I was actually looking for this piece of writing for many days. Finally, I got it inside a forgotten file. I gave this debate in UCMS, Delhi ( and won third prize for it :)). The topic of the day was – ‘ Should prostitution be legalized in India? ‘ . The debate witnessed a decent number of participants with varied styles. Moreover, I have always liked participating in UCMS. It being a medical college, chooses bold and important topics and people actually speak maturely and responsibly. Here it goes:
Imagine we legalize prostitution in India. You walk in a narrow lane of Chandni Chowk and you see a board that says ‘Bunty da Brothel’ with a rate list with special discount on women above 30!
New Arrivals Reshma…Bubly…Rosy….
Imagine huge hue and cry every now and then over measures by Indian Prostitution Standardization committee(IPSC ;) ).
Alright, now may be this was an exaggeration. It won’t be that weird. But it won’t be less!
The three keywords here are ‘Legalized’, ‘Prostitution’ and ‘India’. Had it been the former two I might have differed. But the inclusion of ‘India’ makes it a different ball game altogether. To know ‘why’, let us look at it in the reverse order.
We are Indians. Right ? We are not in Denmark, not in Thailand, not in Malasia! We are middle class, lower class, urban, rural Indians.
When we see an advertisement of condom with our family we change the channel!
We are boys who never talk about condoms to our dads! We are girls who never talk about contraceptives to our mothers!
We are an oversensitive moral policing brigade. We are Shivsena…We are VHP….We are Bajrangdal. We cannot tolerate a Sania Mirza wearing a short skirt!
We are still debating whether sex education should be provided in schools.
We are a nation that is still ‘evolving’!
PROSTITUTION:
Is it a profession, a taboo, or is it something that we think only others sisters would do? Is it the dark filthy lane where you think your son, brother, husband, or father had never been to!
It is definitely something that exists and helps to transmit sexually transmitted diseases.
It not only gives a girl some easy money to buy herself exotic jewelry but also gives money to a poor mother to feed her child. It is something into which an innocent girl is forced by pimps. And it is also something that countries like Malasia do for tourism!
And since it is one or all of the above, it needs legalization for the following reasons:
1.To reduce sexually transmitted diseases.
2.To stop exploitation of prostitutes.
3.To earn in form of taxes and from tourism.
But what happens when the same is legalized in India?
It fails to spend on the HIV testing of the prostitutes. It also fails in bringing in a proper infrastructure that requires a lot of planning and money.
Secondly, the prostitute does not get the dignity of labor in a society like ours.
Infact , many more innocent girls are now forced into prostitution without pimps having any fear of being caught, since it is now legal!
Thirdly: Now come on! We won’t do it for tourism! That is so UnIndian!
See who goes to a prostitute- a married or an unmarried man( obviously!!there is no third kind of man Rupali;) )
In India both pre-marital sex and extra-marital sex are a strict no-no. Legalizing it will be like giving a moral approval to sex with someone else than you wife. And this India will never give because of its social structure and cultural values.
Everything that has the capacity to become an issue becomes one and gives us the opportunity to burn buses and effigies.
We are diverse, complex and sensitive. We aren’t ready for too many things yet. We have to learn ‘n’ number of things before legalizing ‘prostitution’!
We have to discuss, debate and resolve many other issues before we come to prostitution.
We have to learn to tolerate each other before we think of tolerating prostitution!
P.S: 1. All characters in this debate are fictitious and bear no resemblance to anybody living or dead! ;)
2. Special thanks to Sadaf, Sid, Deepak and Yashasvi who helped me prepare this write-up. Thanks a lot guys for your suggestions and ideas :).
Through the fences
10 years ago
11 comments:
hey, i came across your blog...and i must say, this piece on prostitution was very well written...
keep writing!!!
i forgot to ask you...did u get any laughs from the audience on "bunty da brothel"?
not laughs....but yes smiles :)
Through the length and breadth of the script I feel the author makes an over simplistic assumption that only Women are prostitutes..Not true.
I also feel you digressed a little coz the topic was should prostitution be legalised not "is it feasible to legalise prostitution?"
Also I beg to differ with your point on it giving a moral approval to married men to practice extra marital sex..
But what the heck...you won the third prize so you are allowed to throw my comment into the bin!
Oh yes! that assumption is there...not only in my debate but it was there in that of other's too! I won't justify the assumtion. I haven't really thought of the other side you see. Infact my reaction to your comment was "How did I not think about it at all? " so nothing like throwing your comment to the bin.. :)
Hi rupali,this was a nice topic. Came around it today:). Particularly the lines "When we see an advertisement of condom with our family we change the channel!" ha ha ha... so true.. but still I personally think that prostitution should be legalized. Yes it should be. Coz of the following reasons.
(1)See once it is legalized then that can be bound into some rules and regulations. As now its illegal, sab chalta hai, but once its legal, then there can be such rules as precautions agaist STD's etc. And I don't think anyone will mind it as the customers will have the security that it is legal and more rationally thinking.. safe too.
(2) It will not exploit the prostitutes but will save them the exploitation because once if it is legalized and certain licenses are given then these prostitutes need not depend on pimps etc. And the other point is that those who are sold off by families to these pimps juz for money will not do so becoz if this becomes a legal proffession then they can cash in on it.. this is not good from our point of view but for them this is good as anywayz they will meet the same fate but if legalized they will be avoided exploitation from pimps who now sort of dictate them. As for respect of labour, these prostitutes don't get that respect even now so it doesn't matter as it will not make matter worse then they are at present but definitely a bit better in some other avenues. Further in present scenario, these prostitutes can never complain about the atrocities to the police or anyone else as this being an illegal trade but if its legalized then they too can have a control and report such things to some legal agency which can deal with them.
(3)Thirdly u have written tourism, not tourism but definitely it can be a good source of income for govt. with some good taxes. So the prostitues too can atleast not live in constant fear of police or other govt. agencies as in this way they too will be tax payers. Right. And I am asking Y NOT.?? Its a known fact that arrack gives the govt. the biggest remittance in form of tax. Ofcourse that is not good as well coz arrack is consumed by low level laborers and lower middle class, or poor people so they need money more than any other for their family, for their child's education or whatever, when they have access to these govt. arrack they put a fix quota of their day's earning into this which on the absence of arrack would have gone to the family and would have been put to some good use, as they can not afford to consume the costly foreign made liquor. But now as this arrack is available in arrack shop and that too legally, they go there have their fill and come back home after spending a portion of their money on arrack and apart from that will quarrel with their family member or just hurt themselves falling here n there:). So when we don't question why the arrack is still available freely like "BOBBY DA THEKA. :D " etc. there is no reason whatsoever to say that legalizing of prostitutes is wrong.
I am not an expert in these issues but being a businessman I have many contacts in political arena and even I personally know some top brass in the police machinery. So I once asked one of my politician friend as to why is arrack not banned. So he was telling "Akshatbhai, agar ban kar bhi denge then bhi log kahin se le hi lenge, They can't afford costly liquor so they will fall prey to those cheap arracks prepared illegally and there is all possibility of some hooch tragedy to happen as its prepared by no controlled means and there is no rule governing it. So by arrack shops the govt. can exercise some accountability and some contraints and restraints." I was convinced by this answer though it is right when there is some avenue which is not covered by law, the unlawful takes its place. So here too, my point is if it is legalized then there is much more accountability which can be brought into this. Like may be condom a must:p or something. Regular free check up of prostitutes for STD's as they are already issued license so they need not hide from authorities and also it can be maintained free as good tax will be collected. And Ms. its not like u will walk in chandni chowk to have a mouthful of chat and u will get some other kinda pricelist but the govt. can allot lands specially for these purposes may be on outskirt of cities or somesort of thing in such a way that they don't clash with general public. Only those who wanna go there to do it will go. As for consumers too, it will be well as they can be sure of STD free prostitutes as some system can be made that they can check their fitness report issued by govt. each month or sorta thing. AS now its illegal they have no choice in asking anyone about their STD status and ofcourse they willn't say it as well. So the consumer's risk is eliminated. Further the price can be moderated under a fix govt. code so again even consumers can be prevented from exploitation of pimps. Further it will make the society more safer. Coz sex is just like hunger. When u are hungry u need to have food. If food is deprived you can resist till some time but then ultimately the animal instinct wil take over and you will snatch the morsel of food from the other person's plate. Same way Rupali do u know, 80% of rapes are committed in India by the people who already knew the victim. It is because they have that urge but not the outlet to try it out. So they naturally will pounce upon someone when the urge becomes unbearable. I was convinced about this last month when one of my college buddies told one incident which occured in his office. He works for a reputed software firm in Chennai. One of their collegue a female (I will not take her name, as already much damage has been made to her name in the local press out there in chennai:( juz to get more viewership I guess) was invited for lunch by her batch mate. As she knew him from a year, and as it was lunch time she felt safe and went to his flat for lunch. There she was drugged unsuspectingly alongwith the food and she was raped. Now this guy too was a nice person, he knew the gal and this guy too was an engineer like all of us, coming from a nice family. So this is a perfect example of that urge. So many such things may be going on everywhere, 90% of which goes unreported. So if this is legalized and made to know as nothing wrong then such people can go there, ensure safety and be releived. It will make many women safer here. --AKSHAT.
PS:- I have no blog and am no writter so may be my writting was a bit blunt. So sorry if it was a bit rude or annoying.
wow!! its is so nice to see such a detailed comment...i m in office rite now...so will write a deserving reply lateron... :)
oh my God!
what has Indian intelligentsia come to fascinate about!
it aint happening.
yaar this is an awesome blog i hav read it many times and hav made my frenz read it...they liked it tooo.its true to every extent..and even in next 50 yrs or so its not coming into action.. (50 yrs at least,though i personally dont want this to happen ever)..i mean imagine u walking down the lane wid ur father or hubby...and a lady comes asking for a night stand......not done ...
This is great info to know.
Hi author,
As per SITA1956 and PITA1986 ( Prevention/Suppression of Immoral trafficking Acts) prostitution is not an illegal activity. It becomes illegal only if
(1) the prostitute solicits for customers
(2) If the prostitute is joined by another prostitute, then the place becomes brothel, which is illegal
(3) If the place where prostitution is happening is within 200yards vicinity of public place.
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