignitaries and athletes came to the city.
In other words, the supply exists to meet the unyielding demand.
Whether sex workers operate out of suspicious red-light areas or high-flying five stars, the stigma attached to the nature of their work continues to haunt them.
This is largely linked to the notion that sex is immoral and women associated with sex are especially deviant.
The stigma has only managed to alienate sex workers further, banishing them into the dregs of the city. As long as the worlds of the ‘honourable’ and the ‘whores’ don’t overlap, it’s easy to turn one’s back.
Many schools of thought argue that sex work should be treated as any other profession. To that extent, sex workers should also be privy to the benefits other professionals get.
Nearly 7,000 sex workers in Sonagachi, Asia’s largest red-light district in Kolkata, conceded that they have no other means of survival.
There are women who have escaped from abusive marriages, rebuilt their homes and single-handedly educated their children with the money they earn from prostitution – their only source of income.
The police looks upon the industry as a minor nuisance, which only becomes problematic for them if it’s been doing “too well for too long”.
Lalitha Kumaramangalam, the head of the National Commission for Women, argues that a regulated industry would help to stop forcible trafficking, improve hygiene among workers and clients and limit the spread of HIV and other diseases.
Across the countr,y sex workers live in deplorable conditions, often exploited by their pimps and the ambiguous law which may clamp down on them unexpectedly.
Often physically assaulted by clients, sex workers are highly vulnerable to diseases from having unprotected sex. They don’t have easy access to healthcare, and hesitate to go to doctors or the police for fear of harassment.
Of course, legalising all (consensual) sex worker related activities has its social repercussions. What was earlier happening outside legal boundaries may now come under the purview of the law – including frequent violations of consent.
But it’s a vicious cycle where the sex workers, often women, get the shorter end of the stick in a highly unorganised sector.
The blocking of these websites, even for the noble cause of protecting society’s “morality”, is another move, amongst many, to alienate a group that has long existed on the fringes.
The idea is not to isolate them nor to perceive them with pity. It is to straight up give them their rights and enable them to protect themselves.
The idea, perhaps, is to finally address the elephant in the room.
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