Is the current scenario really a cause of concern. First things first, we cannot ignore it, for there are close to 3 million sex workers in our country and is sort of a thriving industry. Most of them work for brothels which is illegal and are missing in the mainstream. Most of them lead a miserable life both economically and socially and are exploited outright.
I spoke with one such sex worker, here are a few vital facts about her. Payal comes from a small village in UP, and she works for different agencies and is rotated among them periodically. She is paid a salary of 12k per month, while the agency gets paid at least 80k for her services. The burden of her family of two children ( her husband died) forced her to take up this profession. She has faced a lot of abuse(both verbal and physical) from her employers, customers and police also. Most women in the profession have similar background.
HIV/AIDS a global threat has prostitution as one of its major causes. Thanks to various initiatives, many are now aware of STD and safe sex but this is no reason for contention. More than 50% of sex workers in Mumbai are HIV positive.
Exploitation and extortion are part and parcel of prostitution, while we the citizens of India have promised ourselves the Right against exploitation through articles 23 and 24 of our constitution. Why should this fundamental right be denied to them, who are one of the worst victims.
Families of sex workers are in abject poverty, which forces their siblings and children again into same profession which is a grave concern. The other family members do not have a fair education and remain poor for all of their life. Also the number of sex workers has doubled in the past decade.
As it is not a recognised profession for obvious reasons, all the money that flows in the industry is unaccounted.
The primary act dealing with these issues, PITA has to be given more teeth. Issuing identity or license cards to sex workers would bring them out the darkness. By this we are not promoting them, but acknowledging their presence. There would be hundred Muthaliks and other so called fundamentalists who would create ruckus, but the Government should not give in to them.
If notoriously popular Amsterdam is slowly showing positive signs after reforms, why cant we replicate such reforms in Mumbai, Kokata or Bengalooru. By recognising the sex workers in the mainstream, their children will get a chance for education. Setting up rehabilitation camps, schools in the redlight areas will give definite results in the long run. NGOs and Government organisations working for such cause need encouragement.
We cant have all this vanished overnight, it could be fought against only by understanding it and working with it.
6 comments:
i am touched by this article. coming from a country like india where more than half the people are more hypocritical in their ethical and moral conducts however, is not as easy as we think it would be to reform the system to do justice to any one woman let alone the sex workers. as long as the people's mentalities are unchanged no amount of government actions nor the activists involvement would suffice. in order to change any system one must start at the basic level of education which unfortunately in our country is deeply rooted with culture, tradition, and some moronic disciplinary action where people are not willing to come out and see the socio-economical aspects of common people. as long as this blind fold is around people's eyes the painful stories of helpless women and their exploitation will go on. so if anything i would suggest you to look around you to change the mentalities of your community and work towards the laws that could be put in place later on. government is formed by people. government is not a seperate entity. and it is a shame that as much as india boasts itself as the most advanced of the third world countries, where women are trying to advance in every field, every four steps they take they are pulled back three steps and there is no easy way to get around it but educating the most educated to educate others and put some form of smaller systems in place similar to co-ops. english taught us one thing well, even though it was for their own advantage at that time, 'divide and conquer'
I completely agree, its with the mentalities, change needs to start from grass root levels such as education. We as a society have perceptions which are not mature enough. I appreciate your in depth reading of the post.
Prostitution has been the part of society since from ages and we can not ignore its significance in the society that we formed. We start thinking about it when we accept its presence in someway or the other. It was at least more structured and organized in the past while one can see the way prostitution is legalized here.
"It is not illegal, but the surrounding activities (operating brothels, pimpimg etc) are illegal. Source:Wikipedia "
How can it be possible? You can exchange sex for money, but not through the above activities? without above channels? How do exchange something(sex for money) without having any platform? What else can be the procedure then? If our law has an answer for it and if the government works for the answer come true. We "may" have the solution.
I hate it when I see places where things do not work, the reason being any. The place we live is as such.
I do not understand if The Government has no statistics of the hereabouts of prostitution? - that it does not at least take as much responsibility as the NGOs did.
Prostitution has been prevalent in our society since ages and will very much sustain in the years to come. The agenda has to be on how to tackle it better.
Responsibility rests nobody else but with the aam admi(ie you and I). The work ahead for the society and its common man is two fold. One, it is a fight with prejudices and mindsets of the people and a hypocrite society. Two, voices of concern should be loud and clear to make the netas and babus pull up their socks and get to their job.
I strongly agree with the point that prostitution has to be made legal. It will help them to become more organized and professional which will stop the exploitation of sex workers and the spread of HIV.
i don't see how making prostitution legal would make the sex workers more professionals and stop the spread of HIV and lessen the exploitation. with the extent of corruption that is in place do you honestly think there would be an order with the legality? and what is the garuntee that who ever is coming in contact with these women do not have HIV or AIDS? there is only one way for that and that is if every single man is screened for these diseases before they have any kind of contact with these women. do you think it is possible to screen every man that touches every sex worker? and would there be any added respect for these workers just because they declared themselves as professionals? would they be treated equally? i don't think so. and most of all there is no such thing as organization just because of this declaration or paper work because by the time any law could come into affect it would be years and by that time it would be too late. i totally disagree with the concept of making it legal without bringing the whole outlook of this issue in its entirety and bringing change into people's hearts and minds and educate them. i do think that running some kind of social campaigns to educate these workers of the risks of contracting the diseases such as AIDS, HIV, and other STD's. education is the key to solving the root problem and that includes reforming whoever is ruling whether it be government,wealthy men, gangs, or even those mothers and fathers or uncles who sell their own girls for money.
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