Is society ready to break the stigma against them and their children?
"Even if we leave this place and start afresh, society won’t let us forget who we were, who we are.” — A Sex Worker
Selling their bodies for some meagre amount is not an easy thing, but they do it with dignity. If every job has its dignity, be it a doctor, engineer, or worker, then why are these women’s work disregarded? They provide a service and are paid for it. They don’t have any labor laws or trade unions. There is no support group to help them work better. They cannot go to any court if their employers are unfair to them or do not remunerate them appropriately. They are doomed to suffer silently.
In India, running a brothel is illegal but prostitution is not. Private prostitution is not illegal under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act of 1956 (ITPA), but using certain premises as brothels or pimping is. Activities like recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring, or receiving people for the purpose of prostitution are also liable to be punished. If a person is found guilty of involving a child in any such activity, he/she is punishable by law and may be imprisoned for seven or more years.
Now, in June 2022, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court issued an order recognizing sex work as a profession and requiring it to be treated with dignity and equal protection under the law. It also stated that the police take sex workers’ complaints seriously, take appropriate action, and do not abuse them. If a brothel is raided, the sex workers will not be arrested. The children of sex workers will not be separated from their mother on the grounds that she is a sex worker.
The police exploit them a lot, as they are aware that nobody asks after them. There are cases where the police themselves have taken advantage of their helplessness and harmed them. They arrest these workers without charge, insult them, and hit them. They are not protected by the law. Even society does not empathize with them. They randomly arrest girls standing on the road who are out for work. The others have to go to the police station to bail them out. One woman in Sonagachi, Kolkata, says, “How will clients come to us if we stay inside?” “We have to go out and show ourselves to them.” “Only then can we earn and eat.”
The police mostly ignore these women's pleas for help and do not register complaints for them. Women are harassed by their clients, some of whom may be drunk or on drugs. When the women complain of rape, the police say, “How can whores be raped?”
They never get their deserved justice. “Where do we go for safety when the law officials themselves exploit us?”
Another struggle these women face is protecting themselves against sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies. They are already unable to afford routine check-ups at the hospital, and they are not welcomed by the staff. Most of their clients do not use protection. They are not only careless about their own health but are callous about these women’s health as well. When asked to wear protection, they get angry, abuse, hit or just leave without paying.
Furthermore, they are eve-teased and abused by people, calling them names, judging them by their profession, and maligning them. If they think about doing some other business, they lack the capital required for it. Banks also deny them loans. They are barred from voting or obtaining an identity card. Brothel owners do not compensate them adequately. It is the duty of the brothel owners to provide them with the basic necessities of clean shelter and food, but they do not do it. There are brothel owners who take away money coming to help these women from the government or NGOs. Their kids go to school, but the kids are also insulted on the basis of their mother’s profession. Schools have to give them admission as it is mandatory under the RTE Act 2010 that no child be exempt from education on the grounds that their mother is a sex worker. Still, these kids do face discrimination. These women have hopes for their kids’ bright futures, as they could not get an education nor a better future. Some of them send their kids to assisted boarding schools so that they can be away from their mother’s work.
“My mother is a sex worker, and no matter what I achieve in life, I will always be judged for being a prostitute’s daughter.”
— Daughter of a sex worker.
There are certain NGOs and unions working for the rights of these women. Saheli Sangh assists women in the red light district of Budhwar Peth, Pune, as well as other commercial workers. During the pandemic, the government and NGOs helped them to a certain extent, as they had no work during that period. Seema Waghmode’s NGO, Kayakalpa, supported by Bill Gates and Melinda Gates, helps commercial workers and their children with healthcare, shelter, and education. They help rescue minor girls who are abducted and forced into prostitution. They counsel and rehabilitate them.
The DMSC in West Bengal is one of the largest unions for sex workers in Kolkatta. They fight against human trafficking and HIV/AIDS and run free clinics for sex workers.
HIV prevention drives should be done regularly so that awareness is spread against STDs and various other diseases. Steps to be taken to curb human trafficking so that no girl comes into this profession forcefully.
As a society, we need to break the stigma against sex workers and their children so that they can lead a normal life.
Published on www.medium.com
