“Recognition of Sex Work is not its Glorification”

Sex workers are also human beings and hence they are entitled to a life of dignity” (Buddhadeb Bhattacharya versus State of West Bengal: (2011) 11 SCC 538). And no dignity can be accorded to sex workers till they remain lurking on the wrong side of the law — as criminals, as outlaws, as accused.

Hence, there is an urgent need to accept and recognise their existence and ensure that their fundamental right to life and the right to live with dignity are protected as promised by the Constiution of India. There is a need to adopt a legal mechanism to regulate their service conditions rather than push them underground on unrealistic and inhuman moral grounds.

The recognition and regulation of sex work is by no means its glorification or promotion as implied by those opposing amendment in the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956. That of all the persons arrested as accused under different provisions of the ITP Act, nearly 85-95% are women shows that the law is anti-women.

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