Karnataka to set up panel to study legalising prostitution

[V.Balasubramani]

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Karnataka to set up panel to study legalising prostitution

BENGALURU: The Karnataka government will soon form a panel to look into problems faced by sex workers and legalising prostitution in the state.

Women and Child Welfare Minister Umashree on Monday told reporters: "The panel will be constituted in a day or two

Some religious leaders and politicians, including former law minister M C Nanaiah, writer Nisar Ahmed had favoured legalising prostitution while calling for a wider discussion on the matter.

''The issue of legalising prostitution is sensitive. There have been differences among several eminent people on the issue," she said.

The committee will also offer solutions in terms of rehabilitation and legal aid to sex workers, she said.


Source: Karnataka to set up panel to study legalising prostitution - The Times of India

 

[prasad1]

I suppose ministers and babus have to experience it for themselves before they can provide a solution. LOL

 

[CHANDRU1849]

It is said it is the oldest profession in the world.

Legalizing this profession, of course, may give more time to police dept. to look into the other problems more seriously, instead of wasting time on this.

 

[renuka]

If prostitution is legalized then problems like abuse and sexually transmitted disease can be controlled.

They should have a zoning method..to make sure all sex workers get a steady income.

That is in one area only a certain number of legal sex workers are allowed to set up their practice.

Those who want to frequent sex workers should register first and records and details kept safely.

Also a minimum wage need to be ensured and if possible also pension benefits or Employer Provident Fund for the sex workers.

Then there has to be regular health checks..cervical cancer screening and immunization for cervical cancer and supply of condoms at a very minimal charge.

 

[V.Balasubramani]

It is found that despite efforts on the part of the local police by effectively enforcing Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, total elimination of prostitution is not achieved because the punishment for the offenders is not stringent but on the contrary the fine imposed is very meager.

With the highly limited available man power in every Police Station, the Officer will be more concerned in utilizing the manpower best by paying attention to maintenance of law and order and prevention crime, etc

Besides, the services of more police personnel is utilized for purpose for providing security to the VIPs among other important duties.

Since the offenders mostly women are fined meagerly by the Court for the commission of offence of immoral traffic, they don’t mind paying the penalty ‘just like that’ and join the sex trade the next moment.

But will legalizing prostitution, decrease commission of rape offence??

Are we doing justice to the womanhood?

 

[auh]

I should say it is a good move.

 

[prasad1]

HOW modern and liberated Germany’s Social Democrats and Greens sounded in 2001. They were in government and wanted to raise the legal and social status of prostitutes. So they enacted a law to remove the stigma from sex work by, for example, giving prostitutes full rights to health insurance, pensions and other benefits. “Exploiting” sex workers remained criminal, but merely employing them or providing them with a venue became legal. The idea was that responsible employers running safe and clean brothels would drive pimps out of the market.​

Germany thus embarked on an experiment in liberalisation just as Sweden, a country culturally similar in many ways, was going in the opposite direction. In 1999 the Swedes had made it criminal to pay for sex (pimping was already a crime). By stigmatising not the prostitutes but the men who paid them, even putting them in jail, the Swedes hoped to come close to eliminating prostitution. . . .​

Prostitution seems to have declined in Sweden (unless it has merely gone deep underground), whereas Germany has turned into a giant brothel and even a destination for European sex tourism. The best guess is that Germany has about 400,000 prostitutes catering to 1m men a day. Mocking the spirit of the 2001 law, exactly 44 of them, including four men, have registered for welfare benefits. . . .

John Lott's Website: Does legalizing prostitution change rape rates?: Some evidence from Sweden and Germany
​

 

[prasad1]

Prostitution is listed among the crimes some refer to as victimless or consensual crimes, because no one present at the crime is unwilling, but research shows that may not be the true picture of prostitution.In most countries, prostitution -- exchanging money for sex among adults -- is legal. It is illegal in only a few countries -- in the United States (except for ten counties in the state of Nevada), India, Argentina, some Muslim and Communist countries.


The reason it is legal is the general attitude that prostitution does no harm, has no victims, and is sex among consenting adults.
[h=3]Melissa Farley, PhD of Prostitution Research & Education, argues that prostitution is hardly a victimless crime. In her "Prostitution: Fact sheet on Human Rights Violations" Farley says that prostitution is sexual harassment, rape, battering, verbal abuse, domestic violence, a racist practice, a violation of human rights, childhood sexual abuse, a consequence of male domination of women and a means of maintaining male domination of women.[/h]"All prostitution causes harm to women," Farley writes. "Whether it is being sold by one's family to a brothel, or whether it is being sexually abused in one's family, running away from home, and then being pimped by one's boyfriend, or whether one is in college and needs to pay for next semester's tuition and one works at a strip club behind glass where men never actually touch you – all these forms of prostitution hurt the women in it."

Is Prostitution a Victimless Crime?


[h=3]Prostitutes Are Biggest Victims[/h]To believe prostitution has no victims, one must ignore these statistics published in Farley's Fact Sheet:

• 78 percent of 55 women who sought help from the Council for Prostitution Alternatives in 1991 reported being raped an average of 16 times a year by pimps, and were raped 33 times a year by johns.
• 62 percent reported having been raped in prostitution.
• 73 percent reported having experienced physical assault in prostitution.
• 72 percent were currently or formerly homeless.
• 92 percent stated that they wanted to escape prostitution immediately.
• 83 percent of prostitutes are victims of assault with a weapon.
• 75 percent of women in escort prostitution had attempted suicide.
• 67 percent meet diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).