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SHOULD PROSTITUTION BE LEGALISED?

By Suriya N | 10 June 2010

"It is the oldest profession in the world and if you can’t curb it with Laws why don’t you legalise it?" This is what the Supreme Court recently asked the Solicitor General of India during the hearing of a Public Interest Litigation filed by an NGO called the Bachpan Bachao Andolan. Comments that have re-ignited the debate on prostitution. Should it be viewed as a form of exploitation to be abolished or a trade to be regulated? In the land of the Devadasi system even Kautilya in his Arthashastra declared the income of pimps taxable! There are groups which feel that those who don’t want it legalized are locked away in the ivory towers of academic feminism divorced from the routine of over 40 lakh prostitutes in India. A routine which simply means going back to their dingy red light areas facing exploitation and police brutality and entertaining drunken clients in an environment that exposes them to the deadly HIV virus. Sanjay Pinto ruffles feathers as he asks: "Do we make no bones about the flesh trade in India?"