DROP OF ILLEGALITY IN A SEA OF LEGALITY

                She was a girl of 14, innocent and unaware of the world she was going to enter. She was trembling with fear when she realized that she has lost her family in the huge bus accident. There was nobody she could approach for help. She begged and ate and sat on the footpath. Her pretty face attracted many but the rags took back the attraction. This lady of 48 spoke to her, picked her up and took her to a place where she assured her of food and life security if she co-operates. Her co-operation demanded a lot of patience and silence when men touch her wherever they want treat her however they want just because they paid for her. Her co-operation also asked her to be quiet and not disclose to anyone about the bruises on her body because of getting whipped. That so called secure place was a brothel, the lady was a pimp and the girl was a prostitute now.

               This above situation is an imagination of a place where brothels and prostitution are illegally run. Now, let’s just imagine it prostitution was legal, what the situation would be.

                     Section 2(f) of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 defines “prostitution” as “the sexual exploitation or abuse of persons for commercial purposes”. This act and all its implications would come into effect only if the acts were complained of. The prostitutes are not kept in a position, physically or mentally, to go and complain about such issues. Even if they are confident, that happens at a stage when they are used to this life and don’t find any reason to move out of that lifestyle.

                 If prostitution is legalized, the money that they earn can be taxed upon and this will ultimately benefit the nation’s Government and the country’s economy. On the other hand, these prostitutes will be recognized and will receive a certain respect for contributing towards the country’s economy. This will eventually reduce prostitution or completely eliminate it because the people running this business would reduce doing it as they will be aware that now the whole of income is not going to be with them and they need to pay taxes. Now that there income will reduce and they will need to be more careful about the prostitutes’ safety, they will not do it as they have been doing till now. This is when a woman in this profession can claim her safety as per Article 21 of the Indian Constitution which mentions about right to life and to live with dignity. They are not being able to do it now because they know that what they are into is illegal in nature and they will be sacked in the first place for doing it.

               In order to substantiate the contents of Article 21, Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 came into force. It may sound weird to see a woman involved in prostitution complaining of “sexual” harassment, but a woman in such profession consents for sexual act and doesn’t allow anyone to harass her in this process. There is huge wall between consensual sexual act and sex involving harassment. Section 2(g)(i) of the Act mentions “appropriate Government” while defining a virtue of an employer who falls under the purview of the statute. If the statute considers units of appropriate Government or local authorities to be an important criterion for the security of women against sexual harassment, then making prostitution legal and brothels to be enterprises or units subject to Government will definitely secure women and bring down prostitution eventually.
There are some known fifteen countries which have legalized prostitution. Out of these, Greece has also included prostitution as an actual job in society where the employees get equal rights and have to go for health checkups at required intervals. Apart from Greece, Ecuador is a place where everything related to sex work is legal. This 'everything' includes selling of one's body, running a brothel or even being an employer there. They say that prostitution in itself is not illegal in India but running a brothel is. If running a brothel gets legalized then forced prostitution will completely eliminate. In this case, the 14 year old would have fought for herself under all laws protecting a minor and a woman.

I have just put up the way I look at things. Any other opinion or different point of view will be well-appreciated and accepted.