PROSTITUTION: THE RED LIGHT

 

Today, India is home to some of the major red-light districts, including Sonagachi in Kolkata, G.B. Road in New Delhi, and Kamathipura in Mumbai. Prostitution is providing sex in exchange for money. While human rights violations are common throughout India, they are particularly prevalent in the lives of people involved in prostitution and sex work. Discrimination against sex workers in India is as much an issue as the discrimination faced by other marginalized groups along lines of class, caste, race or religion. Sex work is not treated as work, but as a dirty and immoral lifestyle threatening to taint the “innocent” public. The result of this stigma is the denial of basic rights for both sex workers and their families: women cannot access good healthcare and are often subject to abuse, violence and exploitation by police and government officials, while their children face harassment in schools and the workplace. 

A large factor in the ill treatment of sex workers is the narrow understanding that people have of this work. The media fuels the image of women in prostitution as either overly sexual outcastes who threaten the very structure of Indian family life, or abused and exploited victims. In fact, women in sex work cannot be put into a box. While there are certainly victims of trafficking in sex work today, the majority of women in sex work consent to doing it. They have decided that making money from sex is a lucrative option for them and their families. But traditionalists cannot divorce sex from its sacred and religious implications. Indian laws and policies regarding sex work are crafted from a moralistic standpoint and people involved in sex work are defined by—and treated as— their “immoral” profession. 

Perspectives on sex worker’s rights generally fall into two categories. The first is the traditionally feminist perspective that assumes that all people involved in sex work have been coerced, bribed, blackmailed or forced into the trade. No woman could “choose” to be in sex work, and making money from sex thus becomes synonymous with sexual exploitation. Following this perspective, the only approach to giving sex workers their rights is too “free” them from the trade. 

The other perspective is that sex work is legitimate business and should be treated as such. Viewing prostitution as business provides a basis for organizing to solve many of the problems associated with commercial sex work. No one can deny that sex work often involves poor health, financial exploitation and physical and sexual abuse; however, these abuses are not intrinsic to sex work, but rather the result of the stigmatization and marginalization of sex workers in Indian society. Approaching sex work from a business point of view allows women and men involved in the trade to demand their business rights, human rights and occupational health and safety regulations.

While sex workers collectives have shown tremendous progress in asserting the rights of sex workers across India, they face an uphill battle as the country continues to foster a globalized economy. For sex workers in India to access and enjoy their rights, massive misgivings and stereotypes about sex work need to be broken down. The sex worker does not necessarily need or want to be rescued; she is not a threat to the greater “chaste” society, nor is she a walking case of HIV. Furthermore, she is capable of advocating for herself, and demanding her own rights. While they certainly face discrimination and hardships, people in sex work and prostitution do not need futile pity. They need the rest of society to recognize and fight against their own misconceptions, judgments and unfounded fears.