Stakeholders’ Dilemma with Prostitution
in India
Background:
There has been a continuing emotional
debate in India
Subhashree Kishore [i]
writes, “Prostitution per se is
not illegal or criminalized in India India
According
to another report [ii]
India
A
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) sponsored study [iv] says
that India has become a key
destination and transit hub for human trafficking from East
Europe and other places. 'Madhya Pradesh is prominent among the
states where women get into sex work and thus get trafficked because of family
traditions. Ninety five percent of the women in Madhya Pradesh in commercial
sex are due to family traditions. So are 51.79 percent in Bihar .
Police
records since 1999 shows that 31 percent of the victims rescued from brothels
in Delhi India
At the training program, [vi]
organized jointly by the United Nations Office Drugs and Crime and Andhra
Pradesh Police Academy, with the intention of creating awareness among the
supporting officers like assistant sub inspectors, head constables and
constables about various forms of human trafficking, the resource person
for the program underscored the need for treating women and girls, who were
forced into flesh trade as victims rather than prostitutes or sex workers.
The Andhra Pradesh
Mahila Samakhya [vii] has
demanded launch of self-employment scheme of small trades each costing Rs.1
lakh by the government for the benefit of sex workers freed from dens in Pune
and New Delhi ,
a majority of them belonging to the State.
The Network Against Sexual
Exploitation in Andhra Pradesh (NATSAP) [viii]
and coordinated by the Tirupati-based Academy of Gandhian Studies (AGS)
rejected the proposal to legalize prostitution through issue of licenses.
A study by Harvard School of
Public Health (HSPH) [x]
has found that 38 per cent of girls and women trafficked to India
According to UNODC (United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), [xi]
approximately 150,000 people are trafficked within South Asia annually making
the region the second only to South East Asia in prevalence of human
trafficking. And India
According to an Indian
Express story, [xii] Jammu and Kashmir
A report in The Hindu
says, [xiii]
“From selling themselves on roadsides to house keeping jobs in star hotels. Sex
workers in the city are contemplating a shift in career, a ‘respectable’ and
legal one at that.”
A meet organized by an
advocacy group `Mana Mythri,' on `Sexworkers Rights Day' demonstrated [xiv]
the wide gap between the two existing views; One, the sex workers' plea to let
them lead the profession decently, and the other on weaning them away from it
with promises of rehabilitation.
Sex workers, under the
banner of Godavari Mahila Samakhya and `Naari Sakshyam', [xv]
have demanded statute for their `profession' (flesh trade) and welcomed DGP
Swaranjit Sen's statement to issue licenses.
This problem has been studied widely
and police action against the prostitutes, traffickers, and brothels is
continually reported as seen in a constant stream of news reports. [xvi]
Analysis
of the Problem:
Prostitution is a complex problem
spanning the moral, human, political, and legal dimensions. As leaders,
managers, administrators, officials, and citizens take extreme positions, the
victims continue to suffer, the criminal and unscrupulous elements in the
society add hordes of new victims to the trade, and finally, the patrons escape
with small time pleasure and long term harm to themselves, their families and
to the society at large.
Let us be dispassionate about it
for a little while and conduct an analysis of the actors in this profession. Broadly
speaking, prostitutes, patrons, pimps, traffickers, society, and government are
the stakeholders and they play the following roles. A prostitute offers sexual
pleasure or satisfaction to patrons and receives some money or other
consideration for the services. The patron pays for the services he receives. There
are the two main parties that constitute the supply and demand in this service.
If there is neither money nor something of value exchanged, it is not called
prostitution. So we may leave all other forms of sexual services out of the
present discussion without passing any grades to those other services. The
pimps are like marketers of the services for the prostitutes. In reality, these
people also act as managers and owners of the establishments that employ
prostitutes.
Why do some women become
prostitutes? Again, let us attempt a simple answer. Perhaps some women actually
choose the profession as their principal livelihood lacking any other means of
earning. Let us assume that some, a small proportion, choose it as they enjoy
it and the income is considered easy and good. But the large majority of the
prostitutes is forced into this profession by traffickers. Women who are
destitute, or weak, or young, or otherwise helpless are duped into this
profession by the traffickers as a means of making money for themselves.
The rest of the society does not
like the idea of the existence of prostitution for a variety of reasons. Many
good citizens simply wish that it did not exist. Others feel offended when they
are told that this profession exists in their society. Government is the last
stakeholder in this area and exists as several sub-actors. The lawmakers make
the laws. The courts enforce the laws. The police apprehend and book the law
breakers.
The society is on the receiving
end of many of the problems borne out of this profession. Coming right after
moral and human rights issues, the chief problems relate to health, both mental
and physical. In the last three or four decades, HIV and AIDS are threatening
large scale destabilization of societies. Public health care professionals are
not able to get a handle on this problem as this sector is not organized,
although it deals with the supply and demand of a service. Social workers,
where they exist, also find it difficult to counsel prostitutes as it is mostly
an under the radar service.
Sections of the society want the
government to ban the service while failing to realize that a public ban will
have little or no effect when the trade is not in public and the market forces
overwhelm the law enforcement and rehabilitation resources. In fact, historically,
society made many missteps in this area. It excommunicated the prostitutes and
their children. The poor children, who were a byproduct of the practice, were
also deprived of the inheritance rights to their natural parental properties
and titles. Unfortunately, those injudicious but harsh treatments by the
society did not extinguish the practice, but they only created an underclass
that was forced into a cycle of prostitution as a profession by birth.
By and large, the society did not
take stern action against the patrons as they are the drivers of demand and
customers in the transactions. In some cases, the society even elevated them to
an exalted status. Both the patrons and the prostitutes acted as sources of
sexually transmitted diseases. Especially, the patrons brought these diseases
back home and infected a wider cross section of the society. In the recent
past, HIV AIDS are spread by these patrons in a variety of encounters.
Systems
Analysis:
Under these circumstances, what
are the essential steps to an approach to a solution? When a system is
undergoing a process and if the society wants to control the process, it has to
prescribe boundaries and develop controls. The process parameters have to be measured
and controls instituted to change the state of the system. What does this
translate to in the current problem? Figure 1 shows a schematic representation
of the players in the profession.
Figure 1: Traditional system with
primary actors in the business
Prostitution has to be defined and
placed into a system, which means it has to be organized. Regardless of what
our moral and spiritual compasses might point to, the society has to bring
prostitution into an organized sector, be it in the metropolitan cities or
remote tiny villages. The government has to pass laws on all aspects of prostitution.
It prescribes certain parameters for the organized form of it and hands out
extremely severe penalties for the unorganized sector. Legalizing the
profession should not merely mean a free reign for all the current actors. It
is not like letting the dogs loose! For example, the law has to require both
the patrons and the prostitutes to carry licenses just like driving licenses to
operate a vehicle on the road. Those that indulge in the exchange of these
services without the licenses should receive penalties at three levels –
counseling, monetary, and finally, incarceration. Like in any licensing
operation, there must be certain preconditions for obtaining a license. These
prerequisites may be in the areas of health, and mental competence. This means
a patron obtains a medical certification that he does not currently suffer from
sexually transmitted diseases and HIV AIDS. Once this is recognized as an
organized sector, a list of those who have received licenses is published on a
local and a national web site as a public service. The licenses are maintained
by periodic (say quarterly) medical certifications based on the health
statistics of the nation, the region, and the locality. Since the government
has a responsibility to protect the family members, in general, communications
with the patrons are conducted openly so that the family circle may take
necessary precautions, be they from the point of view of health, finance, or
morals.
The prostitutes are similarly
medically tested periodically (say monthly) as a condition for continued
practice of the profession. Those that carry a sexually transmittable virus
will not be given a license but will become eligible for medical treatment and
financial support for living from a concomitant insurance or government’s
social welfare scheme. There must be an age limit (perhaps between 21 and 50)
for a woman to practice this profession. This restriction should eliminate the
under-aged and the old.
An important criterion should be
that prostitutes can only be in sole proprietorship or in a partnership with
other practicing prostitutes. The proprietors should be their own marketing and
sales professionals. This requirement disallows managers or other owners in
this profession. In the first instance, it eliminates pimps. Any person
offering the prostitution services of another person should be given a three
level punishment. The first offence is treated with counseling, the second with
a severe monetary penalty, and finally a long prison sentence. Prostitutes or
partnerships employing pimps should be denied license renewals.
The next category is the
traffickers. These people entrap young children and transport them across state
and national boundaries. Then they place these hapless victims into
prostitution through established houses or pimps. These acts are already
criminal under current laws. In order to have a greater impact in the future,
these acts should draw extremely severe punishments including life term and capital
punishment in certain defined cases.
Prostitution as a family tradition
should not be accepted. Prostitutes should not be allowed to enroll their
Children into this service automatically. In fact, the practice of the
profession out of homes of prostitutes where they bring up their children
should be prohibited. In those cases, the children should be removed form those
homes into child welfare hostels.
Children born to prostitutes must
be tested to prove parentage. Even when prostitutes have married partners,
these tests should be mandatory. This is where a list of customers becomes
vital. By scientific medical testing, parentage should be proven and
inheritance rights of these children established.
Traditionally, prostitutes and
their children bore all the risks in the profession. The patrons got away with
a nominal fee they paid for the service. All other rights are flushed down the
drain. The patron’s family drew sympathy from the community for a negligent
gentleman who visited these houses and reached home to a late night meal and a
waiting wife. The patron’s children born in wedlock did not share inheritance
rights with any other children born even though they shared the same genes.
As stated earlier, some mature
adults choose this profession voluntarily. When they make that choice, it is
either out of a physical or mental urge or for the money offered by this
profession. Usually, when women have no other skills or education joined this
trade. Periodic counseling is prescribed in the licensing process in order to educate
such women and open up other professional opportunities. At this stage, governments,
philanthropic organizations, and other self help groups should be coming forth
to offer educational and skill development opportunities to those who want to
get out of the profession.
Now let us take a look at the
patrons and why they look for the services of this profession. Traditionally,
“bad is cool” attitude encouraged young people to experiment with these
services. Like all habits, it bends the victims and they become patrons no
matter their socio economic group. There is also the prestige issue venerated
by the culture or folk lore. In some cases, it is a physiological or
psychological necessity, perhaps compounded by marital discordance at home.
This is why periodic counseling of patrons is suggested as part of the legal
framework. During these counseling sessions, the medical and social counselors
may find out if medical or psychological, or social therapies can help the
patrons from seeking these services. In the long term, the medical profession
should look for cures, be they with conventional medicines or gene
manipulations. Those with a history of violence should be denied the licenses
as patrons. Those with HIV AIDS and other transmissible diseases should also be
denied the licenses as patrons.
In Western societies, with liberal
attitudes towards sex prior to marriage and out of wedlock, people find outlets
to their physical and psychological urges. But even in these somewhat casual
encounters, investment of a lot of effort and time is necessary. Not willing to
make such investments, some people buy their way into whorehouses. For these
and perhaps for some other reasons, the Western society did not attempt to
study the physiological and sociological aspects of this area in depth. There
are no concerted attempts to eliminate this practice in the West. On the other
hand, the pharmaceutical companies in the West have invented Viagra and other
drugs and procedures to assist people’s urge and prowess rather than to curtail
it even in cases where there are no ready partners. Hence the onus is on India
With the suggested regulation and
licensing, the system will look as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Proposed system and
regulation
In the proposed arrangement, the
government separates the various actors and treats them differently. For
example, the traffickers, pimps, and brothel owners are prohibited to have any
part in this profession. They are treated severely to the extent of forfeiture
of their complete assets and long incarceration. The prostitutes and patrons
are brought into a licensed and regulated system. The prostitutes are given every opportunity
to get out of the profession and to rehabilitate. Finally, the patrons are
expected to pay a heavy price at every step. Government officials, social workers,
and human rights organizations are assigned affirmative roles to regulate and
control the system. As exemplary monetary remunerations and penalties are
proposed in the system, there should be enough funds to accomplish the assigned
tasks.
Will
the new System work?
Perhaps, the proposed system has a
greater chance of working. The critical steps are in breaking the connections
between the traffickers, pimps, and brothels on the one hand and the
prostitutes on the other. In any business, it is the financing, marketing, and
training of service providers that make or break a business. These functions
and functionaries are isolated and broken up. The penalties on traffickers,
pimps, and brothel owners should escalate from counseling, to confiscation of
all property, and to long criminal convictions in order to effectively snuff
these operators. On the other end, the patrons traditionally paid a very small
price in return for these services. Their reputation, property, civil and
professional status, and family life are disrupted a little or none at all in
the traditional arrangement. On the other hand, in the proposed arrangement, if
the patrons do not register, they should be subject to harsh penalties
progressively from counseling to confiscation of property to harsh criminal
penalties. Those who register will go through separate counseling and
healthcare processes, and pay a higher price for the services they receive in
the form of license fees, health insurance, social notification, family
influence, and financial care of children born to prostitutes.
It is expected that the welfare of
the prostitutes will be improved in many ways. Elimination of the presence of
traffickers and pimps will make the prostitutes free from bondage. The fee for prostitution
service will increase and thus their financial well being is improved. Periodic
counseling by social workers and healthcare professionals will give them a
chance to leave the profession altogether. Since the prostitutes are out of the
bondage and the profession is out of the closets, the SHG’s can provide them
economic and job counseling and training in alternate professions, which may
also convince the erstwhile victims to leave the profession. Restrictions that
they keep children away from their professional activities should make it safer
for the next generation. Identification of fathers and grant of inheritance
rights to the property of natural father patrons makes the next generation to
pursue other professions.
Strategic
Plan:
Any steps Indian government and
society take will lead to the rehabilitation of the existing four million or
the anticipated ten million prostitutes in the next 5 to 10 years. The
government has to develop a strategic plan, which has to take into account the human
resources (administrative, police, legal, judicial, human rights, health care,
social welfare, career counselors and technical personnel), and financial
resources required to accomplish the goals. Here is a list of key tasks:
·
Enact necessary legislation
·
Allocate budgets
·
Appoint Program Execution Officer
·
Develop Memoranda of agreements
between various governments and self help groups
·
Recruit and train officials and
operatives
·
Prepare information and
dissemination methods to reach most of the population
·
Develop standard operating
processes (SOP) so that tasks pass on smoothly between various government
officials and SHG’s
·
Develop the necessary hard and
soft infrastructure to apprehend, bring to justice, and incarcerate the
criminal elements speedily; and rescue, counsel, protect, and rehabilitate the
victims; and to ensure that the rights of all parties are protected
·
Develop standards, metrics, and
measures of performance and monitor the progress of the processes and systems
·
Provide review reports with
feedback periodically for the government and society to take necessary
corrective measures.
Conclusion:
It should be repeated that this
proposal suggests a licensing and regulatory system for prostitution. But the
aim is not to look for a flourishing system of prostitution. The goal is to
break the nexus between the traffickers and brothels and the inhuman entrapment
of young girls into depraved prostitution. On the one hand, it calls for
extreme punishment meted out to traffickers and pimps. Of course, it also calls
for punishing the prostitutes who work with these groups of criminals
willingly. It then looks to rescue the girls and women who are forced into the
trade by the unscrupulous elements. It emphasizes that the rescued women are
given kind, considerate, and decent opportunities for them to leave the
profession permanently. These efforts will cost significant amounts that
governments may hesitate and shirk their full responsibilities and support.
Through a strong system of vigilance, openness, and law enforcement, stiff
monetary penalties can be imposed on patrons and compensate for part of the
expenses. Finally, the society has to recognize that the males of the society
have been patronizing this profession for some sociological, psychological, and
medical reason and it has to begin path breaking research into the causes and
cures for this behavior and demand. Perhaps, India will discover a practice or
medical therapy to cure men of this ancient urge.
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