Sex is a taboo in India. These six words have all the explanation for why we are not aware of the huge sex business which goes around in our country. Thank God for Bollywood movies, at least we have some idea about prostitution and brothels. But still there is so much about this industry which we don’t know. Yes, it is an industry. An industry worth Rs. 500 crores.
The laws about prostitution in India are somewhat vague and they blatantly exemplify double standards. It goes like this, exchange of sexual services for money is legal but activities related to it such as running a brothel, pimping, kerb crawling, and prostitution in a hotel are illegal. It is because of these unclear laws, prostitutes and other people who are a part of the sex business in India face so many problems.
It is an alleged fact that India has more than 3 million sex workers. That is a lot, right? They are there in this business because of varied number of reasons. Some decided to work by will, some are victims of trafficking, some are forced by pimps and some get into it as a consequence of no other option available to earn. These sex workers go about their work in almost five different ways –
- Independent Call Girl/Escort – They are self employed and generally work in hotels and private buildings.
- Window Worker – They work in areas such as Sonagachi (Kolkata), where they stand outside their homes to attract people.
- Brothel Worker – A large group of women work under the same roof, owned by a single person or a group of people.
- Streetwalker – These women generally look for customers in public places such as bus stands and railway stations. Majestic, the main bus stand of Bengaluru is one such destination for these women.
- Pimp Associates – These women don’t get directly in contact with the customers, the meeting is fixed by a pimp, more commonly known as a babu or dalal.
No matter in which way they indulge in this business, there are some problems which are common with all of them. In spite of the fact that they have the same number of rights as every other citizen of the country they are not able to exercise them. When things like assault and abuse happen, they are not able to complain to police in the fear of revealing their identity and business. It is because of this, All India Network of Sex Workers, a body created to protect them is also not able to take any actions against such mishaps.
The government should do one thing, either legalise prostitution completely or ban it, and not just keep on shifting stance all the time. But banning doesn’t look a likely option so why not take measures which ensure the security of sex workers rather than indirectly eliminating them from the society.
An even small thing like going to a doctor for check up is hard for prostitutes in India. Several cases of STDs and HIV have gone unnoticed because of various reasons such as hesitancy and lack of awareness. The society treating them as an outcast makes it impossible for them to lead a normal life. They can only be looked upon as just another citizen of the country until their profession is not revealed because once that happens, life becomes a misery.
The darker version of the sex industry is much more disturbing. Trafficking of girls, as young as 12, from different states of our country like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, and from neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and Bhutan constitutes a large part of the sex business which exists in our country.
Earlier Goa was a prime destination where girls were sent to but now our capital New Delhi is slowly taking over. An NGO of Goa named Arz which is involved in rescuing girls who are being trafficked says that pimps have now expanded their trap to catch women from Northern part of the country.
On why this sudden shift to north, Arun Pandey of Arz says, “Hotel based activities require girls who can speak Hindi fluently to avoid suspicion. As a result, more trafficking takes place from NCR, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh instead of states such as Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.”
If you look at girls trafficked from foreign countries, they are being hosted by around 150 pimps in Delhi itself, forget about other cities.
Trafficking of girls can be cut down to a large extent if boundaries of prostitution get more clearly defined. If the government monitors these things more closely, the black market will cease to exist in this business.
The sex industry in India is huge and there is a large section of women who are involved in it. Therefore it is very important to regulate it, I am not going to get into the debate of whether selling your body for money is ethically right or wrong, but what I do want to say is that if such a huge business has to exist then it should be in the open and properly regulated.
