Group V

Criminal Law and Criminal Administration

Sem 3

Practical Component

PROSTITUTION LAWS IN INDIA: Legislative Approach and Judicial Trend.

Name: Jagruti J. Mestry

Div: B

Roll No: 08
 INDEX

ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………………..………….5
INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………………………6
WHAT IS PROSTITUTION?..........................................................................................................................7
EVOLUTION OF PROSTITUTION……………………………………………………………..................8
Prostitution in Ancient
India………………………………………………………………................8
Prostitution during British Rule……………………………………………………………………..8
Prostitution in Independent India……………………………………………………………………
9
TYPES OF PROSTITUTION………………………………………………………………………………
10
Streetwalkers………………………………………………………………………………………...10
Bar/hotel Prostitutes………………………………………………………………………………...10
Escort services and Call
Girls/Boys………………………………………………………………...10
Religious Prostitutes………………………………………………………………………………...10
Road side
Prostitutes………………………………………………………………………………...10
Miscellaneous other
markets………………………………………………………………………..10
PROSTITUTION IN DIFFERENT TRIBES…………………………………………………………...…11
Bachara tribe from west Madhya Pradesh…………………………………………………………
11
Nat Purwa in east Uttar Pradesh……………………………………………………………………
11
Devadasi System……………………………………………………………………………………..11
REASONS BEHIND ENGAGING IN PROSTITUTION………………………………………….
……..13
Economic Cause……………………………………………………………………………………..13
(a) Poverty…………………………………………………………………………..……….13
(b) Bad Working Conditions……………………………………………………..…............13
(c) Pollution and Corruption in Industrial Centres…………………………..
…………...13
(d) Thirst For Quick Wealth……………………………………………………..
………….14
(e) Unemployment…………………………………………………………………………..14
(f) Under age employment…………………………………………………….……………14
Social Cause……………………………………………………………………………..…………...14
 (a) Family Cause (Ill and harsh treatment by parents at home)………….
……………….14
(b) Migration and Urbanisation……….……………………………………………………
15
(c) Social Stigma and Discrimination…….……………………………..…….……………
15
(d) Peer Pressure ……………….………………………………….…………….………….15
(e) Bad neighbour………………….…………………………………………………….….15
Marital Factors………………………………….
…………………………………………………...15
(a) Child marriages and Domestic Violence.
……………………………………………….15
(b) Alcoholic Husband and Family Burden.
……………………………………………….16
Psychological Cause………………………………….……………………………………………...16
Biological Cause……………………………………………………………………………………..16
(a) Personal Choice………………………………………………………………………….16
Religious and Cultural Cause (Social Custom)……………………………………………………16
Family prostitutes…………………………………………………………………………………...16
Lack of sex
education………………………………………………………………………………..17
Inadequate Legal Framework and Enforcement………………………………………………….17
Coercion……………………………………………………………………………………………...17
1. Immoral traffic of woman and
children………………………………………………..17
EFFECT OF PROSTITUTION…………………………………………………………………………….18
PATRIARCHAL ASSUMFI IONS…………………………………………………………………………19
SCENARIO OF SEX WORK IN INDIA………..
………………………………………………………….20
LEGAL PROVISION OF PROSTITUTION………………………………………………………………
21
IMMORAL TRAFFICKING PREVENTION ACT,
1956………………………………………...21
a) Definitional inconsistencies and Conceptual loopholes…………………………………
22
b) Punishment and its Enforcement………………………………………………………..23
c) Other anomalies in the
ITPA……………………………………………………………..24
d) Rehabilitation, Compensation and
Protection………………………………………….24
The immoral Traffic Prevention (Amendment) Bill 2006…………………………………………
24
 a) Definitional inconsistencies and Conceptual loopholes…………………………………
24
The Indian Penal Code………………………………………………………………………………
25
PREVENTIVE MEASURES TO TACKLE THE PROBLEM OF
PROSTITUTION………………….27
(A) Sex Education…………………………………………………………………………………...27
(B) Employment opportunities for
Women………………………………………………………..27
(C) Abolition of Certain Social Customs…………………………………………………………..27
(D) Double Standards of morality has to be discouraged…………………………………………
27
(E) Publicity and propaganda……………………………………………………………………...27
(F) Establishment of Venereal Disease
Clinics…………………………………………………….27
JUDICIAL TREND…………………………………………………………………………………………28
Key changes………………………………………………………………………………………….28
Other Case Laws…………………………………………………………………………………………….28
Kajal Mukesh Singh & Ors v. State of Maharashtra (2021)………………………………………………28
Gaurav Jain v. Union of India (1997)………………………………………………………………………..29
Delhi v. Pankaj Chaudhry & Ors(2009)……………………………………………………………………..29
ARTICLE 19(1)G & PROSTITUTION……………………………………………………………………
31
INTERNATIONAL LEGAL ASPECTS………………………………………………………………...…33
CRIMINAL SANCTIONS………………………………………………………………………………….34
IF IT IS LEGAL THEN WHY IS IT CARRIED OUT IN SECRECY…………………………………..35
Prostitution policies in different countries…………………………………………………………………
37
Countries where prostitution is illegal……………………………………………………………..37
(A) China……………………………………………………………………………………..37
(B) Croatia…………………………………………………………………………………...37
(C) Egypt……………………………………………………………………………………..37
(D) Iran……………………………………………………………………………………….37
(E) Iraq……………………………………………………………………………………….37
(F) South Korea……………………………………………………………………………...37
(G)South Africa……………………………………………………………………………...37
(H)United Arab Emirates…………………………………………………………………..38
Countries where prostitution is limitedly
legal…………………………………………………….38
(A) Australia………………..………………………………………………………………..38
(B) France……………………………………………………………………………………38
(C) Japan……………………………………………………………………………………..38
(D) United Kingdom…………………………………………………………………………38
(E) United States of America………………………………………………………………..38
 Countries where prostitution is
legal……………………………………………………………….39
(A) Germany…………...…………………………………………………………………….39
(B) Mexico……………………………………………………………………………………39
(C) India...……………………………………………………………………………………39
(D) Indonesia…………………………………………………………………………………40
(E) New Zealand……………………………………………………………………………..40
(F) Singapore…...……………………………………………………………………………40
Effects Of Absolute Legalization Of Prostitution In
India………………………………………………..41
(A) Management of brothels……………………………………………………………………41
(B) Prostitutes' Records………………………………………………………………………...41
(C) Rehab Centres………………………………………………………………………………41
(D) Enacting legislation to combat crime against sex
workers……………………………….41
(E) Medical care…………………………………………………………………………………
42
(F) Possible Consequences of Legalizing
Prostitution………………………………………...42
Some
Recommendations…………………………………………………………………………………….44
(A) Legal Reform………………………………………………………………………………...44
(B) Citizen's Committee…………………………………………………………………………44
(C) Rehabilitation………………………………………………………………………………..44
(D) Socio-economic Measures…………………………………………………………………...44
WAY FORWARD……………………………………………………………………………………………45
CONCLUSION...……………………………………………………………………………………………46
 PROSTITUTION LAWS IN INDIA: Legislative Approach and Judicial Trend.

ABSTRACT
The increase in the intensity of two evil practices in our country i.e. human trafficking and prostitution,
which are inseparable is because the very purpose of trafficking of human body is to perpetuate sexual
slavery and to facilitate sexual slavery one needs a thriving human trafficking trade. This paper begins by
giving a short insight into the meaning and practices during their earlier days versus the situation in present
time. It focuses on the laws already in existence for providing justice to the victims of human trafficking and
prostitution. Prostitution is a well-known concept and has been a part of established and organised society
since time immemorial. Keeping an eye on the reality, the present facts are mentioned.
As far as the laws are concerned there is no doubt as to the illegal status of human trafficking in our country.
The continuance of this practice is strictly prohibited and punishable. But for the legality of prostitution,
laws are grey, incompetent, and rather non-existent to some extent. Ambiguity exists in the sense that
prostitution is not illegal per se but there are huge number of restrictions imposed on its practices
questioning its validity in the eyes of the law. Therefore, due to lack of legal awareness, the sex workers live
in a petrified condition which indeed allows them to be misused and abused. Often, sex workers are charged
with offenses like public nuisance, public indecency, etc.
 INTRODUCTION
The exchange of sexual activity for money is prostitution. 1 How sex is advertised and procured encompasses
a variety of acts, people and places, but its significance is often ignored in society as a whole. Although often
associated with women selling sex to men, men can, of course, sell sex to other men and women. Most
prostitutes, however, are women and the rest are male. Therefore, the practice of selling sex for money must
be read in different countries against the social and economic positioning of women. Also today, women may
capitalize on their bodies, but may not do so in exchange for money, to join the labor market or to marry
well. We are "deviant," "immoral," or "victims" in the latter situation.2
Women are generally expected to enter and have children in healthy heterosexual relationships and
prostitutes deviate from women's traditional roles as wives and mothers. Yet this deviance is inextricably
linked to how women are essential "bodies" and essentially "available." Therefore, prostitution reflects both
a manifestation of deviance and the structure underpinning and governing female sexuality.
At the global level, prostitution labelled “the oldest profession in the world” – is fraught with a tumultuous
history. Whether “actively prohibited, tacitly condoned, formally regulated, or a combination of these,”
prostitution remains a thriving industry regardless of its legal status. Currently, many countries are
considering amending their legal approaches toward prostitution, not only for the health and safety of the
prostitutes and those who utilize their services, but also to profit from the revenue generated by the
profession.3 Even though prostitution also known as sex trade is a common practice in many countries, the
members of civilized society are not ready to give it a legal status but at the same time do not deny the
existence of the practice.
In many instances, the Hon’ble Supreme Court has expressed that this profession should be legalized in
India. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 states that “All men are born free and are equally
entitled to have their basic human rights.” Denying legal recognition to this profession means denying the
basic human rights of the prostitutes. The debate over whether or not prostitution should be legalized is
probably as old as the practice of prostitution itself. The controversy surrounding the acceptability of such a
profession and whether it ought to be tolerated by the society within a legal framework has raised some
fundamental issues, particularly concerning the rights of women. Prostitution, because of its illegal status, is
a particularly marginalized subset of the sex industry and presents significant physical, psychological, and
legal risks to the women and men involved.

1
Cecilia Benoit,The prostitution problem,Springer,2018.
2
Joshua creighton, 'Prostitution Is A Victimless Crime And Should Be Legalised' (academia, 2014)
<https://www.academia.edu/14381175/Prostitution_is_a_Victimless_Crime_and_Should_Be_Legalized> accessed 15 November
2019
3
douglas foster, 'Legalising Prostitution' (academia, 2014) <https://www.academia.edu/14138975/Legalizing_Prostitution>
accessed 15 November 2019
 What is Prostitution?
Prostitution is commercialized sex and, as such, it involves two parties’ seller and buyer. It can be described
as indiscriminate sexual activity without he normal motives that is procreation or pleasure, but is
economically motivated so far as the seller is concerned. The seller generally is a woman and a man the
buyer, also there is male prostitution in which gratification is provided by one male to another. The
institution of prostitution is as old as human civilization and the hyperbolic statement which refers to it as
the oldest profession conveys substantial truth.
In order to understand and appreciate better about the problems faced by the enforcement machinery in
respect of prostitution, let me at the outset discuss in detail about the term prostitution. “ An individual male
or female who for some kind of new or for some other personal satisfaction and as a part of full time
profession, engages in normal or abnormal sexual intercourse with various persons who may be of the same
sex. Or the opposite sex is the prostitution and the trade which is being carried on in this way is called
prostitution.
Prostitution means the sexual exploitation or abuse of person for commercial purposes and the expression
prostitution shall be constructed.. the act has very clearly given its definition towards prostitution and as
such it is very comprehensive and adequate as far as a prostitute is concerned contrary to ordinary beliefs
may not only be a female, may nor indulge in heterosexual intercourse, may not be a full time professional,
may not accept monetary veulards, positively a prostitute has normal and abnormal sexual relation with
more than one person; experiences some novelty in his or her activities and receives some personal
satisfaction of course, the most distinguishing feature of prostitution is sexual intercourse with various
individuals.
When any female allows use of her body for sexual relations, against payment of some money to pay a
person this immoral activity which poses a threat to the society the man availing the services of such woman
is called prostitute monger. The prostitution is
considered immoral and unsocial because it commercializes and degenerates love and assets and supremacy
of bodily value over social and moral. Some people consider prostitution as a safety value through which
excess of social compliance releases and thus the sanctity of family is preserved. In India also prostitution is
legalized in some particular states and it has been made a legal offence and a person is liable to be punished
for being a prostitute or visiting one.
 EVOLUTION OF PROSTITUTION
Prostitution in Ancient India
THE EARLIEST mention of prostitution occurs in the Rigveda, the most ancient literary work of
India. At first however we hear of the illicit lover, jara and jatini-male and female lover of a married
spouse. What distinguished such an illicit lover from the professional prostitute or her client is the
regular payment for favours received. When we merely hear of an illicit lover there may or may not
have been an exchange of gift; in a case of mutual consent gifts must have been optional. In the
remote days of barter economy when money or currency was yet unknown, such gifts were
equivalent to payment in cash. We have oblique references to women being given gifts for their
favours, but the contexts leave us guessing whether the woman was a willing partner or whether she
agreed to oblige in return for the gifts she received. But clearly, even in the earliest Vedic age, love
outside wedlock was a familiar phenomenon and unions promoted by mere lust are mentioned in
quite an uninhibited manner.
Prostitution as a profession appears in the literature of a few centuries after the Vedas although it
must have been common in society much earlier. After the earliest Vedic literature between the
twelfth and the ninth centuries B.C. (i.e., Rigveda, Books ll-VII), we have a vast literature which
covers the period between the eighth and the fifth centuries B.C. In this literature, too, we hear of the
woman of easy virtue, of the wife's illicit love affairs.'
Extra-marital love may have been voluntary and unpaid but there is the possibility of it being
regarded by the male partner as a form of service for which he was obliged to pay in some form. But
as long as it was confined to a particular person, it was a temporary contract and was not regarded as
a profession. The later Pali term muhutia (lasting for an instant), or its Sanskrit equivalent muhurtika
signified such purely temporary unions with no lasting relationship or obligation. Such affairs may
have been voluntary or professional, depending on the attitude of the partners.
Gradually, there arose a section of women who, either because they could not find suitable husbands,
or because of early widowhood, unsatis. factory married life or other social pressures especially if
they had been violated, abducted, or forcibly enjoyed and so denied an honourable status in society,
or had been given away as gifts in religious or secular events such women were frequently forced to
take up prostitution as a profession. And when they did so, they found themselves in a unique
position: they constituted the only section of women who had to be their own bread winners and
guardians. All the others-maiden daughters, sisters, wives, widows and maidservants-were wards of
men: fathers, brothers, husbands, masters or sons. So, women who took up prostitution had to be
reasonably sure of an independent livelihood; their customers had to make it a viable proposition' for
them.
Prostitution during British Rule
Prostitution became more prominent during the British Raj, influenced by the presence of European
soldiers and merchants. Typically, those engaged in prostitution hailed from lower castes or
indigenous communities. Economic necessity or allurements of wealth and status often coerced
women into this profession. Remarkably, the British colonial administration made minimal efforts to
regulate prostitution, allowing it to proliferate during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
In the past, prostitutes were treated like executives and had royal patronage, giving them a significant
amount of power in governmental affairs. However, over the course of centuries, changes in religion
and politics have caused the value of their labour to decline. The tawaifs, or prostitutes, lost their
royal support and clients after independence, and the tawaif system eventually faded out as the
princely kingdoms and the zamindari system were dissolved. According to research, the tawaifs'
descendants started pub dancing in big cities when the royal clientele left because they were not
treated with the same respect as they had been prior to independence.
 The establishment of brothels and the control of prostitution were aspects of colonial policies in India
under British rule. Systems to regulate and manage prostitution were created by the British colonial
authority, especially for the benefit of British military personnel, government officials, and European
settlers. At this time, social dynamics, economic interests, and British colonial objectives all came
together to influence the development of brothels.
Prostitution was heavily regulated under the Contagious Diseases Acts (CDA), which were put into
place in several British territories, including India. To prevent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)
among the European population, especially the military, these laws were first enacted in the middle
of the 19th century. Instead of addressing the issues, the main emphasis was on safeguarding the
health of British men rather than addressing the welfare or rights of the women involved.
Growing movements and criticisms of the regulatory system emerged throughout time. These
criticisms focused on the exploitation of women, the violation of human rights, and the maintenance
of social inequality. The practise of regulated prostitution was contested by social reform movements
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, both within the colonial government and among the
indigenous Indian people.
In the end, the regulatory framework started to fall apart, and various colonies abolished the
Contagious Diseases Acts. It's crucial to remember that prostitution persisted in numerous forms and
that it changed over time as a result of social, economic, and political changes.
During the British rule, justice was administered by the zamindars. In Bengal and Madras,
Mohammedan lawless law was in force, whereas in Bombay, Hindu lawless law was applied to the
Hindus and the Mohammedan lawless law to the Muslims. The offences dealt under the present
composition were grouped under a single chapter of ‘Social Offences’ and one finds just a citation of
them without expounding the background. These offences have been hardly considered and set up
their place in incremental legislations drafted post independence, as in case of The Immoral Traffic
(Prevention) Act. The Indian Penal Code, 1860, drafted by Lord Macaulay, lays down certain vittles,
which according to the conditions prevailing, acted as a ban on whoredom or any other kind of
immoral behavior4. The activities which were made as offences were punishable by way of either fine
or imprisonment.
Prostitution in Independent India
Despite being illegal under Indian law, prostitution continues to thrive in independent India, with an
estimated three million sex workers. Many enter this profession due to poverty or coercion,
perpetuating its existence. The issue remains contentious, with diverse perspectives on its resolution.
Some advocate for decriminalization, while others call for stricter enforcement of existing laws.
Regardless, it is evident that prostitution is an enduring reality in India. In the Constituent Assembly
debate, the subject of prostitution was discussed at length and proposed to include a new entry in the
Concurrent List or List III (Concurrent List includes subjects on which both the Centre and the State
can legislate) of the seventh schedule of the Constitution.
The entry was as regards regulation, control and maintenance of public houses, or in the alternative,
regulation and control of prostitution and regulation, control and maintenance of public houses.
Question rose regarding power to supervise the provision of prostitution on whom vested either on
state or centre. After a huge discussion came at conclusion that problems regarding prostitution can
be dealt by state in better way as it is a local problem.
Upon a detailed reading of the Constituent Assembly Debates relating to the entry of control and
regulation of public houses, our attention may be drawn to the Suppression of Immoral Traffic (in
Women and Girls) Act which is a Central Act and was enacted pursuant to the signing of the
International Treaty (Trafficking Convention) on 9 May, 1950 at New York by India. However, the
Suppression of Immoral Traffic (in Women and Girls) Act was substituted by the Immoral Traffic

4
Rohini Sahni, Prostitution and beyond, ISBN (2008) available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication
 (Prevention) Act, 1956 in the year 1986 (i.e. 26/01/1987). Prostitution and all related activities like
pimping are presently governed by the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.
TYPES OF PROSTITUTION
Streetwalkers:
Streetwalkers are prostitutes who make themselves visible and commercially available on urban
streets. They solicit customers who are passing on foot or in automobiles. Services are performed in
customers' cars, in nearby hotels, alleys, doorways, and so on. On average, these prostitutes
command the lowest prices, they typically have the least bargaining leverage over condom use and
choice of sexual practices, and they have the highest risk of harm from customers or others. They are
generally considered to generate the highest levels of negative externalities in terms of diminished
neighborhood property values, association with other criminal activities, and "curb-crawling" by their
customers. Not surprisingly, they also run the highest risk of arrest.
Bar/hotel prostitutes:
Some prostitutes solicit customers in bars, clubs, and hotels, especially those frequented by
conventioneers and other likely customers. Prostitutes often collaborate, and must share their
revenues, with either the manager of the bar or club or, in the case of hotels, a bellhop or desk clerk
who refers clients to the prostitute. Services may be provided in the establishment, in a dark corner or
back room of a club, or in a hotel room rented by either the prostitute or the customer. The
prostitute's income varies from fairly low to quite high according to the prestige and price range of
the establishment and its clientele. The prostitute's net income also varies according to the percentage
of fees demanded by the manager or employees of the establishment in exchange for referrals,
protection, or simply for looking the other way. The prostitute's risk of harm and arrest are low to
moderate as long as the collaborative relation with the establishment is maintained and the prostitute
does not venture into unfamiliar territory.
Escort services and call girls/boys:
Some prostitutes operate on an "outcall basis" and therefore, unlike streetwalkers and bar/hotel
prostitutes, are not restricted to a specific site. However, their calls are most often to locations where
there are well-to-do clients who prefer the insulation of an intermediary referral service. Customers
are typically assigned to prostitutes by the escort agency, which first charges a fee to the customer.
The prostitute then negotiates with the customer the price for specific services. Like escorts, call
girls/boys also rely upon referral and screening either by an agent, by a restricted circle of other
prostitutes in the same market, or by familiar clients. The prices in this market segment reach the
highest levels. The prostitute has considerable bargaining leverage over condom use and sexual
practices. The risk of harm or arrest is lessened by reliance on an intermediary, and by the fact that
this market segment tends to be limited to upper-income customers whose need for the appearance of
propriety minimizes negative externalities and diminishes the likelihood of violence or other reason
for police intervention.
Religious Prostitutes:
Sacred prostitution, temple prostitution, or religious prostitution is a sexual ritual consisting of sexual
intercourse or other sexual activity performed in the context of religious worship, perhaps as a form
of fertility rite.
Road side Prostitutes:
Sex worker who solicits customer from road side is known as roadside prostitute. They can be easily
identified because they are dressed in provocative manner. It is mostly found in dark places where
not much police officer petrol or less of them appear. In India subway, beaches, national highway and
fly over are mostly filled with those kinds of prostitutes.
Miscellaneous other markets:
 Since prostitution is a highly flexible segment of the informal economy a great variety of other
prostitution arrangements exists. Many prostitutes move in and out of prostitution as their financial
needs dictate. Some are seasonally active as they, for example, follow mobile encampments of
migrant workers in agriculture, the lumber industry, summer and winter resort traffic, or even sports
and music tours.
PROSTITUTION IN DIFFERENT TRIBES
Bachara tribe from west Madhya Pradesh
The Bachara tribe from west Madhya Pradesh is famous for treating prostitution as a tradition. The
eldest daughter of the family is brought up with the knowledge that she will grow up to this lite, and
once she gets older, the younger daughter takes over. The tradition comes down from the days when
the women from the tribe would grow up to become respected courtesans respect that is not given to
women in the sex trade any more. The only way out of this life is for the women to find a suitor who
agrees to pay her parents the expensive dowry they demand for her.
If you're wondering how the young girls get into this life, it is her father or brother who ends up
acting as her pimp, taking care of all the arrangements. In fact, the family has a dedicated room
which is meant for this purpose, and this purpose only. There have been several documentaries made
on this tribe, the most famous being the 2004-made Highway Courtesans, by Mystelle Brabbée. A
10-year project following the life of Guddi, this documentary followed the life of one woman, who
fought and managed to make it out of the system. Don't be taken in by Guddi's story though-what
happened to her was a very, very rare circumstance.
Nat Purwa in east Uttar Pradesh
Nat Purwa, a small village in the Hardoi district in east Uttar Pradesh, is another such place. An
extremely poor village, most of the villagers here belong to the Nat community. In 1871, when the
Criminal Tribes Act was passed under British rule, the Nats became one of the communities accused
of being involved with "criminal activities." Editor of Manushi, Madhu Kishwar told Al Jazeera,
"During the colonial period, the British outlawed their activities. They got beaten up, arrested, locked
up and brutalisation continued. This dried up their traditional source of livelihood, and women had
no choice. They ended up in prostitution - what [else] will they do?"
One of the sex workers, Chandralekha said, "My grandma said: 'The whole village is involved in
prostitution. What difference does it make if you become onc?' My grandmother is the one who got
me involved...'d saya woman starts feeling bad since the beginning, but there's a weakness. There's a
hungry stomach to feed and there is resignation." Children in this village know only their first names,
and most don't even have first names not surprising,.considering Nat Purwa is known as "a village of
bastards."
Devadasi System
The devadasi system has changed from being a religious custom to one of simple exploitation. A
devadasi literally translates to "God's female servant," and this practice goes back as far as the 6th
century. Young pre-pubescent girls are "married off' to the local deity, and in ancient periods, it meant
that she wadedicated to the service of God. In addition to taking care of the temple and performing
rituals, the women learnt classical dance, and enjoyed a very high status in society. They would go on
to marry patrons, who were often kings, and wouldn't need to participate in the daily workings of the
household. During the British rule, these kings soon lost their power, leaving the devadasis to their
own devices, and soon they turned to a life of prostitution to support themselves.
Even though the system has been outlawed since 1988, there are hundreds of women still forced to turn to
this life in parts of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. Instead of serving God, they
now have to cater to whoever places the highest bid on their virginity, and then go wherever they are sent to,
to lead their lives as what can be basically termed prostitutes.
Wadia village in north Gujarat is famous for its prostitution, with the birth of girls being celebrated, because
it just means there's another breadwinner for the family. Girls are groomed for a life as a prostitute, and some
start as young as 12, and boys are trained to be pimps. Men come to Wadia from as far as Ahmedabad,
Pakistan, Rajasthan, even Mumbai to buy sex.
In every single one of these areas, efforts have been made to try and rehabilitate the women by NGOS and
the government alike. Nothing has really changed for the women, and if there's something that we see
common to all of these places, it is that the fates of all the women are in the hands of the men in their lives.
While the women are simply looked at as a means of money, and barely treated as human, the chances of
things changing for them looks grim.
 REASONS BEHIND ENGAGING IN PROSTITUTION
If we talk about the reasons because of which women get involved in this profession, there can be many.
Most of the women are not at all happy for being in this profession, some are forced to do the same whereas
on the other hand some do by their own choice. The profession of trade of prostitution has existed in all
civilized country from earliest time. According to social research made so far females are drawn in to
prostitution for a variety of reasons. A study of Kanpur prostitutes has revealed that though a majority of
prostitutes have taken their profession due to extreme poverty, but there are many who have willingly
adopted it after a series of love exploits. Though economic factor is important but there are several external
causes, which induce/force persons, particularly women and children to turn to prostitute for livelihood over
which they have no control.
The most important causes which can be classified in the following categories are:(1) Economic Cause(2)
Social Cause(3) Psychological Cause(4) Biological Cause(5) Religious and Cultural Cause(6) Family and
community oriented prostitution, i.e., Mathamma community in Tiruvallur District, Baduva Community in
Jumbuliputhur in Dindigual District of Tamil Nadu, etc.(7) Lack of sex education(8) Inability to arrange
marriage(9) Prior incest and rape(10) Early marriage and desertion(11) Lack of recreational facilities,
ignorance, and acceptance of prostitution (12) Kidnapping and abduction(13) Sale by parents and husbands,
especially in certain areas of Chittor, Bellampalli, Warangal etc in Andhra Pradesh and in Northern states of
U.P and M.P etc.(14) Deceit and cheating by parents.(15) Pornography including Soft and Strong literature
and entertainment.(16) Problematic drug use and alcohol abuse.(17) Debt and Cast system in society
Economic Cause
As we know economic compulsion constitutes the major factor in the causation of prostitution, it is by no
means the only and exclusive causes of the phenomenon. It is not the cause that every prostitute accepts
money for her services or that all prostitutes hail from indigent homes. In India there are prostitutes who are
compelled to adopt prostitution to feed themselves and their family. However, poverty is not the only
economic factors, there are many other factors which are economic.
Poverty
According to me poverty leads crime in our society. Poverty, the mother of manhood. Also,
the mother of prostitution. Lucan Around 40% of the world population lives in poverty which
means that they are not able to fulfil the basic survival needs like food, clothing and shelter.
And it is one important reason because of which women enter into the profession like
prostitution is poverty or we can say that women get involved in this profession to earn
money and to sustain their livelihood. Parents are the one who spend on our education and
provide us good living. Those who are without parents have no one who can contribute
towards their education or can look after them for their survival and good living, so they find
prostitution as a way to fulfil their need of money as well as to continue their education.
Poverty factor is the most responsible factor for prostitution. It follows a chain. Poverty leads
to illiteracy; illiteracy leads to unemployment and unemployment leads to crime in society
and prostitution is one of crime. A poor woman who is unable to get any employment due to
illiteracy and who does not have superior must either starve to death or earn her livelihood
through prostitution. In India, due to poverty many parents prostitute their own child.
Bad Working Conditions
In India many women are able to get employment through intermediaries. These
intermediaries and agents recruit women and keep them at their mercy whenever opportunity
offers itself they exploit it fully and often succeed in receiving sexual bribe. Once a woman
falls prey to their lust they in no time make a professional out of her.
Pollution and Corruption in Industrial Centres:
 The living conditions in most of the industrial centres are barbarous in India. Living
accommodation is scares and whatever is available is in slums. “Due to paucity of
accommodation most of the workers are compelled to leave their family and live alone. In the
absence of family, cinema going gambling etc. Make prostitute mongers of these persons. The
industrial towns have busy brothels and innumerable prostitutes. In India women are paid less
wages than men. Therefore, contractors make it a point to recruit maximum number of
women in the labour force. These women in the labour force. These women are easy prey to
the lusts of contractors and their friends. Due to poverty and habit the labour women wear
scanty clothes and often their raw bodies are exposed to full view of these lust seekers. In
slums the unmarried girls have to witness sexual activities of their relatives and are often
seduced prematurely. The precocious development of sex often drives women of prostitution.
Thirst For Quick Wealth
Youth has nowadays become lazy and their greed for money has increased and they urge to
earn money without doing any hard work. So, this is also one of the reasons why they find it
an easy way to earn a good amount of money so that they can earn more than what they are
getting from their parents which would help them to fulfil more of their luxury requirements
and demands.
Unemployment
This is also one of the reasons why women are involved in prostitution. Some are not
educated and those who are educated do not get job. So, to fulfil their basic needs they get
engaged in this business i.e. they sell their body for money. We can say that it is one of the
greatest drawback which attracts the unemployed one to involve in this business.
Under age employment
In India, due to poverty many females have to work in hotels, offices, industry and shop at
immature age. At this impressionable age theyare easily misled by lust seeker.
Social Cause
Societal disorganization is comprised to promote the entry of women in sex trade. Dysfunctional families are
also a facet of this aspect. Some adolescent feel neglected due to misbehave of step-fathers or step-mothers
and left at their own homes. As a result, they look for adoration outside the family and fell prey to the sex
trade (Prakash, 2013). The attributes coupled with personal crisis e.g. incest or rape, serious deprivation,
physical or sexual abuse, deprivation make some women vulnerable to prostitution. Sexual abuse within or
outside the family is a factor commonly present among the prostitutes.
Nadon, Koverala and schudermann (1998) found in their study that 68% female prostitutes experience
sexual abuse in their childhood. Another study shows that the girls who were sexually abused as children
were twice as likely to become prostitutes compared to whom who had not been sexually abused. Marital
factors also encompass prostitution in India. Changing life style and family pattern are weakening the
marital ties. The spouses don’t have quality time to spare with each other. It strained the marital relations
with results suspicion, disrespect, divorce and separation; both try to look comfortness outside their
relationship.
It is still common to marry persons very young in some places. If they become widows at early age; illicit
relations are common. The widows unable to remarry due to social stigma may fulfill their physical needs by
self – abuse. In some situations, step-brothers and brother-in-laws have sex connections with their sisters and
sister-in-laws respectively. These sex connections are temporary and do not meet the sex needs of young
women fully. Due to the irregular security and unable to satiate their desires; prostitution is last resort for
them.
Family Cause (Ill and harsh treatment by parents at home)
 A social research on prostitution reveals that most of the prostitutes were connected with
family troubles like Experience of violence, ill treatment and abuse at home. Their parents
were either living separated or their family or relatives were so strained that as children they
were left to their own machinations and received no love and affection from their parents.
These children can be easily misguided by lust seeker. Family broken up of either divorce,
illness, death or any other related problems that might consumes one or both of the parents or
heads of the family could render the children to lack the basic discipline, guidance and
parental love. Children grew up under such predicaments and uncertainty either a male or
female felt despair, thus leading to alternatives path on his/her own to survive.
Migration and Urbanisation
The rapid pace of urbanisation and migration in India has led to increased vulnerability for
many individuals. Migrants, particularly those from rural areas, often lack social support
networks and employment opportunities in urban centres, making them susceptible to
exploitation in the sex trade.
Social Stigma and Discrimination
Social stigma and discrimination, particularly against women and marginalised communities,
play an important role in perpetuating prostitution. The lack of social acceptance and limited
support systems for those in the sex trade further marginalise them, making it challenging to
exit prostitution and reintegrate into society.
Peer Pressure
Some of the workers that are involved in this profession do this being in peer pressure of their
known ones and some do this because they are forced and brought to this place for the
purpose of earning money by selling or buying them. This is an another business of child
trafficking that is continuing with the business of prostitution.
Bad neighbour
It includes two causes.
 Truancy or exclusion from the rest of the peer group and poor educational attainment
 The children living near brothels or in the company of immoral persons become so used to
seeing sex trade that they come to accept it as normal. The children who get exposed to sex
business want to have the exhilarating experience at the first available opportunity.
Marital Factors:
Many a superstition prevalent in India force women into prostitution. For example, widow-remarriage is still
frowned upon. But as a recent Hindi film ‘ Phir Bhi’ depicted even amiable aged woman is nobel to
eliminate and repress here physical needs and that the more you fight against them the more passionate and
demanding these become. Therefore, the widows unable to remarry due to social stigma may fulfill their
physical needs by self-abuse, seducing of young etc. But as these are poor substitutes for the real sex. they
may choose to become prostitutes Secondly, in India it is still is still common to marry persons very young.
If these girls become widows they often do so when they are very young. In India homes particularly in
villagers and poor, the illicit communications are common. Even Brothers step so low as to have sex
connections with their sisters. As a matter of fact there is no relationship so sacred that it does not get
sometimes consumed by the fire of passions. Evidently these illicit connections are temporary and do not
meet the sex needs of young women fully. Therefore, they seduce their servants or ‘themselves to outsiders.
Due to the irregular security, unable to satiate their desires, they take prostitution as a last resort.
Child marriages and Domestic Violence
Given out a daughter to marriage at the tender aged below the aged of 18 years could likely
undermine health of the daughter and lacking autonomy and support as well as veto over their
 husband and in laws. Therefore, they are vulnerable to domestic violence and abandonment.
The violence including sexual, physical and psychological abuse. Most often the husband of
the girl married before the aged of 18 years were being beaten and threaten by husband, then
women who were married after 18 years of aged. In view of these, child marriage and it
attendant consequences aiding marriage break up or divorce and thereby engage in
prostitution for survival.
Alcoholic Husband and Family Burden:
There are many head of a family who are constantly abusing drugs of all of sort, including
alcohol and marijuana, yet leaving jobless without anything to do get income. Unfortunately,
they have many children whose survival depend on him. As a result of this pathetic situation,
the wife and other women of the family had to resort for means of sourcing income thereby
find themselves into prostitution all with a view to survive with their family ,hence the head
of the family survival.
Psychological Cause
There are some psychological facts which tend the person towards prostitution. A woman who is frigid
becomes desperate. She tries one man after another. Because of frigidity she is unable to experience pleasure
and becomes a prostitute by trial and error. Some women are incapable of submission. In order to assert their
independence they consort with other men. There is a psychological abnormality knows as troilism. A
husband who suffers troilism wishes to watch her submitting to the embraces of another men, sometimes he
wants another woman to embrace his wife sexually and at the same time he sodomites her. It is not possible
to go into the full range of psychological factors.
Biological Cause
The person born with defective sex organ or overactive glands may feel compelled to sex gratification in
bizarre manner.
Personal Choice
“Pleasure Pathway” is a less known reason for entering in prostitution in India (Devine et al.
2010). It is mostly related to lifestyle that prostitution can provide women, particularly those
with fewer educational or career opportunities. It provides economic independence, freedom
from reliance on a male partner and the ability to reinvent the system of property ownership
and inheritance to women (Chattopadhyay et al. 1994). A research in 14 states of India with
3000 prostitutes finds a substantial segment of women had prior experience of alternative
work and opted for prostitution for better income and livelihood opportunities.
Religious and Cultural Cause (Social Custom)
Religious or Cultural Factors Religious prostitution has a significant place in Indian history. According
to Times of India report (10-11-1987) Devadasi system set up as a result of a conspiracy between the
feudal class and the priests. The latter, with their ideological and religious hold over the peasants and
craftsmen, devised a means that gave prostitution their religious sanction. Report confirms that the practice
of dedicating young dalit girls (Mahars, Mangs, Dowris and Chambhar) at childhood to a goddess and their
initiation into prostitution when they attain puberty continues to thrive in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and
other parts of South India. The Indian National Commission for Women mention that there are 44,000
active devadasis in which majority belongs to Karnataka (22,491), Andhra Pradesh (16,624) and
Maharashtra (2,479) and their number could be high as 250,000 (The Hindu, 30-1-2006). In India there has
been a religious sanction to prostitution. In South India, (especially in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh) every
family was suppose to offer one daughter to the temple where apparently she suppose to serve gods with
total dedication. They were known as Devadasis.
Family prostitutes
In prostitution business “age” is directly proportional to “cost”. So, after the age of 35 they are unable to
earn their livelihood and feed their family. In this case prostitute’s daughter has to adopt this family
prostitution business. In Khakranagla village of Rajsthan Bedia caste is known for family prostitution
business.

Lack of sex education

Due to lack of sexual knowledge they have a lot of misconception about sex and ultimately this
misconception result in to prostitution.
Inadequate Legal Framework and Enforcement
While India has laws to combat prostitution and trafficking, the legal framework is often criticised for being
inadequate and poorly enforced. The lack of stringent enforcement mechanisms, coupled with corruption and
bureaucratic inefficiencies, hampers the effectiveness of legal interventions in addressing the root causes of
prostitution.
Coercion
Women and children are trafficked in India or across India by deception or coercion for commercial sex
exploitation (Patel, 2013). They are kidnapped and are then forced to work as prostitutes. Of an estimated 20
million sex workers in India from which 16 million women and girls are considered as the victims of sex
trafficking (Nagaraj, 2017).
Immoral traffic of woman and children
Some of the sex workers who are involved in this profession are the victims of the rape, child
labour or trafficking who were sexually abused or raped when they were young. Living in this
Indian society we would be well aware of this fact that rape on a girl is a social stigma
moreover in many cases they don’t even get accepted by their families. Apart from the
various statutes and legislations the rape cases are increasing tremendously every day. Still
there is no control on such heinous crime. When these rape victims do not get any safe place
and when they are not accepted in the Indian society, they find their way in the brothels. For
this child trafficking is also done so that these small children can be used in this profession
and can earn a huge amount of money through this profession. Many girls are kidnapped from
their homes by pimps. They properly train them in the art of prostitution and when these girl
attain the age of maturity they sold them.
 EFFECT OF PROSTITUTION
No doubt, prostitution cause personal, family and social disorganization. The prostitutes suffer from
deterioration. The prostitute and the person who approaches her lead a sort of ‘double life’. They suffer from
moral collapse and loose their status and position which other respectable men and women enjoy in society.
Respectable people hate them, avoid their company and want to isolate them in society. As a result, the pimp
and the prostitute become ‘hated and isolated islands’.
They lead a life with their own definition of promiscuous sex conduct and a life with their own definitions of
promiscuous sex conduct and immoral principle. This will be quite different from the society’s conception of
morality. The man who approaches a prostitute may be contaminated with venereal diseases. If married he
may communicate the disease to his wife and children. The children born to the parents having venereal
diseases are likely to be maintained for life and many a time are born blind. The illegitimate and adulterous
sexual union, if known to the wives, brings tension in the family and ultimately to desertion to divorce.
There are clinical and psychoanalytic evidence to show that many young men who had pre-martial sex –
union with prostitutes suffer from ‘psychic – impotency’ in married life .The reasons for this may be many
and various depending upon the individual.
One of the reason for the ‘psychic-impotency’ is the hatred owned towards the prostitute’s sex developed
before, during or after the sex-union and fear of the contamination of venereal diseases from the prostitute at
the time or after he had sexual relation with her A prostitute performs two functions in the society-viz., the
commercial functions and health function. The brothels, call flats and disorderly hotels where prostitution is
permitted become accessible places for the public to have free sex satisfaction. This brings money to those
who conduct it, but, at the same time, it spreads venereal diseases. The managers of hotels, pimps, panderers
and prostitutes perpetrate criminality in society by inducing and kidnapping girls. They resort to various foul
methods of procuring young innocent girls and women to make their trades very prosperous and profitable.
By this, they wreck the personality, communicate diseases, scatter marriage and ruin the family of many girls
and people in society.
 PATRIARCHAL ASSUMPTIONS
Foremost among these assumptions is that prostitution is the oldest profession, a universal and inevitable
social evil, necessary to satiate an uncontainable male sexuality. Prostitution is therefore considered society's
safety valve against the rape of 'innocent women' and the disintegration of the institution of the family. The
tolerationist system of law consequently tolerates prostitution and legalisation openly sanctions its existence.
It is necessary to examine each of these assumptions. Though prostitution has existed in all class-based
patriarchal societies where power is vested in the hands of males and women are dominated and maintained
in conditions of servitude, prostitution was and is still unknown in many so-called tribal societies. The Warli
tribe of Dahanu is one such society although now that the tribe is being absorbed into the mainstream
capitalist system prostitution is making an appearance (interview with Shiraz Bulsara, activist, Kashtakari
Sangatna, Dahanu, Thane district, 1986).
Prostitution emerged with the development of social classes, itself a product of surplus accumulation. The
more aggressive and violent the accumulation of surplus, the greater the incidence and stronger the
consolidation of prostitution. The era of colonialism for instance, whose primary consideration was surplus
accumulation through the introduction of capitalism, resulted in prostitution at a mass level, with the degree,
form and nature changing with the phases of capitalist development. The link between the increasing
accumulation of capital and the approaching of women's bodies is part of a historial process, interacting as it
does with the economy and polity. In recognising the systematic dimensions of prostitution, the onus of
responsibility is shifted from the women in prostitution to the social system and the controllers of sex
businesses, so much so that "pimping becomes the oldest profession" and not prostitution.
Central to the argument of the universality, inevitability and necessity of prostitution are dominant social
perceptions about male and female sexual behaviour. Patriarchal society equates sex drive with male
sexuality which is assumed to be naturally active and aggressive. Women by contrast are attributed with
sexual feelings of a diffuse and passive nature. The assumption that prostitution is a safeguard for
'respectable women' against male sexual aggression is implicit in the legal systems governing prostitution. It
has been used to control and divide women without questioning the material basis of male sexual aggression.
Firstly, though rape and prostitution both have sexual connotations, they are not per se sexual phenomena.
Rape is tantamount to assault on women; prostitution is often nothing more than a purely economic
transaction for women. The extent of sexual gratification for both the rapist and client too has come to be
questioned. Studies suggest that rape occurs not for lack of sexual alternatives, but for gratification of the
need to exercise power. Part of the client's motive in prostitution is the exercise of consumer power. The act
of buying imbues him with a measure of power and control. The act of buying sexual intimacy with a
woman represents the logical marriage between sexism and consumerism.
In cultures with a high premium on virginity, victims of sexual abuse, who are considered to have lost their
honour, may even enter prostitution having internalised social perceptions of themselves as 'fallen women'
with little or nothing to live for. Cashing in on this, rape as a means to crush a woman's identity, break her
resistance and initiate her into prostitution is a well-documented phenomenon. The sexually non-exclusive
nature of a prostitute’s job and the perception of her as a common property, casts her into the stereo- type of
a 'bad woman, who is 'fair same' for rapists. She is denied the protection available to 'straight women'.
Prostitutes are one of the most vulnerable sections of women in society subject to sexual and physical
violence by men. Both rape and prostitution are manifestations of women's subordination and powerlessness
in society.
 SCENARIO OF SEX WORK IN INDIA
Sex workers are not eager to be studied due to the illegality of their work; federal government does not
compile statistics on their numbers as other legal occupations. India is a receiving, sending and transit
country for sex work due to its geographical proximity to Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan which are
economically less developed than India. CEDPA and PRIDE report (1997) mentioned that in India, every
day about 200 girls and women enter into prostitution from 80% of them against their will. First survey on
the sex workers in India conducted in 1997 by Ministry of Women and Child Development estimated 2
million sex workers which increased 50% by 1997-2014. According to the survey of 2014, approximately
1.2 million girls involved in this profession in which 35.47% girls involved before the age of 18. There are
estimated 275,000 brothels in India and as per UNAIDS survey of 2016, there are 657,829 sex workers in
India in which 20,000 women and girls are victim of sex trafficking.
Approximately 2 million sex workers are in metropolitan’s cities of India like Mumbai, Kolkata,
Bangluru, Delhi etc. Sonagachi in Kolkata and Kamathipura in Mumbai is the largest red light area of
Asia. In spite of that India has many other small red light areas. These red light areas are epic enter of sex
industry with worst living conditions for people. Authentic data of a survey of Bombay city alone indicates
an alarming figure of more than 0.1 million prostitutes in its 12,000 brothels. The Sonagachi, iconic red light
district, of Kolkata is home of 10,000 sex workers and 20,000 male customers visit here daily (Dasgupta,
2018). In 2007, the Department of Women and Child development (DWCD) estimates that 2.8 million
people were trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation in India. The majority of them is under the age
of 18; lured into sex work due to poverty. U.S. Department of State Report on Trafficking in Persons (2014)
points out that 90% of human trafficking existed in India is internal.
In 2007, Anti-Slavery International published a study on the practice of ritual sexual slavery or forced
religious marriage. It found that 93% of devadasi were from Scheduled Caste and tribes. A survey of the
Joint Women’s Programme mention that 63.6% of young girls accept Devadasi system due to custom
and 38% had their family history as Devadasi’s (Varghese, 2010). Devadasi system was linked to the
practice of trafficking girls for commercial exploitation. They are trafficked to the red light districts of
Mumbai, Pune, Banglore and other large cities along with other sex workers. The women of minorities are
stigmatized and rejected due to their caste have to turn to sex for survival. About 16% of victims of sexual
exploitation were prostituted because of traditional practices i.e. Devadasi and Adivasi (International Journal
for Equity in Health, Sept. 25th, 2008).
A survey by the Ministry of Human Resources and Development reveal that only 4.9% of the sex workers
in Calcutta are born within the city. More than 70 districts supply sex workers to Delhi. The survey also
revealed that two third of the original families of the sex workers lived below the poverty line and 60% of
the sex workers covered in the survey belonged to Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes or Backward
Classes. The study, made during health camps organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the
Devadasi populated areas, revealed that the dedicated girls formed 15% of the total women involved in the
sex workers in the country and as much as 70% to 80% of the sex workers in the border districts of
Karnataka and Maharashtra.
The Nats, the Bedias, the Faasi, the Banjar and Demmuris are tribal communities w hose business is to
entertain the noble class. Nat community of Nat Purwa (Uttar Pradesh) village is publicized for practice of
sex work. The village with 5000 inhabitants traditionally follows the prostitution since 400 years where 70%
of women are prostituted (The Hindu, March 23rd, 2013). NGOs are trying to provide them better
opportunities and changing their attitudes. But they regularly intimated by villagers who do not want to lose
their main source of income. In Dommuri community, eldest daughter financially helps her family through
sex work, is a tradition. In April 2011, first major survey on sex work was performed by the Centre for
Advocacy on Stigma and Marginalisation (CASAM) which also a part of NGO SANGRAM. Low levels of
education are common among FSW with 50.2% of sex workers in a pan-India sample having had no
schooling and the majority of respondents (65%) hailing from lower socioeconomic backgrounds (Sahni and
Shankar 2011).

LEGAL PROVISION OF PROSTITUTION

There are three prominent systems used across the world to regulate sex work. These are the system of
Suppression or prohibition, the system of regulation or legalisation and the system of abolition or toleration. 5
In the system of suppression, all the activities related to prostitution are criminalised including the activity of
indulging into sex work. There are few exceptions where sex workers themselves are not arrested, however,
that is in a very restricted sense. 6 In such a system, apart from the prostitutes, anyone who indulges in
promoting or facilitating the act is prosecuted. 7 The system of regulation concerns a situation where the state
intervenes by way of a practical solution.8
The state issues certain guidelines9 under which the prostitution can be legal on account of acknowledgement
of the fact that it has existed for a long time and shall continue to exist, and hence prohibition will not bear
any positive outcome.10 Finally, the system of abolition abolishes all the laws and rules regulating the
practice of prostitution.11 It criminalises parties engaging in sexual intercourse rather than the transaction
they have engaged in. It decriminalise women's involvement and does not discriminate between voluntary
and forced prostitution. This approach was adopted by United Nations convention in 1949. 12 In this
framework, act such as brothel-keep-ing, living on earnings of prostitution, soliciting in public places are
made punishable by law.
Indian policy resembles the abolitionist framework first enacted during British era. 13 At that time, the health
of the army was the major concern and hence the government decided to ban prostitution. After attaining
independence, the state went on to criminalise all those acts which are considered immoral and abhorrent in
public perception. Thus, ITPA allowed for toleration of red light arcas on the premise that prostitution can be
continued if. it doesn't appear in public space.
IMMORAL TRAFFICKING PREVENTION ACT, 1956
When we try understanding as to what are the main reasons as to why women are drawn towards this
profession, we come across various reasons ranging from out of their will and also at times because of
coercion. The reasons can be either due to ill-treatment by parents, or due to economic distress,
psychological causes, early marriage, etc. the list is endless. In 1956, the Indian Government has passed The
Immoral Traffic (Suppression) Act (SITA), under this Act prostitution can be legally done but soliciting of
people and luring them into sexual activities is illegal. Prostitution as mentioned in the Immoral Traffic
(Prevention) Act,1956 means the sexual exploitation or abuse of persons for commercial purposes.
It is also not an offense under the IPC. Even though it is said that sex work is legal, running a brothel is not
legal. It is contradicting to the whole concept of prostitution. As they cannot set up a brothel, they end up
meeting their clients in a hotel. The police often conduct raids in such hotels and take them into custody
along with their clients. They mostly end up being arrested stating that what they did was illegal. But in fact,
is legal. One thing the act expects the prostitutes to do is to stay away from the public eye. The Indian Penal
5
Narendra Kumarv. Union of India, AIR 1960 SC 430.
6
As discussed earlier in paper legislations like Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act. 1956, Trafficking of Persons (Prevention,
Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018.
7
S. Ananthakrishnan v. State of Madras, 195t SCC Online Mad 294: AlR 1952 7lad 395.
8
Rawls describes these general goods as "things which it is supposed a rational man wants whatever else he wants'. The notion of
rationality considered here is developed in the general view of the good is discussed in D.A.J. Richards, A Theoty of Reasons for
Action at 286-9t.
9
* C. FRIED, AN ANATOMY OF VALUES 97-101 (1970).
10
R. WHITE, EGO AND REALITY IN PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY 168 (1963).
11
Chintaman Rao v. State of M.P., AIR 195T SC u8
12
The Constitution of India, 1950, Art. 19(6).
13
" RAWLS, supra note 5, 92. ius Id.
Code (IPC) which predates the SITA is often used to charge sex workers with vague crimes such as “public
indecency” or being a “public nuisance” without explicitly defining what these consist of. In 1986 the old
law was amended as the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act or ITPA. It was a result of the signing by India of
the United Nations declaration in 1950 in New York on the suppression of trafficking.
The main statute that deals with sex work in India is The Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act 1986
amendment of legislation passed in 1956 as a result of the signing by India of the United Nations’
declaration in 1950 in New York on the suppression of trafficking, which does not criminalizes prostitution
or prostitutes per se but does make third party activities which have a business angle attached to it illegal like
pimping, keeping of brothels, etc. the act tries to differentiate between trafficking and prostitution and also
when prostitution is being talked about, it does not include the male prostitutes.
Section 3 of the act talks about the punishment for keeping a brothel or allowing premises to be used as a
brothel, in which case the person can be imprisoned or fined or both. The act has defined- child- a person
who has not yet completed the age of majority.14 The act talks about that if a child is found in a brothel and
after the medical examination is found to be sexually abused, it will be automatically assumed that the child
has been detained for prostitution. Also, if a child is found on the premises then he will be handed over to the
magistrate. Customers may be prosecuted according to legislation should they engage in any kind of
pleasure of the public sexual activity. Even though sex trafficking for cash is acceptable at an individual
level, a woman cannot do it within a 200-yard open place traverse. Sex consultants are not within the
framework of common employment laws. In any case, they have every right that a person would be satisfied
with and are entitled to be saved and rehabilitated if they so wish.
a) Definitional inconsistencies and Conceptual loopholes
A basic deficiency in the ITPA is the lack of a definition of trafficking, even though the title
of the Act specifically refers to trafficking. 15 In fact, even commercial sexual exploitation is
not adequately defined in the Act. 16 Instead the focus is on defining brothels as the site of
commercial sexual exploitation and thus penalizing the facilitators of commercial sexual
exploitation in brothels. What remains unclear therefore is the actual offence, particularly in
the context of trafficking. Is engaging in prostitution the offence or is trafficking for
prostitution the actual offence? This ambiguity serves to leave out a plethora of offenders
involved in the transport and harboring of potential victims of commercial sexual
exploitation.
ii) The assumption that prostitution takes place in brothels alone is also a limitation in the Act.
In other words, sexual exploitation in private premises, other than a brothel, is not covered by
the Act. In fact with the emergence of newer technologies and the changing global scenario,
commercial sexual activity has emerged in diverse forms and can take place in residences,
hotels, clubs, or involve mobile locations. Soliciting or use of public spaces within a certain
proximity to public places is however included in the Act. These distinctions, in addition to
making it harder to provide evidence, also have implications for a range of punitive actions
involving persons who rent, lease, own premises used for prostitution/ trafficking, but which
are not “brothels”, as well as for those who facilitate, propagate or encourage, the process of
trafficking or sexual exploitation, in the said premises.
iii) The treatment of victims as offenders, as reflected by their detention in “corrective”
homes, implies a contradiction in terms, as a victim cannot at the same time be an offender.
14
IMMORAL TRAFFICKING PREVENTION ACT,1956.
15
While many attempts have been made at defining trafficking by various organizations, the most commonly used and accepted
definition is the one coined by the UNCTOC. According to this, definition, “Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment,
transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of
abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments
or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation
shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or
services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs”.
16
Prostitution” means the sexual exploitation or abuse of persons for commercial purposes..
 This contradiction reflects the confused position on prostitution inherent in the law. While
prostitution per se is not outlawed in India (only when using public spaces), all women in
prostitution are routinely treated as offenders under the ITPA. Further, the term corrective
institution has been considered offensive for victims when in fact they have been forced into
commercial sexual exploitation against their will.
iv) The existing practice of recruiting girls for prostitution under the garb of religion, as in the
case of devdasis is not covered in the Act. Explicit mention of socio-religious practices,
which are not exempt from prosecution under the law, would go a long way in ending this
form of sexual exploitation.
v) The definition of prostitution as ‘commercial sexual exploitation’ or ‘abuse of persons for
commercial purposes’ is too wide and does not allow for commercial sexual activity as part of
legitimate sex work. However, in the case of children, it cannot be considered a legitimate
activity under any circumstances. Hence, a distinction is required in the definition of
prostitution that excludes children altogether.
vi) Rights of the victims have not been defined clearly in the law. This too is a basic lacuna in
the ITPA, wherein welfare measures have been prescribed without first clarifying how they
adhere to specific rights inherent in victims. For instance, while victims may be sent to
protective homes, this is not a statutory requirement. The rights under rehabilitation, which
should include legal, psychological, health and educational support and thus enable them to
join the mainstream of society, are woefully absent from the law. This gap has contributed to
the poor implementation of the rehabilitation process.
vi) Lack of a witness protection programme or the option of in-camera proceedings prevents
many victims, especially children from testifying.
vi) Composition and powers of the Central or State Authorities for preventing and combatting
trafficking have not been defined in the ITPA and neither has a time frame been set for when
the authorities should be formed. As a result, the authorities remain far from adequately
prepared for the roles envisaged for them.
b) Punishment and its Enforcement
i) Punitive measures
The punitive measures currently in the ITPA do not accurately or adequately reflect the
import of the offences they cover. For instance, the punishment of 7 years for offences of
trafficking in the ITPA is low, especially in the context of children, even though a provision
for extending to life does exist in certain cases. At the same time punishment for anyone
“frequenting” (Section 5) a brothel seems extreme, as not all visits to a brothel need involve
trafficked persons. And not all visits to the brothel may even involve sexual exploitation.
For instance, health workers or other service providers who visit may be implicated in the
process, as under the current dispensation simply visiting a brothel invites punishment.
Similarly, there is also routine misuse of the punishment for solicitation by the police (Section
8). “This has resulted in harassment and punishment of women in prostitution instead of
conviction of perpetrators of trafficking and pimps” (Standing Committee Report, p6). The
problem however seems to be that the punishment is restricted to women. If it were extended
to pimps, agents, procurers etc., the section would target the offenders more accurately.
Ideally, the women in prostitution should be dropped from the clause and it be retained only
for the other perpetrators of the crime.
ii) Convictions
The Indian record on arrests, convictions and punishment is disheartening, as noted earlier. It
has also been suggested that complicity between law enforcement officials and traffickers
 could be contributing to the low numbers on this account. 17 However, without rigorous
investigation, it is hard to corroborate the veracity of such claims. There are nevertheless
other structural constraints in the law enforcement machinery that can more easily be cited for
the low conviction rates. For instance, the absence of a witness protection programme makes
it harder to proceed with an investigation, as victims are fearful of deposing.
Similarly, the lack of a single specified and special agency to deal with investigations implies
that evidence gathering is dependent on local police, greatly slowing down the process at the
initial stages itself. Further, since different laws are implemented through different authorities,
with lack of clarity on roles of each actor/agency, there is an overlap of responsibility for
action often falling in between stools. For instance, the local police, specialized police of the
Anti Human Trafficking Units, Special Juvenile Police Units, Special Police Officers (SPOs),
Missing Persons Bureau (MPB), District Missing Persons Unit (DMPU) and the Missing
Persons Squad (MPS) all have overlapping jurisdictions. This leads to confusion about who is
to be held responsible, eventually impacting action
c) Other anomalies in the ITPA, include:
i) Detaining a trafficked woman in a corrective institution as an alternative to punishment. This
amounts to her detention (and then release) in an arbitrary manner without her consent and
thereafter without being provided any counseling or opportunities for rehabilitation.
ii) Presence of a trusted person during depositions involving children. This requirement, missing
from the Act, makes it hard for children to feel safe and free to depose especially in the
presence of the police and the accused.
iii) Punishment for living off the earnings of prostitutes (Section 4), without a caveat for children,
legal heirs and other dependents of the women in prostitution, penalizes the dependents. In
many instances, these women may be the only bread earner in the family. For the children
involved it implies a real travesty of justice. A distinction between living “on” the wages and
“off” the wages was therefore needed.
iv) Cross-border dimensions of trafficking (including inter-state trafficking) remain severely
neglected in the Act.
d) Rehabilitation, Compensation and Protection
Perhaps the most glaring anomaly in the law related to rehabilitation and compensation is the
absence of a specified set of right for the victims. This includes their detention in protective
or corrective homes without their consent as mentioned above, but extends to the entire gamut
of rehabilitation, including relief and compensation. Instead of specifying rights the ITPA
gives state governments the option of making provisions for corrective and protective
institutions. What this implies is that state governments comply with these provisions only to
the extent that their budgets or capacities allow. Invariably budgets for such matters tend to be
deficient. As a result, these areas have been grossly underserved, with state governments
taking arbitrary and cursory measures to bring relief to the victims.
This is evidenced from the fact that protective and corrective homes are poorly equipped.
Counselling, including legal counselling is completely absent as are provisions for health and
education. Providing livelihood opportunities, that would go a long way in sustaining
rehabilitation are also absent. It is no surprise then that after a period of what has aptly been
described as ‘detention’ victims are released, and more often than not fall back into their older
lives. Similarly, the lack of a coherent policy to guide finalization of the minimum and
maximum amount of compensation or the procedures to be followed means that victims have
to wait long periods before they receive anything, if at all.
The immoral Traffic Prevention (Amendment) Bill 2006

17
See USDOS Trafficking in Persons Report, 2017, especially its narrative on India.
Amending the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA) 1956 has been referred to a group of ministers after
objections were raised at a union cabinet meeting earlier this week to a few of the proposed changes. The bill
was introduced in the Lok Sabha in May last year and had been discussed in a parliamentary standing
committee.
The amended version of the bill treats sex workers as victims rather than offenders and "decriminalises"
prostitution. Of the nearly three million sex workers in the country (unofficial estimates put the number at 10
million), 40 per cent are reportedly below 18 years and a large percentage of women and children are
trafficked from Bangladesh and Nepal. Among the many changes, the bill defines a "child" as one who has
not completed 18 years, as against the earlier 16 years. It describes prostitution as sexual exploitation of
persons for commercial purposes or for consideration in money or kind (the ITPA stops at commercial
purposes) and explains specifically what is meant by "trafficking in persons" (the ITPA has no such
explanation). The bill provides for fine and punishment "for any person found in a brothel for sexual
exploitation of any victim or trafficking".
Significantly, the bill adds human trafficking to the list of offences in the Money Laundering Act, 2002.
Among the more significant differences is the deletion of section 8 of the ITPA, which calls for punishment
for "seducing and soliciting for the purpose of prostitution". The bill allows only in-camera trials of all
offences and also permits state governments to establish authorities to tackle human trafficking. On the face
of it, these are much needed amendments.
Section 8 of the ITPA had led to harassment of sex workers and lends itself to rampant bribe-taking. It has
been done away with mainly to shift the focus from "prostitution" towards trafficking. However, many men
do the "soliciting" on behalf of the women and children. And apart from this section, there is no other legal
provision to forbid these men from "soliciting" on behalf of the exploited. Besides, the various police acts of
the different states are applied to victimise the sex workers.
Prostitutes arrested by the police under section 110 of the Bombay Police Act make up a far larger number
than those arrested under section 8 of the ITPA. The bill while defining prostitution and a brothel does not
specify whether prostitution is legitimate if the person is exercising a choice to earn a living in this manner.
For example, the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, made up of sex workers from Sonagachi in
Kolkata, lists its long-term goals as the fight for full recognition of prostitution as a profession.
The bill seeks to punish a client who visits a brothel for "sexual exploitation of a trafficked victim", but the
client can escape this provision by differentiating between a trafficked and a non-trafficke4 person. What
happens if a client is found outside a brothel? Further, since the bill also does not explicitly define "sexual
exploitation", how does the enforcement agency decide the "purpose" of the client's visit and differentiate
between visitors to a brothel? It is this amendment that the health ministry has objected to, arguing that
penalising the client will push sex work underground and obstruct anti- AIDS programmes. Some ministers
in the cabinet meeting also reportedly wanted a clearer definition of a "client".
The UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children,
defines exploitation of trafficked persons to include forced labour, slavery and removal of organs, in addition
to prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation. Since the bill mentions trafficking only in the context
of prostitution, women and children trafficked for non-sexual but exploitative and pernicious practices
obviously do not fall within its ambit.
The Indian Penal Code
The issue of human trafficking is tackled in the IPC as well which prohibits the trafficking of women and
girls into a forceful area of prostitution and have prescribed harsh punishments on the offenders. The IPC
ennumerates that anyone who buys or sells or obtains the possession of anyone under the age of 18 years for
the purpose of prostitution or illicit intercourse or for an unlawful or immoral purpose. or knowing it to be
likely that such person will at any age be employed or used for any such purpose or knowing it to be likely
that such person will at any age be employed or used for any such purpose is to be imprisonment for upto 10
years.
The IPC identifies cross border trafficking into prostitution and provides that whoever imports into India
from any country outside India any girl under the age of twenty one years with the intent that she may be, or
knowing it to be likely that she will be, forced or seduced to illicit intercourse with another person, shall be
punishable with imprisonment which may extend to ten years and shall also be liable to fine.
The provision related to rape under IPC also applies to the rape of a brothel inmate. The IPC defines the rape
as an act of sexual intercourse with a woman against her will, without her consent or with her consent but
under threat or fear od death or injury, or with her consent when she is not aware about the consequences of
her consent or with or without consent when she is under 16 years of age.
The minimum punishment for rape is 7 years of imprisonment under IPC. These provisions are applicable to
the brothel owners, brothel staff, and customers when they engage in sexual intercourse with minors or with
women who are forcefully kept in the brothels.
Following are the heads of crime which are related to prostitution and Human trafficking:
 Procuration of Minor girls (section 366-A IPC).
 Importation of Girls (Section-366-B IPC).
 Selling of Girls for prostitution (Section-372 IPC).
 Buying of Girls for Prostitution (Section-373 IPC).
 Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act 1956.
 Child Marriage Retrain Act, 1929.
 Preventive Measures to Tackle the Problem of Prostitution
Many efforts have been made to close the brothels and the places which encourage prostitution. The
legislations have been enacted. Besides, some necessary measures those are necessary to root our evil that is
given below:
Sex Education:
Both men and women should be educated about and dangers of venereal diseases or sexually
transmitted diseases and the sources of such diseases and their negative impact on marital and
familiar relations, there are various steps to educate people. The values of self control should
be taught at an early age. These should be a provision for sex education to young people in
schools and colleges. Suitable literature for sex education should be distributed to the young
ones by some social welfare agencies. The Association for Moral and Social Hygiene in India
is also working in this direction. The sex education is also helpful in avoiding unwanted
pregnancies before marriage and also after marriage.
Employment opportunities for Women:
Girls and women are forced to take up this profession because of extreme poverty. Hence
training and education should be provided to them. Imparting education, training and skills
will increase the employability of women in job market. Economic empowerment can prevent
the poor women from entering this degraded profession.
Abolition of Certain Social Customs:
Widow Remarriage should be encouraged. With Window Remarriage Act window became
free to marry. Unfortunately the restriction of Society on widow marriage has perpetuated.
The system of dowry which debarred many girls from getting married should be discouraged
wholeheartedly in practice. There is an urgent need to change the society’s attitude towards
the widow marriage, dowry and devadasi.
Double Standards of morality has to be discouraged
The notation of double standards of morality should be discouraged. As Smt. Ranganayaki
observes,” It is in reality impossible to have double standard morally in matters of sex for
without male chastity, female chastity is impossible. As a result of a double standard of
morality which demands ds woman to be chaste, and expects man to be irregular and there
developed tolerated vice”.
Publicity and propaganda
Public should be enlightened on the legislations and if any such nuisances in the surrounding
areas are found then, immediately one should come forward to report this event. Besides,
films stimulating sex interest and pornographic literature should be discouraged. The present
younger generation has a free access to Internet. In internet there are many sites are there that
are capable of bringing down the moral standards among youngsters, hence, parents should be
cautious about the internet habits of their children.
Establishment of Venereal Disease Clinics:
Special Venereal Disease Clinics should be opened to treat the victims of venereal diseases.
Diagnostic facilities should be provided to vulnerable groups like prostitutes and lorry
drivers. Bulletins: Pamphlets should be issued to create public awareness about the flesh
trade. Public should be advised to seek treatment immediately if they are suffering from such
 venereal diseases. Besides, there should be free blood test examination and treatment of all
antenatal cases to ensure the birth of normal, healthy children free from all congenital
blemishes.

JUDICIAL TREND
 In a recent order, given by the Apex Court in the case of Budhadev Karmaskar v. State of West
Bengal And Ors. (2010),
In this case, a sex worker named Chhaya Rani, alias Buri, was beaten to death by the accused,
Budhadev. In light of all the evidence presented before the Court, he was convicted by the trial court
and the High Court. He further appeared before the Supreme Court in a criminal appeal, and his
conviction was withheld. The Supreme Court, in its judgement and order dated February 14, 2011,
took into consideration the social position of sex workers.
The Court declared prostitution to be a legal profession and also said that sex workers are entitled to
their fundamental rights as any other citizen of the country. The Court order said that every citizen of
the country, irrespective of their profession, has the right to a dignified life, and the same is
guaranteed to every citizen by Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The Court’s direction in this
order was based on the recommendations made by the Pradip Ghosh panel constituted by the
Supreme Court in the case. The Court had previously held that the central and state governments
should prepare schemes for rehabilitation for physically and sexually abused women, commonly
known as prostitutes, through social welfare boards in the same case.
The report submitted by the Pradip Ghosh panel stated that the sex workers were finding it difficult
to get their proofs of identity and other important documents. Due to this, they were not able to avail
benefit of most of the government schemes. The panel suggested amendments to the Immoral
Trafficking Prevention Act, 1956. The government agreed to make such amendments, but due to the
non-fulfillment of the same, the Supreme Court ordered the states and the union territories to
implement the recommendations by exercising its special powers granted by Article 142 of the Indian
Constitution.
Key changes
 There are six key changes that will stand until a new law is enacted. They are as follows-
 Protection, support and medical assistance must be provided to the sex workers who are the victims
of sexual assault as per Section-357C of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
 State governments can be called on to release adult sex workers who are detained against their will in
“protective homes,” and can also be asked to investigate these rehabilitative institutions.
 The Police force should be sensitised about the rights of sex workers to curb the violence and abuse
often levied by the force on sex workers.
 The Press Council of India must develop media guidelines to protect the privacy and confidentiality
of sex workers, which is their right as per Article 21. If any privacy breach takes place, then the
accused will be charged under Section-354C of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
 The possession of condoms cannot be considered as an offence or be seen as evidence of soliciting or
brothel-keeping, both of which are illegal in India as per the provisions of the Immoral Trafficking
Prevention Act, 1956.
 The national and state legal services should ensure access to legal aid to the sex workers and should
also educate them about their rights.
Other Case Laws
 Kajal Mukesh Singh & Ors v. State of Maharashtra (2021)
In this case, the complainant Rupesh Ramchandra More and one police constable received some information
from their confidential sources regarding a person named Mr Nizamuddin Khan who used to arrange
customers for prostitutes at a guest house in Malad Mumbai.
Two persons were sent to act as customers who wished to avail the services. The trap was laid in such a way
that the police raided the guest house where the accused had arranged the prostitute so that they could catch
them red-handed. The police arrested the accused and the victims were taken into custody.
After considering all the facts and circumstances of the case the Court was of the view that there is nothing
on record to show that they were seducing someone or that they were running a brothel. No activity
punishable under Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act, 1956. They too have a right to reside freely at any
place of their choice and to carry out the vocation as they like as their fundamental rights are guaranteed
under part III of the Constitution. The only matter of concern was that the consent of the victims should have
been taken before putting them under a corrective home as they are major and hold every fundamental right
as an ordinary citizen does.
 Gaurav Jain v. Union of India (1997)
In this case, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Supreme Court of India by the Petitioner, who
was an advocate. He had filed the petition after reading an article “A Red Light Trap: Society gives no
chance to prostitutes’ offspring” published on July 11, 1988, in a magazine named ‘India Today’. In the
petition, he had prayed for issuing an appropriate writ directing the setting up of distinct educational
facilities for the children of prostitutes (referred to as “fallen women” by the Court throughout the
judgment), up to sixteen years of age so as to prevent them from getting involved in the depraved and
unethical way of life.
However, the Court on November 15, 1989 passed an order according to which the Apex Court was of the
view that setting up different educational institutes and hostels would isolate the prostitutes’ children, which
would be against the well-being of these children as well as the society in general. Though the Court did not
approve the plea for separate hostels and schools by saying that to help the separation of prostitutes’ children
from their mothers, the availability of sufficient accommodation in reformatory homes and hostels was
needed.
The Supreme Court set up a committee of four advocates and three social workers to look into the matter and
suggest appropriate actions. The Committee was chaired by Shri V. C. Mahajan.
 Delhi v. Pankaj Chaudhry & Ors(2009)
In this case, the Apex Court reversed the decision of the Delhi High Court of acquitting 4 accused people
from the charges of gang rape and upheld the conviction of the trial Court. The Delhi High Court dismissed
the conviction of the accused because the women were in the custody of the police when the alleged rape
was supposed to have occurred. Though the Court held that even if the woman is indulged in sexual
activities, no one is permitted to rape her. Her consent is very much necessary in these matters. She is as
equally protected from being harassed as any ordinary citizen would be.
The Court emphasised that even if it is proved through material evidence that a woman is habitual of sexual
intercourse, no one can take advantage of her and can raise the issue regarding her character or by contenting
that she is a woman of ‘easy virtue’. The Court observed that such women have the right to refuse to submit
themselves for sexual intercourse. The Court imposed a 10 years sentence for the accused as was held by the
trial court earlier.
The Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, 1956 is the main legislation drafted in view of prostitution in India.
Section 3 of the Statute imposes imprisonment for two to three years with fine for keeping a brothel or
allowing premises to be used as brothels. Section 5 imposes three to seven years of imprisonment with fine
for procuring a person for the purpose of prostitution without their consent. Section 7 of the statute prohibits
prostitution in or near a public place. The act however is silent on the trafficking of children and on the
violence and cruelty imposed by the clients on women. In the case of Smt. Afjal vs State Of U.P. 18, the
18
Smt. Afjal vs State Of U.P., 2012 (77) ACC 7 (HC).
accused ran a brothel and detained minor girls for prostitution. The accused was found guilty under the
provisions of the act, and the minor girls were rescued.
There are laws regarding prostitution in The Indian Penal Code as well. Section 366 Clause (A) of the IPC
talks about the procuration of a minor girl for illicit sexual intercourse and prescribes punishment for the
same. Clause (B) of the same talks about the importation of a girl from an alien country for the purpose of
prostitution. In the case of Fateh Chand v. State of Haryana 19, a man was booked under section 366 for
procuring a minor girl for prostitution. Section 372 and 373 of the IPC prohibit the selling or disposing of a
minor girl knowing that such a girl will be roped into prostitution, and buying or hiring of a minor girl to
force her into prostitution respectively.
Again, the law is silent on punishing clients or brothel keepers for subjecting a prostitute to violent harm. It
also neither compels the use of condoms, nor contains provisions for the healthcare of sex workers, as a
result of which there is a spread of HIV/AIDS and also pregnancy causing a population boom.

19
Fateh Chand v. State of Haryana, (1977) 2 SCC 670.
 ARTICLE 19(1)G & PROSTITUTION
Now as it has been established that transactional sex as form of labour comes under the umbrella of socio-
economic rights, it is pertinent to ground the same under right to freedom of trade and profession under
Article 19 of the Constitution. The citizens of India are entitled to practice any profession, trade or business
under Article 19(1)(g), subject to restrictions made in public inter-est, under Article 19(6)3 of the
Constitution. However, the restrictions cannot be arbitrary and unreasonable. The word "reasonable
restriction" in Article 19 implies intelligent care and deliberation that is the choice of a course which reason
dic-tates!04 Legislation which arbitrarily or excessively invades the right cannot be said to contain the
quality of reasonableness lus
In Narendra Kumar v. Union of India," the Supreme Court held that while applying the test of
reasonableness, courts must look into the nature of the evil sought to be remedied by the law and whether the
restraint caused by law is more than necessary. If the provisions of ITPA are looked at in this context it is
quite clear that the effect of law is antithetical to the purpose sought to be achieved. The stringency of
provisions is unnecessary in the light of remedy sought by legislation. The ironical yet disturbing aspect
related to this is that Johar judgment which gives constitutional status to consensual sex between adults is
ineffective so far when it comes to giving protection to transactional sex under constitutional framework of
Article, 19. Such a situation appears to be in contradiction with the jurisprudence of the Johar case, because,
if the sexual conduct of consenting individuals of the sate sex does not violate the Constitutional spirit, then
how can the consensual transactional-sex relations continue to be unprotected by the constitution?
The economic rights If a dance bar worker or a sex worker warrant constitutional protection following the
jurisprudence evolved in Johar case. The legislations regulating the sex work and similar activities reflect the
anomaly inherent in legal system. If a particular act is protected. under the constitutional framework then
there is no justification for regulating it by way of criminal sanctions. This in return begs a constitutional
question- Why is this arbitrariness being resorted to in protecting the economic rights of a dance bar worker
or a sex worker? This kind of anomaly is not sustainable under the Constitutional scheme.
The question here is whether a 'reasonable restriction' can be imposed to curtail other fundamental right
guaranteed under the Constitution. Since reasonable restrictions are imposed in order to preserve the public
order and the interest of the state, the same cannot be applied in case of consensual transactional sex because
the very jurisprudence evolved in Navtej Johar gives precedence to an individual over the state or society.
Discarding the theory of parliamentary supremacy of British jurisprudence, the framers of our Constitution
deliberately adopted the American view that the subjects should be protected against the tyranny of
legislative majorities and for achieving that purpose they guaranteed certain rights set out in a precedence of
majoritarian notion over individuality which in turn would be detrimental to impact of the Johar Case. If a
reasonable restriction is imposed on transactional sex it will give rise to a doctrinal conflict within
constitutional principles.
The Indian constitutionalism encompasses the values of equal concern and respect for personal autonomy as
a foundational aspect and those values that dominant moral theories, following Kant,'" has identified arid
endorsed as fundamental to the point of view of morality. In the Navtej Johar case while adopting the same
principle the court laid emphasis on the critical importance of protection of liberty and dignity of an
individual in matters related to their private space including sexual relationship. Section 377 was one such
example where an individual's choice to engage in certain acts within their private sphere has been restricted
by criminalising the same on account of the age-old social perception. Hence, in this manner the legislation
is violating the human dignity by tainting the individualism of person with criminality.' The right to privacy
central to the human dignity is core value of autonomy and is intrinsically attached to liberty.
The right to life under article 21 has incorporated these values as an integral part.
The meaningfulness if life lies in the ability to decide the course of living and leading a life of freedom and
self-respect.'' Privacy is considered the foundation of all liberty because it is in privacy that the individual
can decide how liberty is best exercised. There is an inextricable link between individual dignity and privacy
in a pattern woven out of a thread of diversity into the fabric of a plural culture."13
Thus, in the light of Navtej Johar judgment the transactional sex has secured two-fold constitutional
protection. First the decision to indulge in sexual activity with person of one's choice is matter of one's
personal autonomy and second as transactional sex is a dignified form of labour and it is protected under
article 19(1)(g) of the constitution. Hence the said provisions of ITPA are in contradiction with the ruling of
Navtej Johar as well as violative of article 19(1)(g).
 INTERNATIONAL LEGAL ASPECTS
The contributions for the protections can be acquired by the use of these instruments and must be outlined in
a wider perspective. The two instruments which have come to be associated with the defense of fundamental
human rights of individuals are the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which is may be
the best legal foundation for the protection of sex workers. The primary international legal framework for the
defense of human rights is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is another instrument which came to be associated
with safeguarding individuals’ fundamental human rights. Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) preamble
states that men and women have equal rights and dignities, the right to life and liberty, equal protection
under the law, the right to be free from all forms of slavery and servitude, the right to be protected from
arbitrary invasions of one’s privacy, one’s family, one’s home, or one’s correspondence, the right to work,
the right to free employment, and the right to fair and beneficial working conditions. The importance of this
right is specially felt by those who work in the sex industry.
A person has the right to an appropriate standard of living, which includes having access to housing, food,
clothing, healthcare, and other crucial social services. This is a very significant right. Therefore, the
protection of those who work in the sex industry is in line with a number of fundamental rights and
principles that are outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Similar rights are reflected in the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which emphasis on the right to freedom of
association. For granting this right, it must be in the interests of public safety, national security, the
preservation of morals and public health, or the defense of other people’s rights and effective anti-
discrimination measures. CEDAW contains provisions which deals with issues related to prostitution and
human trafficking as well as the right to choose one’s profession and workplace. The CEDAW, or Committee
on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, recognized that unemployment and poverty can drive
many women into prostitution and these women are “particularly vulnerable to violence because of their
status, which may be unlawful.20
a. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW):
CEDAW recognizes the right of women to work and calls for the elimination of all forms of
discrimination against women, including those related to prostitution. It emphasizes the importance
of protecting the health, safety, and human rights of sex workers.
b. The United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons: The Plan recognizes
the links between prostitution, trafficking, and exploitation and calls for a comprehensive and human
rights-based approach to combat trafficking in persons. It emphasizes the importance of addressing
the root causes of trafficking, such as poverty, inequality, and gender-based violence.
c. International Labour Organization (ILO): The ILO recognizes sex work as a form of work and
calls for the protection of the rights of sex workers, including their right to freedom of association,
health, and safety. It emphasizes the importance of empowering sex workers and promoting their
social and economic integration.

20
Shweta Joshi & Namita Jain , legalization of prostitution in india : jurisprudential analysis , Vol.6(9) JPSP (2022) at
https://journalppw.com
 CRIMINAL SANCTIONS
Criminal sanctions against prostitutes and a plethora of legal controls over women in prostitution, exist in
one form or another, under all three legal traditions governing prostitution. The prohibitionist system in its
very formulation bans prostitution as an activity per se, i e, both the act and its en-couragement. In countries
espousing tolerationism, the act itself is not illegal, but its encouragement is. However, the legal definition of
encouragement is extremely narrow, limiting itself to one individual encouraging another and does not take
into account the direct and indirect encouragement by larger collectives such as the media, the tourist
industry and the entertainment in-dustry, which are subject to degrees of state control. Contradicting the
spirit of the act clauses inserted into prostitution laws under the tolerationist system penalise soliciting and
loitering for prostitution, thus allowing for treatment of prostitutes as offenders. The Street Offences Act,
1959 in Britain aimed not at abolishing prostitution per se, but in keeping prostitutes off the streets to deal
with the 'nuisance value and preservation of 'public morality. In view of this women soliciting for
prostitution are cautioned twice. On the third occasion, they registered/licensed entertainment workers
likewise, business permits are necessary for operators of entertainment establishments. (b). The city
government maintains and operates a social hygiene clinic which certifies whether an entertainer is free from
VD and other communicable diseases. If found to be infected, the worker is prohibited from working till
cured. (c) While the act of prostitution is itself not illegal, there exists an anti-street walking ordinance which
considers soliciting of customers in the street punishable. By contrast, soliciting customers inside clubs
which assure operators of income from various fees imposed customers is not punishable.
What is contradictory is that while the act of prostitution is legal, penalties for loitering and soliciting, render
it difficult for prostitutes to work, for a woman cannot make contact with her client legally. Even more
discriminatory is the fact that both prostitutes and clients are active participants in the act of soliciting, but it
is only the prostitute who is subject to legal process.
Further, the definition of the term brothel in several of these countries makes it difficult for women to work.
The Indian law for instance defines a brothel as any house, room, are brought to court where they, are
identified astrom of prosties tied charge or be fines and prison sentences were imposed, but in 1983 the
British parliaments made soliciting and loitering for prostitution a non-prisonable offence [Mcleod, 1982]
Penalties for soliciting and loitering for prostitution also exist in France [Women's World, 1990-91] and
India (D'Cunha, 1991).
Prostitution related laws in the Philippines are very contradictory. While city officials and business operators
claim that the entertainment industry is purely entertainment, the transactions, which have been legitimated
by various city ordinances, clearly reveal an organised prostitution industry. Among such ordinances and
legitimations are: (a) The requirement of a mayor's permit for employees before they are considered
registered/licensed entertainment workers likewise, business permits are necessary for operators of
entertainment establishments. (b). The city government maintains and operates a social hygiene clinic which
certifies whether an entertainer is free from VD and other communicable diseases. If found to be infected,
the worker is prohibited from working till cured. (c) While the act of prostitution is itself not illegal, there
exists an anti-street walking ordinance which considers soliciting of customers in the street punishable. By
contrast, soliciting customers inside clubs which assure operators of income from various fees-imposed
customers is not punishable.
What is contradictory is that while the act of prostitution is legal, penalties for loitering and soliciting, render
it difficult for prostitutes to work, for a woman cannot make contact with her client legally. Even more
discriminatory is the fact that both prostitutes and clients are active participants in the act of soliciting, but it
is only the prostitute who is subject to legal process.
Further, the definition of the term brothel in several of these countries makes it difficult for women to work.
The Indian law for instance defines a brothel as any house, room, conveyance or place or any portion of any
house, room, conveyance or place which is used for the purpose of prostitution for the gain of another person
or for the mutual gain of two or more prostitutes (Beotra,1981]. This could result in two or more prostitutes
operating from the same premises for the purpose of safety, security or the like, getting booked for running
of brothel.
If it is legal then why is it carried out in secrecy
Prostitution in India is partially legal. Most of the activities related to prostitution are not illegal, but the
activities are carried out in secrecy because of the shame associated with them. People who indulge are
scared to accept the same in society. Although it is legal in India, people are working as prostitutes, and
clients are taking advantage of their services, but they are afraid to reveal their original identities. The
reasons for the same somewhat relate to the laws made in the country.
The Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act, 1956, completely prohibits the running of brothels. These brothels
provided a place to stay for the prostitutes. One side of the legislation provides support to them by keeping
them away from the people who force them to practice prostitution, but on the other side, for those who
willingly chose to be into prostitution, it also puts away a residential establishment in which they could live
comfortably. This poses a problem for them.
Although, the viewpoint of the judiciary in India is in favour of the sex workers, and as per the new ruling,
they have considered it to be a profession, the legislations in India are one of the major reasons because of
which, prostitution is carried out in secrecy.
The other major reason behind this is the perception of society. The majority of the people in the country
consider sex work to be bad for society.
The countries are divided into three categories in terms of prostitution:
 Where it is illegal to carry out prostitution
 Where prostitution is legal but with certain limitations and restrictions.
 Where prostitution is legal and has proper laws.
India falls under the second category where prostitution is legal but with certain limitations. There is an
ambiguity when answering the question Is prostitution legal in India? because according to the Indian
constitution, prostitution is not completely illegal because it is nowhere mentioned that a person practicing
prostitution is to be punished by law but it is written clearly about a few activities related to prostitution that
are punishable by law such as running brothels, soliciting, trafficking, and pimping under the Immoral
Traffic (Prevention) Act, (1956).
The act defines prostitution as the sexual exploitation or abuse of persons for commercial purposes and
brothel as any place which is used for purposes of sexual exploitation or abuse for commercial purposes. The
act does not criminalize prostitution or prostitutes per se, but mostly punishes acts by third parties facilitating
prostitution like brothel-keeping, living off earnings, and procuring, even where sex work is not coerced.[4]
It is vague and the laws related to prostitution reflect duality as a whole. On one hand, the act makes it illegal
to own and manage a brothel even prescribing punishments and fine for the same but on the other hand,
makes it legal for a person to be a prostitute. It is as funny as if you are allowed to be a chef but cannot work
in a restaurant. Now, the question of concern here is that how are the prostitutes in India carrying out their
business?
Well, the answer keyword here is underground or in simple words- away from public eyes. The Indian
society would never be ready to accept the existence of a brothel in their locality and having a sex worker
live around them is way difficult for them to digest.
Covid-19 has provided more reason for decriminalization of Prostitution to consider a long pending demand
of sex worker in India. In India, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) took a decision that sex
workers should be considered as informal workers and provided all the welfares benefits. It is a very
important development. National Human Rights Commission lists sex workers as ‘women at work’. If we
talk officially, it is estimated that there are over eight lakh sex worker in India. However unofficial figures
place these number far higher near forty lakhs. The National Human Right Commission’s recommendation
came in its ‘advisory on rights of women’ issued recently as part of a series of advisories issued by the body
in the wake of COVID-19.
The National Human Rights Commission advisory was based on an impact assessment by a 11 members
committee of experts comprising of representatives from civil society organizations, domain experts and the
government. The advisory acknowledged that lockdown has led to a sudden loss of employment, particularly
in the informal sector with no alternate sources of money, food or shelter and it has disproportionately
affected women who comprised a substantial proportion of such works.
The economic vulnerability of those involved in work is already stigmatized such as sex Prostitution has
increased exponentially as the nature of sex workers demand physical contact which is being avoided in this
pandemic time. Due to the impact COVID-19, sex workers have suffered a lot. Migrant sex workers should
also have been included in schemes and benefits for migrant workers. Temporary documents should be
issued to enable them to access welfare measures such as PDS (Protected Distributed Systems).
For instance, the Maharashtra government recommended all the government organizations to provide
assistance and relief to sex workers, especially locating the mothers who have a child to take care of as well;
free testing and treatment of sex workers who contracted COVID-19 and free healthcare services, especially
for the prevention of HIV and other STDs.
 Prostitution policies in different countries
In the current article, the author has attempted to cover the prostitution policies of some countries. This
section of the article will cover the countries where prostitution is illegal, legal and partly legal.
Countries where prostitution is illegal
In this section, the author has discussed some of the countries where prostitution is illegal.
China
Both administrative and criminal law apply to sex work in China. Buying and selling the act
of prostitution, as well as enticing, sheltering, or initiating a person to prostitution, are all
illegal under the Law on Penalties for Administration of Public Security 2005 (Article 66) of
China. It is prohibited to organise, force, or induce prostitution.
Croatia
In Croatia, the Misdemeanors against Public Peace and Order Act was passed in 1977 and
incorporated into Croatian law with minor changes in 1990. As per the Act, there are majorly
two types of offences: allowing for the use of one’s premises for prostitution or enabling or
helping a person to engage in prostitution (Article 7), and engaging in or falling into the act of
prostitution (Article 12).
Egypt
According to Article 9 (c ) of Law No. 10/1961 on the Combating of Prostitution, prostitution
is considered illegal in Egypt. The same statute makes purchasing sexual activity unlawful,
but lower court convictions have been reversed by higher courts.
Iran
Sex work was tolerated in limited red-light districts until 1979. These were razed following
the Islamic revolution, when laws were enacted prohibiting brothels, procuring prostitutes,
and selling sexual activities, as well as harsh punishments such as imprisonment, flogging,
and execution. Thus, making prostitution illegal under Articles 637 and 638 of the Penal
Code.
Iraq
1988 Combating Prostitution Law No. 8 (Arabic) of Iraq made it illegal to organise male or
female prostitutes and established, in theory, a system for prostitute rehabilitation. The
Revolutionary Command Council enhanced the penalty for individuals guilty of organising or
indulging in prostitution. Article 2 of the above-mentioned Act makes the act of prostitution
illegal in Iraq.
South Korea
Article 4 of Act No. 7196 of 2004 on the Punishment of Procuring Prostitution and
Associated Acts makes prostitution illegal in South Korea. Human trafficking is defined by
this Statute as any sexual activity conducted in return for money or goods. Sex workers in
South Korea must establish that they were pressured into giving sexual services in order to
avoid punishment.
 South Africa
In South Africa, the Sexual Offenses Act of 1957 makes it illegal to engage in unlawful carnal
intercourse with another person or perform an act of indecency for monetary gain. It also
makes it illegal to keep a brothel, to recruit someone to work as a sex worker or in a brothel,
to facilitate sex work, to knowingly live off the revenues of sex work, to solicit in public areas
for immoral purposes, and to engage in public indecency. Paying or otherwise rewarding
someone above the age of 18 for a sexual act, whether such act is committed, is illegal under
the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 2007.
United Arab Emirates
Articles 363-368 of Federal Law No. (3) of 1987 on the Issuance of the Penal Code make
prostitution illegal in the United Arab Emirates.
Countries where prostitution is limitedly legal
In this section, the author has discussed some of the countries where prostitution is limitedly legal.
Australia
In Australia, depending on the state, the law on prostitution ranges from decriminalised to legally
regulated to criminal. The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia prepared a report where
they compiled all the different laws on prostitution in Australia. The report mentions key provisions
of various legislations such as Sex Work Act 1994, Summary Offences Act 1988, Restricted Premises
Act 1943, Prostitution Act 1999 Amended 2010, Prostitution Act 2000, Summary Offences Act 1953,
Sex Industry Offences Act 2005, Prostitution Act 1992, Prostitution Regulation Act 2004.
Canada
In Canada selling sex is considered to be a legal activity, but buying sex is illegal following the
implementation of House Government Bill C-36 of 2014. The Protection of Communities and
Exploited Persons Act superseded Canada’s previous prostitution regulations in December 2014.
Purchasing sex, benefiting materially from another’s prostitution (unless there is a legitimate
relationship, which was undefined in early 2015), and anyone other than sex workers advertising sex
businesses and communicating for the purposes of prostitution near schools, playgrounds, and
community centres are all prohibited under the new law.
France
The adoption of Law No. 2016-444 Aiming to Strengthen the Fight Against the Prostitution System
and to Assist Prostituted Persons made selling sex a legal activity, but buying sex is illegal in France.
Sex workers can be penalised with public order and traffic violations, and anti-trafficking and
immigration laws are strictly enforced for migrant sex workers. Across the country, law enforcement
varies, and discreet brothels are recognized in towns and cities. Police brutality and a lack of
enforcement of legislation that may protect sex workers, particularly against transwomen, have been
reported by sex workers.
Japan
The Prostitution Prevention Law of 1956 makes it illegal to conduct “unnamed intercourse for
payment with an unspecified person.” ‘No one may either practise prostitution or become a customer
of it,’ according to Article 3 of the above-mentioned Act. However, only prostitute solicitation,
arranging prostitution, operating brothels, soliciting or inducing an individual for prostitution,
coercing a person into prostitution, and profiting from the sex activity of others is punishable as per
the Statute. As a result, buying sex isn’t absolutely unlawful. While other forms of commercial sex,
such as massage parlours and ‘soaplands,’ which are known as ‘fuzoku’, are allowed because the
concept of prostitution is limited to vaginal intercourse. The Businesses Affecting Public Morals
Regulation Law of 1948 governs these businesses in Japan.
United Kingdom
In North Ireland, buying sex is completely illegal but selling sex is legal as per Article 15 of the
Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Criminal Justice and Support for Victims) Act (Northern
Ireland) 2015. Further, the following activities are illegal in the UK:
 Using phone booths to promote your business.
 Crawl the kerbs (approach people in public to ask them for sex)
 Rent or allow a brothel to operate on your land.
 Use of force, threats, fraud, or other forms of compulsion to get access to someone selling sex.
 Trafficking people to the UK or around the UK for sex.
According to the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, “Prostitution: Third Report of
Session 2016–17,” published on July 1, 2016, The sale and purchase of sexual services are allowed in
England and Wales, but various related actions are illegal. This covers exploitation-related activities
like controlling prostitution or maintaining a brothel, as well as public nuisance activities like
purchasing or selling sex in public.
United States of America
 The United States is a federal system in which each state has its own sex work legislation. All parts
of buying, selling, and organising sexual services are prohibited in most states. For example,
pandering, procuring, promoting prostitution, soliciting, and agreeing to engage in a prostitute act.
The act of prostitution is considered illegal in the USA with an exception of the state of Nevada,
which legalises licensed brothels and is subject to strict regulations that include mandatory HIV and
STI testing along with curfews for employees.
 The Mann Act of 1910, as revised in 1986, makes interstate or international transportation for sexual
activity illegal. Despite the permission of the claimed victim, many state and federal anti-trafficking
rules make prostitution-related actions illegal.
 Despite the fact that buying sex is not illegal everywhere in the country, gender-neutral rules against
soliciting for prostitutes, as well as other laws and policies, are utilised to criminalise and/or deter
males who buy sex. This involves violations of public order and decency regulations, as well as
embarrassing clients in public.
Countries where prostitution is legal
In this section, the author has discussed some of the countries where prostitution is legal.
Germany
Germany is a federal system in which each state has its own interpretation, enactment, and
enforcement of federal legislation. Prostitution in Germany is legal, organised, and taxed, making it
one of the most progressive systems in the world. Germany also permits brothels, ads, and the use of
HR companies to process prostitution jobs. In 2017, Germany introduced the Prostitutes Protection
Act, which aimed to protect prostitutes’ legal rights. All prostitution trades must have permission, and
all prostitutes must have a registration certificate, according to the Act.
Mexico
Prostitution is permitted in Mexico under federal law. Each of the country’s 31 states has its own
prostitution legislation, with 13 of them allowing and regulating prostitution. There are “tolerance
zones” in several cities that operate as red-light districts and allow for regulated prostitution. In most
places of Mexico, pimping (the practice of controlling prostitutes and arranging clients for them,
taking part of their earnings in return) is prohibited.
India
The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act of 1956 (ITPA) does not criminalise prostitution in India per
se, rather it makes it illegal to keep a brothel as per Section 3, live off a prostitute’s earnings as per
 Section 4, procure, induct, or detain a person for sex work as per Section 5 and 6, prostitution near
public places and notified areas as per Section 7, and solicit prostitution as per Section 8.
Sex workers are arrested and detained for public order violations. They routinely accuse police and
detention centre guards of brutality, rape, and extortion, claiming that law enforcement is corrupt or
inconsistent. Although HIV and STI testing is often voluntary and with informed permission, there
have been reports of violations. Although it is not unlawful to buy sex, clients who engage in
prostitution-related activity in public areas may face penalties.
The Indian Penal Code, 1860, also addresses prostitution, however, it focuses on kidnapping and
child prostitution. Under Sections 372 and 373, it is illegal to buy, sell, or import minors for the
purpose of prostitution.
Under Article 23(1) of the Indian Constitution, trafficking of human beings, beggars, and other
similar forms of forced labour are prohibited, and any violation of this provision is a crime
punishable according to Article 23 (2).
Indonesia
The Indonesian Penal Code makes it illegal to profit from others’ obscenity (Article 296), trade-in
women (Article 297), and live off the revenues of a female sex worker (Article 298). (Article 506).
These statutes are rarely invoked. In practise, a variety of sub-national, local laws, ordinances, and
by-laws govern the sex industry. These range from outright bans on all forms of sex labour to legally
sanctioned brothel complexes known as ‘lokalisasi’. Tolerated brothels are on the decline, with
‘Dolly’, one of the most well-known lokalisasis, being shut down by police in 2013.
New Zealand
The Prostitution Reform Act of 2003 repealed prior laws that prohibited the operation of brothels,
escort agencies, and solicitation in favour of a mix of rules and criminal penalties aimed at reducing
unsafe sex and the involvement of minors, migrants, and non-consenting persons. Thus making
prostitution a legalised act in New Zealand. However, the Summary Offenses Act 1981 is still in
effect, allowing sex workers who act rudely in public areas to be punished with a crime.
Singapore
 While offering sexual services in exchange for money is not illegal in and of itself, many sex work-
related actions are punishable. These are as follows:
 According to the Miscellaneous Offences Act, Article 19, it is illegal to solicit sex work in a public
location.
 Article 146 of the Women’s Charter prohibits people from living on or trading in prostitution. Two
additional changes to Article 146 were adopted in 2016, making it illegal to use “remote
communication services” to advertise sex work. Independent sex workers who run their own
websites are basically criminalised as a result of this.
 Owning a brothel is also punishable in Singapore as per the Women’s Charter, Article 148.
 Furthermore, migrant sex workers are classified as “prohibited migrants” under Article 8(e) of the
Immigration Act.
 Effects Of Absolute Legalization Of Prostitution In India
When Dr. Vargeshwari Deswal, a women's rights activist and senior faculty member at Delhi University,
says that if something can't be eliminated, it's better to regulate it, she gives us an excellent option and a
solution with perfect reasoning. Yes, that is what should be done; the key is regulation. Making proper laws
regarding this profession would resolve all issues. Let's break it down by field:
Management of brothels:
The government should bring all of them under its control and keep a record of them by registering
them under the law, ensuring that they are located away from residential areas, schools, worship
places, and other areas where society is hostile to this profession
Prostitutes' Records:
Human trafficking is a serious concern in India, and it is becoming more prevalent in the prostitution
industry. According to campaigners, 16 million women and girls in India are victims of sex
trafficking out of a total of 20 million commercial prostitutes. Every year, thousands of children,
mostly from low-income families, are lured or abducted by human traffickers and sold to pimps and
brothels, where they are forced into sexual slavery.
The advantage of legalizing prostitution in India is that we will at least have a history of sex workers.
Now, if the government starts regulating how many prostitutes work in a brothel, where they come
from, and whether or not they are forced to do so, it will have a huge impact because the owners of
these brothels will have to run their businesses like any other business in India, adhering to the rules
and regulations.
Rehab Centers:
Nearly 7,000 sex workers in Sonagachi, Kolkata's largest red-light district, admitted that they have no
other way of surviving. (Krishnan, et al., 2016). Poverty and unemployment are the root causes of
someone engaging in this profession. Women from remote areas have been known to fall prey to
unscrupulous intermediaries who promise them decent job opportunities before selling them as sex
workers. Poverty is the primary motivator for needy and powerless women to turn to prostitution.
Due to a lack of job opportunities, women were forced to rely on illegal transactions to supplement
their income. After being raped, approximately 6% of the women turned to prostitution.
Survivors of sexual assault are frequently victimized by the shame and stigma imposed on them by a
society that blames them for having been raped. In some cases, not only society but also their family
members have refused to accept them. Building a rehabilitation center for those who entered this
profession by force rather than choice would be extremely beneficial to these individuals.
Enacting legislation to combat crime against sex workers:
Fundamental rights are available to every citizen of India, according to our Indian Constitution, and
sex workers, as citizens, are entitled to these rights. A prostitute has the right to life under Article 21
of the Indian Constitution but the things stated are quite different from the things that happen so the
question is that what happens if a sex worker isn't paid for her services by a particular client? What if
he or she is harmed?
 Are there any laws in place to help this segment of the population? The answer is no. How can we
expect someone's basic fundamental rights to be protected if we don't allow them to practice their
profession legally? Because they are afraid of harassment, many of these workers do not go to the
police and are unable to report any crimes committed against them. Males who are designated as
clients or customers are exploited.
The most obvious fate for these girls and women is pimps. These people are always exploited by the
police and other law enforcement agencies. They not only take money from them, but they also
physically abuse them.
Medical care:
India's government estimates that there are three million sex workers in the country. The majority of
them are not only HIV-positive but also suffer from a variety of other illnesses. They do not have
adequate access to medical care. It's probably unthinkable for them to be referred to a specialist.
Proper legalization of the profession would aid in its acceptance by society, and these people would
not hesitate to obtain the same benefits that any other citizen would.
Possible consequences of Legalizing Prostitution
Legalizing Prostitution can bring both positive and negative changes in India. The positive changes that can
be brought about are listed as follows:
 Access to Justice– Prostitution will get access to justice to the victims.
 End of Middle Man– Middle man exploits the prostitution, they do not let the sex workers get much
help from the police because of the lack of documentation and the exploitation is double, there is also
apathy from the administration side.
 Licensing of brothels– If the government does it legalized, the sex workers will have their own id
cards registered with their documentation with the government.
 The setting of Legalized Organizations for the sex workers to work– The organizations for sex
workers made by the government will inform that how many workers or sex workers are working
with them and are they giving all the provisions or rights and also they have defined to them as their
basic working hours.
 Health clearance and checking the spread of HIV– The spread of HIV would decrease with the help
of proper monthly health inspections of the sex workers and making the use of protection (condoms
or pills) mandatory, to prevent the spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs).
 Regularization of wages and working conditions– Providing a certain fixed wage per customer as
well as providing the sex workers with good and hygienic working conditions would be beneficial for
their health and well-being.
 Brothel incomes can be taxed– The government may think to tax on that income of brothels as the
owner and many of his men and agents have been caught many times with black money.
 Better working conditions: Legalizing prostitution would allow sex workers to operate in a regulated
environment with access to basic rights such as health care and legal protection. They could also
negotiate fair prices and hours of operation with customers without fear of police harassment.
 Reduced exploitation: Legalizing prostitution would help reduce the exploitation of sex workers by
pimps and traffickers. Sex workers could work independently without fear of violence or
exploitation.
 Tax revenue: Legalizing prostitution would create a new source of tax revenue for the government.
This income could be used to finance social programs, education and health.
 Reduce sexually transmitted diseases: Regulated prostitution can help reduce the spread of sexually
transmitted diseases, as sex workers would have access to regular medical check-ups and use
protective equipment.
Now the question that arises from this matter is that selling our body or being a sex worker is an ethical job
or not? If we make it legalize then what will happen to the social moral? Those officially eight lakh sex
workers will get these benefits or advantages but there has some inimical impact which can be stated as
disadvantages of legalizing prostitution. They are as follows:
 Prostitution is like giving approval to the flesh trade, this will benefit the middleman who hides his
information from the Government. If the middleman opens big companies and if those people are not
giving documentation then there is still a chance of exploitation.
 Prostitution can be held beneficial for facilitators and the pimps. This is a moral hazard question like
if this profession is legalized then the student or youth generation. Will they be motivated towards the
study and for other professions? Because for the students or youth of the nation it will be very easy to
enter in this profession and earn money. It is a huge moral hazard.
 Societal problems can arise such as if prostitution is made constitutionally valid, then it might wreck
personality and affect the family life of an individual and may bring social disorganization.
 Objectification of women: Legalizing prostitution would further objectify women, which is already a
major problem in Indian society. This would encourage the idea that women's bodies can be bought
and sold, perpetuating gender inequality and discrimination.
 Human trafficking: Legalizing prostitution could lead to an increase in human trafficking, as sex
traffickers could more easily operate under the cover of legal brothels. That would exacerbate an
already serious problem in India.
 Moral and religious objections: Many Indians believe that prostitution is immoral and against
religious values. Legalizing it would be seen as condoning an activity that many find morally
reprehensible.
 Stigma and discrimination: Even if prostitution is legalized, sex workers are likely to still face stigma
and discrimination. Accepting sex work as a lawyer can take time, which can negatively affect the
mental health and well-being of sex workers.
 Some Recommendations
On the bases of the foregoing analyses, the following recommendations may be made:
Legal Reform:
Review of dominant prostitution laws and other laws related to prostitution to! identity the
loopholes through which prostitutes are victimised and delete all sec. tions in these laws that
penalise and discriminate against prostitutes. Tighten up and enforce criminal sanctions
against prostitution rackets, especially procuring networks trafficking in young women and
girls for prostitution. Penal sanctions against clients for acts that violate prostitution.
Penal provisions against corrupt enforcement authorities.
Citizen's Committee:
Enhancing efficacy in implementation by the constitution of statutorily and mandatorily
recognised citizens committees, area wise to observe implementation of prostitution laws.
Provide legal education to implementing authorities on the provisions of prostitution laws and
other related local laws. Organise awareness workshops for them, analysing the structural
bases of prostitution and questioning prevailing sexist attitudes towards prostitutes and
prostitution.
Rehabilitation:
Change the 'corrective and reformative' orientation towards rehabilitation to perceiving
prostitutes as victims, active survivors and human beings with self-respect and dignity. Pro
government provision of adequate enforcement facilities for integrations of criminals in
rehabilitation centres. Provision of halfway houses and subsidised hostels for women and
their children needed especially when they leave the rehabilitation centre.
Socio-economic Measures:
While the task of providing adequate support structures to women in prostitution and those
wanting to opt out is an urgent need, it is equally important to initiate measures ihat prevent
women being forced to prostitute, in the first place. The following are some. Widespread
public education, on the structural roots of prostitution, the subtle and blatant manners in
which the public sustains the institution, public awareness on the moral and legal isolation of
prostitution and their concealed exploitation in prostitution, emphases on values of gender
equality and justice.
Increase educational and job opportunities for women and eliminate gender based
discriminatory work conditions. Review and change discriminatory provisions in other laws
against women that may either predispose them to prostitution or reinforce their image as sex
objects, etc, marriage and divorce laws, custody, maintenance, employment laws, laws on the
use of women's images in the media. Review existing and planned economic policies that
directly and indirectly predispose women to prostitution.
 WAY FORWARD
Consensual sex between adults has also been recognised as an aspect of the right to privacy.
In K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India judgment the Supreme Court expressed that the right to privacy and
the insurance of sexual orientation are at the core of the basic rights ensured by Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the
Constitution.'21 The court observed that sexual preference of an individual is fundamental aspect of one's
privacy any inequalicy against a person whose preference doesn't match to majority is detrimertal one's
nobility and self-esteem.22 In this regard if there is differential treatment to transactional sex then it would
violate the right to equality of women indulging in consensual sex for money. Further the Supreme Court
laid down threefold test to check whether curtailment of right to privacy by state is justified. The first being
existence of law, second being need. in terms of legitimate state interest which ensures that law is reasonable
as mandated by article 14 and third the means adopted by law must be proportional to its object.! 23 Since the
provisions of ITPA violate the right equality and also run antithetical to the object sought to be achieved by
legislation, they fail to pass the threefold test enunciated in Puttaswamy.
The judgment not only recognises the right to have sexual preference as fundamental right but also created
an obligation on government to make such infrastructural arrangement so that individual can effectively
exercise their right to privacy without any kind of hindrance. 24 Now the issue is what mechanism should be
adopted by the government to regulate the sex work without infringing constitutional right of sex workers
and which also promotes their interests. Looking from the international perspective, decriminalisation of sex
work (including the activities related to it) has been considered as a liberal approach and this has also been
the central demand of sex workers movements. 25 Criminal laws perpetuate stigma and discrimination which
violates basic human rights of sex workers and also found to be ineffective so far. 26 The government must
focus on enacting a legal framework where some regulatory measures are put on industry of sex work like
minimum age bar, penalisation in case of forceful transactional sex and public health policies for sex
workers.
The first step in enacting a legal framework would be recognising sex work as a form of labour which would
ensure uniform labour laws apply to them and employers could not get chance to exploit them. In this
framework they will also have access to compensation for work-related injuries, illness or death, and cannot
be forced to work in physically unsafe and unhealthy work environments. 27 In these contexts, sex work may
be recognised in areas such as tax law, industrial rights, insurance and local planning, and sex workers have
the same associated rights, obligations and entitlements as other groups of workers. The next step is removal
of all forms of criminalisation and other legal oppression against sex wurk.
21
Ibid.
22
Ibid.
23
*Sandhya Rau and Cath Sluggett, Who stole the tarts? Sex work and buman rights, 200g, available ar
https://www.sangram.org/upload/resources/who_stole_the_tarts.pdf (Last visited on December 7, 2019).
108
24
Ibid
25
123 Human Rights Watch, Off the Streets: Arbitrary Detention and other Abuses against Sex Workers in Cambodia z010,
available at http://www.htw.org/teports/2010/07/20/streets (Last visited on Decembet 7, 2019)-
26
ibid
27
Navej Singh Johar v. Union of India, (2018) + SCC 791, 9135.
The self-organisation and self-determination of sex workers must be respected. 28 They must have right to
have agency over their own lives without any extracuus interference either by law or by socicty. And finally
a proper righes enforcement mechanism where the grievances of sex workers could be redressed. Adopting
these methods the government would be able to create a safe and dignified space for sex workers and their
prospects.

CONCLUSION
To summarise, in relation to the transactional sex the moral condemnation has been existing from ancient
times and in the articles we have discussed how it is based on mistaken beliets and perceprions. In reality it
doesn't violate constitutional ideal. The principle of sexual autonomy is not applicable to people presumably
lacking capacity to rationalise, for example young children, nor does it is the validation of the infliction of
serious bodily harm. In addition, the liberty of sexual expression comports with the liberry of others to
choose to be sexual partners. It follows, therefore, that there should be no moral objection on grounds of
sexual autonomy to the reasonable regulation of consensual sex among adults sex as regards time, manner,
and place. For example, there is no objection to the reasonable regulation of the obtrusive solicitation of
sexual relations. But the moral principles qualifying the principle of sexual autonomy do not justify any
absolute prohibition of sexual autonomy of the kind that the criminalisation of prostitution involves.
Not protecting the dignity of labour and human capital is also a kind of arbitrariness leading to the
marginalisation of millions of workers. In the post-Johar world, I believe this kind of economic
marginalisation is no longer consistent with the Supreme Court's jurisprudence. The criminal prohibitions in
this context fatly violate the individual rights. These rights may also now not be abridged through indistinct
appeals to public distaste that, if given the authority of law, would dilute their ethical force and substantially
change them from a powerful vindication of autonomy into the empty and insipid conception that human
beings must be allowed to do that which gives no space for fierce objection.!! The attitudes of Majority by
themselves are not supported by defensible moral reason-ing,'" and at any rate deprivation of liberty cannot
be justified. This majoritarian morality is merely an instance of intractable prejudice that must not be
elevated into law. '29
Under Indian constitution which strésses upon right of adults to consent and to pursue life wite dignity and
privacy includes matters related to sexual expression too. As social morality is not guiding force for any
progressive constitution the sanction on sex work which derives its legitimacy fundamentally from social
morality is untenable. As Johar jurisprudence has given more weightage to individual rights than
preservation of social mores now the sex work deserves
constitutional protection from arbitrary penalisations sex work has found sound articulation within
constitutional framework. It is not just that the sex work must be protected under right to life and right to
freedom of trade but it is also an obligation of state to facilitate the effective exercise of such rights. The
government is duty-bound to introduce a novel legal framework where sex work is recognised as labour and
all the criminalising attempts of state must be dispensed with.
Under new framework every sex worker must have a right to live with dignity and autonomy with an
enforcement mechanism to deal with cases when the enjoyment of such rights is attempted to curtailed by
anyone.

28
Id., 9 54 (Per Chandrachud J..
1*2 K.S. Putaswamy v. Union of India, (2017) to SCC 1.
29
W. Friedmann, Law, Liberty, and Morality, 9 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF JURISPRUDENCE 151-154
(1963)