Article 19(1) (g) of Indian Constitution guarantees that all citizens shall have the right “to practice any profession, or to carry on any profession, trade or business.” So, the moot question is why our country is way behind in legalizing one of the oldest professions known on this Earth. Yes, I’m talking about prostitution.
Prostitution is often said to be the oldest profession, and there's a lot of evidence this is true. Some researchers confirm that prostitution is indeed the most ancient profession, while others argue with it; however, everybody agrees that trading sex for money has existed for quite a while. According to Wikipedia, prostitution began in the 21st century BC in Near East, most likely as a religious custom, and was practiced by Greeks, Romans, China and other ancient civilizations. Now, as we have entered into the 21st century AD, prostitution is still a part of modern society. The fact speaks for itself: as there will always be a demand for the services that it provides, prostitution will exist in some form no matter what.
Many nations reconsidered prostitution as something necessarily evil and against the law by legalizing it. England, France, Germany, Denmark, Canada, and Israel are some of them. When we examine sex as a trade, the combination of philosophy, cultural precedence, religious influence and politics made each country select how to handle it in its own way. In Singapore, sex for money is open and commonplace. Denmark women can be legal prostitutes so long as it is not their sole means of income. Canada, France and Mexico allow it. Prostitutes must be contained within brothels in the Netherlands, unlike within England and Wales where prostitution is limited to individual providers. Israel, the historical stage for the Bible, allows it, too. Meanwhile, prostitution stays illegal in India.
Current Legal Status
The current laws in India that legislate sex workers are fairly ambiguous. It is a system where prostitution is legally allowed to thrive, but which attempts to hide it from the public. The primary law dealing with the status of sex workers is the 1956 law referred to as the Immoral Traffic (Suppression) Act (SITA). According to this law, prostitutes can practice their trade privately but cannot legally solicit customers in public. As long as it is done individually and voluntarily, a woman (male prostitution is not recognized in the Indian constitution) can use her body's attributes in exchange for material benefit. In particular, the law forbids a sex worker to carry on her profession within 200 yards of a public place. Unlike as is the case with other professions, sex workers are not protected under normal labour laws, but they possess the right to rescue and rehabilitation if they desire and possess all the rights of other citizens.
In practice SITA is not commonly used. The Indian Penal 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. Recently the old law has been amended as The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act or PITA.
In India, prostitution is illegal and comes under the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, 1986. According to the Act, ''Any sexual intercourse outside socially-acceptable unions is regarded as prostitution. Procuring, inducing or taking persons for the purpose of prostitution is punishable with rigorous imprisonment of atleast three years, but not more than seven years, and a fine of Rs 2,000.''
Terming prostitution as illegal and an immoral blotch on society ignores the fact that there are near about 2 million prostitutes in India and a quarter of them are minors. They are at the mercy of an unscrupulous mafia which flourishes because of an absurd and outdated law.
Benefits of Legalization
Currently in India, our legal system penalizes prostitutes and their customers for what they do as consenting adults. Money is still spent on law enforcement efforts to catch prostitutes and their customers. Once caught, justice departments have to process these people through very expensive systems.
What are the end results? Police personnel and courtrooms are overburdened with these cases, having little or no impact on prostitution. The prostitutes and their customers pay their fines and are back to the streets in no time in a revolving door process. Catch and release may work for recreational fishing but it has no deterring affect on prostitution. Making prostitution legal will allow the act to be managed instead of ignored. Pimps and organized crime figures, who regularly treat their workers on subhuman levels, would no longer control women. In some countries, prostitute rings buy and sell women on the black market, force their women to comply through violence and create unhealthy working conditions. When prostitutes operate independently and in secret, many times they become abused by their own customers.
Legalizing prostitution would prevent underground prostitution that occurs today. When men want to pay for sex, they find prostitutes. These people work in massage parlors, escort services, dance bars and modeling. There are near about 2 million prostitutes in India. If we allow prostitution to remain hidden from view and basically invisible to the law as it is today, we allow a number of teens to be swept up into prostitution every year. When adult women decide to exchange money for sex, it is a personal choice open to them under the philosophy of a free, democratic society. When troubled minors who do not yet have the social survival skills decide to prostitute, they are often manipulated by opportunists who exploit these teens, typically leading to horrific ends. Legalizing prostitution will help prevent these instances through regulation.
Legalized, regulated prostitution has many benefits. Encounters can happen within controlled environments that bring about safety for both the customers and the prostitutes. Prostitutes would no longer be strong-armed by pimps or organized crime rings. Underage prostitution would be curtailed. There would also be health-safety improvements.
Health-Safety Issues
The status quo is a poor health-safety plan. With sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) like syphilis, gonorrhea, Chlamydia and herpes, prostitutes must be monitored to prevent the spread of these afflictions. It makes practical sense to monitor prostitution and what better way is there to monitor it than by legalizing it and regulating it? Legalization would require prostitutes to undergo regular medical examinations. STDs would be prevented from being spread as well as other communicable ailments like hepatitis and tuberculosis. It would also reduce gender violence, allow women to escape prostitution, if they so choose, and prevent women from becoming infertile as a consequence to obtaining certain.
The Role of Government
The role of government is to carry out necessary duties its citizens cannot perform. Politicians are elected to government positions to solve the problems countries face. Some politicians insist government should be designed to act as a safety net for people who need help, by providing citizens with various social programs including public safety and healthcare entitlements. Other believes in freedom of choice through responsible action and rather institute high standards in education and healthcare to enable citizens with opportunities.
The best way to understand the current state of affairs concerning prostitution is to entertain an analogy. Pretend government is a business. Politicians would be the managers and prostitution would be a certain procedure the company had to manage. Would a successful business ignore a procedure when it performed poorly? Would it allow a poor procedure to continue or would a successful business instead rethink its position and improve it? All successful companies must evolve over time if they are to stay in business and excel. Laws can change and adapt to meet the demands of a modern civilization. It is a far better strategy than hoping it will go away and clean up itself.
Where are the limits for two consenting adults in privacy? How government is shaped to handle that question will decide how women's rights, social programs, public healthcare, the safety of youth and possibly the general safety of citizens are valued. If moral obstacles prevent citizens from obtaining a government that helps its people while preserving freedoms, then a paradigm shift must be considered. A movement away from values that are harmful is difficult only if one decides to cling to outdated, self-destructive traditions.
Politicians should be careful how they address the philosophical limits of adult privacy. A number of people believe government should have no right deciding how adults conduct their sexual lives, even when an exchange of money is involved. Public debate has already addressed a women's rights issue that is connected to a similar freedom.
Conclusion
There are many benefits to legalized prostitution. The benefits include:
(1) Allowing law enforcement agencies to respond to more important crimes,
(2) Freeing justice systems from nuisance cases,
(3) Helping women who are trapped by prostitution, and
(4) Preventing teens from being ensnared into prostitution.
Critics of the legalization of prostitution offer no alternative to a troublesome problem. These people would rather adopt the status quo model, which virtually abandons lower strata, low socio-economic prostitutes. Instead of managing the problem, these critics view the continued downward spiral of this subgroup as acceptable. The critics of legalized prostitution rest comfortably within relatively new moral codes. The religions that now reject prostitution once used to manage it. However, even though religionists publicly denounce prostitution, too many hypocritically entertain like services and commit adultery.
Now don't misunderstand me, I don't go to prostitutes for sex. Furthermore I don't wish to see my wife, daughter, mother or any other family member doing this kind of work. But shouldn’t people have the right to do what they want with their own bodies? The plane fact is that anti prostitution laws do nothing to enforce morality (which is not the government's business anyway). But rather it punishes women and others who are trying to make a living
The law says they are trying to protect women but is what the laws are really about? Women who prostitute themselves do so because they ether 1) Think it is an easy way to make money, which involves very little skill. Just use their natural, God given talents and their good looks, or 2) Have no other way of earning a living.
I think that prostitution should be legalized because it is no different than any other service that we pay to receive. Besides, there are far more serious crimes that require the full attention of our police force than prostitution; therefore, it is a costly waste of time and police resources. Furthermore, prostitution is already legal in Singapore, Denmark, and a part of the United States as well.
Prostitution is often said to be the oldest profession, and there's a lot of evidence this is true. Some researchers confirm that prostitution is indeed the most ancient profession, while others argue with it; however, everybody agrees that trading sex for money has existed for quite a while. According to Wikipedia, prostitution began in the 21st century BC in Near East, most likely as a religious custom, and was practiced by Greeks, Romans, China and other ancient civilizations. Now, as we have entered into the 21st century AD, prostitution is still a part of modern society. The fact speaks for itself: as there will always be a demand for the services that it provides, prostitution will exist in some form no matter what.
Many nations reconsidered prostitution as something necessarily evil and against the law by legalizing it. England, France, Germany, Denmark, Canada, and Israel are some of them. When we examine sex as a trade, the combination of philosophy, cultural precedence, religious influence and politics made each country select how to handle it in its own way. In Singapore, sex for money is open and commonplace. Denmark women can be legal prostitutes so long as it is not their sole means of income. Canada, France and Mexico allow it. Prostitutes must be contained within brothels in the Netherlands, unlike within England and Wales where prostitution is limited to individual providers. Israel, the historical stage for the Bible, allows it, too. Meanwhile, prostitution stays illegal in India.
Current Legal Status
The current laws in India that legislate sex workers are fairly ambiguous. It is a system where prostitution is legally allowed to thrive, but which attempts to hide it from the public. The primary law dealing with the status of sex workers is the 1956 law referred to as the Immoral Traffic (Suppression) Act (SITA). According to this law, prostitutes can practice their trade privately but cannot legally solicit customers in public. As long as it is done individually and voluntarily, a woman (male prostitution is not recognized in the Indian constitution) can use her body's attributes in exchange for material benefit. In particular, the law forbids a sex worker to carry on her profession within 200 yards of a public place. Unlike as is the case with other professions, sex workers are not protected under normal labour laws, but they possess the right to rescue and rehabilitation if they desire and possess all the rights of other citizens.
In practice SITA is not commonly used. The Indian Penal 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. Recently the old law has been amended as The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act or PITA.
In India, prostitution is illegal and comes under the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, 1986. According to the Act, ''Any sexual intercourse outside socially-acceptable unions is regarded as prostitution. Procuring, inducing or taking persons for the purpose of prostitution is punishable with rigorous imprisonment of atleast three years, but not more than seven years, and a fine of Rs 2,000.''
Terming prostitution as illegal and an immoral blotch on society ignores the fact that there are near about 2 million prostitutes in India and a quarter of them are minors. They are at the mercy of an unscrupulous mafia which flourishes because of an absurd and outdated law.
Benefits of Legalization
Currently in India, our legal system penalizes prostitutes and their customers for what they do as consenting adults. Money is still spent on law enforcement efforts to catch prostitutes and their customers. Once caught, justice departments have to process these people through very expensive systems.
What are the end results? Police personnel and courtrooms are overburdened with these cases, having little or no impact on prostitution. The prostitutes and their customers pay their fines and are back to the streets in no time in a revolving door process. Catch and release may work for recreational fishing but it has no deterring affect on prostitution. Making prostitution legal will allow the act to be managed instead of ignored. Pimps and organized crime figures, who regularly treat their workers on subhuman levels, would no longer control women. In some countries, prostitute rings buy and sell women on the black market, force their women to comply through violence and create unhealthy working conditions. When prostitutes operate independently and in secret, many times they become abused by their own customers.
Legalizing prostitution would prevent underground prostitution that occurs today. When men want to pay for sex, they find prostitutes. These people work in massage parlors, escort services, dance bars and modeling. There are near about 2 million prostitutes in India. If we allow prostitution to remain hidden from view and basically invisible to the law as it is today, we allow a number of teens to be swept up into prostitution every year. When adult women decide to exchange money for sex, it is a personal choice open to them under the philosophy of a free, democratic society. When troubled minors who do not yet have the social survival skills decide to prostitute, they are often manipulated by opportunists who exploit these teens, typically leading to horrific ends. Legalizing prostitution will help prevent these instances through regulation.
Legalized, regulated prostitution has many benefits. Encounters can happen within controlled environments that bring about safety for both the customers and the prostitutes. Prostitutes would no longer be strong-armed by pimps or organized crime rings. Underage prostitution would be curtailed. There would also be health-safety improvements.
Health-Safety Issues
The status quo is a poor health-safety plan. With sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) like syphilis, gonorrhea, Chlamydia and herpes, prostitutes must be monitored to prevent the spread of these afflictions. It makes practical sense to monitor prostitution and what better way is there to monitor it than by legalizing it and regulating it? Legalization would require prostitutes to undergo regular medical examinations. STDs would be prevented from being spread as well as other communicable ailments like hepatitis and tuberculosis. It would also reduce gender violence, allow women to escape prostitution, if they so choose, and prevent women from becoming infertile as a consequence to obtaining certain.
The Role of Government
The role of government is to carry out necessary duties its citizens cannot perform. Politicians are elected to government positions to solve the problems countries face. Some politicians insist government should be designed to act as a safety net for people who need help, by providing citizens with various social programs including public safety and healthcare entitlements. Other believes in freedom of choice through responsible action and rather institute high standards in education and healthcare to enable citizens with opportunities.
The best way to understand the current state of affairs concerning prostitution is to entertain an analogy. Pretend government is a business. Politicians would be the managers and prostitution would be a certain procedure the company had to manage. Would a successful business ignore a procedure when it performed poorly? Would it allow a poor procedure to continue or would a successful business instead rethink its position and improve it? All successful companies must evolve over time if they are to stay in business and excel. Laws can change and adapt to meet the demands of a modern civilization. It is a far better strategy than hoping it will go away and clean up itself.
Where are the limits for two consenting adults in privacy? How government is shaped to handle that question will decide how women's rights, social programs, public healthcare, the safety of youth and possibly the general safety of citizens are valued. If moral obstacles prevent citizens from obtaining a government that helps its people while preserving freedoms, then a paradigm shift must be considered. A movement away from values that are harmful is difficult only if one decides to cling to outdated, self-destructive traditions.
Politicians should be careful how they address the philosophical limits of adult privacy. A number of people believe government should have no right deciding how adults conduct their sexual lives, even when an exchange of money is involved. Public debate has already addressed a women's rights issue that is connected to a similar freedom.
Conclusion
There are many benefits to legalized prostitution. The benefits include:
(1) Allowing law enforcement agencies to respond to more important crimes,
(2) Freeing justice systems from nuisance cases,
(3) Helping women who are trapped by prostitution, and
(4) Preventing teens from being ensnared into prostitution.
Critics of the legalization of prostitution offer no alternative to a troublesome problem. These people would rather adopt the status quo model, which virtually abandons lower strata, low socio-economic prostitutes. Instead of managing the problem, these critics view the continued downward spiral of this subgroup as acceptable. The critics of legalized prostitution rest comfortably within relatively new moral codes. The religions that now reject prostitution once used to manage it. However, even though religionists publicly denounce prostitution, too many hypocritically entertain like services and commit adultery.
Now don't misunderstand me, I don't go to prostitutes for sex. Furthermore I don't wish to see my wife, daughter, mother or any other family member doing this kind of work. But shouldn’t people have the right to do what they want with their own bodies? The plane fact is that anti prostitution laws do nothing to enforce morality (which is not the government's business anyway). But rather it punishes women and others who are trying to make a living
The law says they are trying to protect women but is what the laws are really about? Women who prostitute themselves do so because they ether 1) Think it is an easy way to make money, which involves very little skill. Just use their natural, God given talents and their good looks, or 2) Have no other way of earning a living.
I think that prostitution should be legalized because it is no different than any other service that we pay to receive. Besides, there are far more serious crimes that require the full attention of our police force than prostitution; therefore, it is a costly waste of time and police resources. Furthermore, prostitution is already legal in Singapore, Denmark, and a part of the United States as well.
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