Sex Work as a “Profession”: SC

In News

• Recently, the Supreme Court (SC) in a significant order recognised sex work as a “profession” whose practitioners are entitled to dignity and equal protection under law.

Court’s Directives

• Police:
  • Police should neither interfere nor take criminal action against adult and consenting sex workers.
  • Notwithstanding the profession, every individual in this country has a right to a dignified life under Article 21 of the Constitution.
  • Criminal law must apply equally in all cases, on the basis of ‘age’ and ‘consent’.
• Child Protection: 
  • A child of a sex worker should not be separated from the mother merely on the ground that she is in the sex trade. 
  • Basic protection of human decency and dignity extends to sex workers and their children.
  • If a minor is found living in a brothel or with sex workers, it should not be presumed that the child was trafficked.
    • In case the sex worker claims that he/she is her son/daughter, tests can be done to determine if the claim is correct and if so, the minor should not be forcibly separated.
• Medico Legal Care:
  • There should not be any discrimination against sex workers who lodge a criminal complaint, especially if the offence committed against them is of a sexual nature. 
  • Sex workers who are victims of sexual assault should be provided every facility including immediate medico-legal care.
• Police’s cruelty:
  • It has been noticed that the attitude of the police to sex workers is often brutal and violent. It is as if they are a class whose rights are not recognised.
  • Measures taken by sex workers, like the use of condom, should not be construed by the police as evidence of their “offence”.
• Voyeurism: 
  • The newly introduced Section 354C of Indian Penal Code (IPC), which makes voyeurism a criminal offence, should be strictly enforced against electronic media, in order to prohibit telecasting photos of sex workers with their clients in the garb of capturing the rescue operation. 
  • Punishment: IPC Section 354C carries a maximum punishment of three years imprisonment for a first-time offence and up to seven years for subsequent offence.
• Special Power: 
  • The order was passed after invoking special powers under Article 142 of the Constitution.
  • It gives unlimited power to SC where it shall exercise these powers and will not be deterred from doing justice by the provision of any rule or law, executive practice or executive circular or regulation etc.

Significance

• It will help in giving respectable positions to Women in society.
• Sex workers will have access to legal facilities and ither rights being enjoyed by other citizens of India.
• They can get access to better dignified life.

Reasons to decriminalize sex work

• Respects Human Rights And Dignity: A cornerstone of contemporary human rights is that all people are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
• Decriminalization Helps Guard Against Violence And Abuse: Sex work is not inherently violent; it is criminalization that places sex workers at greatest risk. 
• Challenges Police Abuse And Violence: Where sex work is criminalized, police wield power over sex workers. Police threaten sex workers with arrest, public humiliation, and extortion. 
• Improves Access To Justice: Laws that criminalize sex work cause sex workers to feel unsafe reporting crimes—including violence crimes and other abuses—because they fear prosecution, police surveillance, stigma, and discrimination.
• Decriminalization Challenges The Consequences Of Having A Criminal Record: In many countries, harsh and biased application of criminal law ensures that a large proportion of sex workers will have criminal records. Criminal records are often a source of stigma, and can drastically limit one’s future. 
• Decriminalization Improves Access To Health Services: Decriminalization is associated with the best access by outreach workers to brothels, and the greatest financial support for sex worker health programs. Better financial support means greater capacity to conduct health outreach in the evening, an important feature because the evenings are often the busiest times for sex workers.
• Reduces Risk Of Hiv And Sexually Transmitted Infections: 
  • Decriminalization of sex work could avert up to 46 percent of new HIV infections among female sex workers over the next decade. 
  • A recent study published in The Lancet concluded that decriminalization of sex work had the single greatest potential to reduce HIV infections in female sex worker communities—even more than increasing access to antiretroviral treatment.
• Promotes Safe Working Conditions: Decriminalization makes possible the creation of workplace health and safety regulations that are relevant to the sex industry. 
• Allows For Effective Responses To Trafficking: Trafficking is an egregious human rights violation involving coercion of individuals for sexual exploitation or forced labor. Sex workers can be natural allies in the fight against trafficking, and may be well placed to refer trafficking victims to appropriate services.
• Challenges State Control Over Bodies And Sexuality: Decriminalization of sex work recognizes the right of all people to privacy and freedom from undue state control over sex and sexual expression. The different treatment of sex work from other types of work is an example of governments’ long history of exerting control over bodily autonomy, self-determination, and sexuality. 

Way Ahead

• Need of sensitisation of Police.
• States must ensure that directives given by the Court are implemented expeditiously.
• Media should take utmost care not to reveal the identities of sex workers, during arrest, raid and rescue operations, whether as victims or accused and not to publish or telecast any photos that would result in disclosure of such identities.
• The Centre and States must involve sex workers or their representatives to reform laws.
• Press Council of India should issue appropriate guidelines for the media to take utmost care not to reveal the identities of sex workers during arrest, raid and rescue operations, whether as victims or accused.

Source: TH