By Richa Sharma
Like everything else in the world, Indians cannot make up their mind about the profession of Prostitution.
Prostitution in India is like a dirty secret: most have one, and then judge others who do. It’s one of the oldest professions in the world, but unlike the brothel wine, it doesn’t seem to be getting better.
Here is how the Indian Penal Law has seen it:
Prostitution, the profession? *Yayyy*
Prostitution, the activity? *Boooo*
Knowing the lethargy amongst Indians, kerb-calling, a.k.a. the act of searching for night-time partners who may be standing on the roadside is made illegal.
You’re already paying to have sex, and why would you want to pay for a hotel room too? But fizool kharchi is something our parents have always lectured about. Hence, our considerate Constitution doesn’t allow us to solicit hotel services for doing the “deed”.
Brothel houses i.e., having systematic industries of “escort” supply, are banned. However, you can be self-employed and independent.
On the surface, India wants to portray how liberal its laws are, but when we dig in, the bedrock has a different color than the topsoil.
Indians are pro at hypocrisy. Being customers of sex trade we benefit from it, but after that it’s not our responsibility. If a whore comes in by the front door, we will not only refuse to recognize her, but also insultingly turn away from her. But you will let her in by the back door at night.
On one hand, we see all prostitutes as victims of poverty and ill-fate; on the other, they are treated like grime of the society.
Women are now standing up for themselves. They are standing up for choosing their own career. Then why is sex trade considered to be so wrong? As long as it’s okay by them, who are we to comment?
The aforementioned and many more are conflicting arguments that have been debated over for ages. A universal opinion regarding them is yet to be reached, though we can be sure that it won’t happen in the near future…
Prostitutes have always been seen by one end of a spectrum as a victim of human trafficking and sex slavery. Yes, there’s a lot of difference between “sex slavery” and “sex worker”. Sex workers are the one’s who are most probably in the profession due to their will. https://goo.gl/jqEm2i
This article is as hypocritical and fake as Indian mentality towards prostitution….rather than giving everyone a moral lesson on how to look at prostitution, you should have written about “How to practice safe and legal prostitution in India for women and men”…..that would have been much more helpful to the women in this profession…..