Getting their due

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Getting their due

Saturday, 28 May 2022 | Pioneer

Getting their due

The SC has finally validated prostitution as truly a ‘profession’, not just ‘dhandaa’

Patriarchy is the last bastion women have to fell to feel truly empowered and liberated. Before that, however, the second-last bastion — prostitution — needs to be vanquished. The Supreme Court helped women do just that by declaring this Thursday that the “oldest profession in the world” is legally a profession. Not many countries, not even the United States, have done that. The apex court said the practitioners are entitled to dignity and equal protection under the law. It protected the women’s natural right to liberty and choice by declaring that where sex workers are adults and participating with consent, the police cannot take criminal action against them. The order also addressed the ambiguity of Indian legislation that deals with the business of sex. Prostitution is not illegal in India, but soliciting and public prostitution are. It is also illegal to own a brothel. Brothels are the best-kept open secret of a hypocritic India where the business of sex is freely practised with the laws enforced rarely or the enforcers bribed to look the other way. The court’s decision addresses the moot question: Prostitution is legal, but how can the sex workers practice if it is illegal to have an office to conduct sex work? The court decision settles the issue. Parliament should now bring the existing legislation in line with the new ruling. There is a lot left for the Government to accomplish.

The priority is to extend labour rights to sex workers and recognise their associations. That will help in two ways. It will call for a gradual end to the exploitation of sex workers by brothel owners and pimps and unsafe and unhygienic working conditions. Two, it can pave the way for sex workers to organise themselves into a registered body to fight for their rights and rightful wages. Just because their ‘work’ has become a profession does not mean they will no longer be stigmatised or oppressed and exploited. Social acceptability campaigns should become an integral form of the affirmation process. Deeper reforms are necessary to give them access to health, social, economic and cultural benefits. However, changes cannot come about till the lawmakers lose their patriarchal hangover. A sex worker, it must be understood, is not a victim who needs to be rescued and rehabilitated. Except where a person is not forced into the profession through trafficking or exploitation, the sex worker is on a par with any other service professional. The Supreme Court order is a call for the United Nations to reframe its sex worker narrative. For the UN, paying for sex is a form of “sexual abuse”. It prohibits the purchase of sexual acts. It calls for abolishing prostitution. It believes the profession is an obstacle to the dignity of the human person. Such a patronising attitude cannot sell any longer. Look at Germany where prostitution jobs are freely advertised and processed through HR companies with no eyebrows raised.

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