In the 19th century, a sensitization arose regarding the moral code of conduct for the decent ladies which was known as the Victorian morality ideology. As per this doctrine female women were categorized into bad and good types. The ones who were prompted only for monogamy were considered decent and good whereas the ones who were prostitutes were categorized bad as well as bad for society. Although during this era, most part around the world including Great Britain conducted a system for heavy surveillance to prevent and control prostitution. As India was one of the colonies ruled by Great Britain, this system was implemented here also. This was mainly to protect the British soldiers from venereal diseases. Sooner the prostitutes of the country were seen as “disease -ridden, moral, dirty, vulgar, social trash” and were also ‘whore stigma’. They are well considered as a scandalous threat for society.

From the beginning of the 20th century these sex workers had lost their right to achieve legal remedy or even attend any public function as they were considered as ‘sinners’, ‘perverts’ and ‘ criminals’.

By the last decade in the country, the dynamics of sex work had undergone a heavy change. Earlier only the ‘red light area’ was the restricted places were sex work was common. Although now it has increased due to heavy outlook of sex in cinemas, education, increased mobility and internet that have activated the problem of more people turning into prostitute for easy money making. This has also increased individuals selling sex, sex tourism, flying sex worker and pornography as well as non brothel based prostitution in the country. India has become a centre of attraction for pedophiles as these are people who abuse children sexually. Even the largest red light area of Asia is located in Sonagachi, India inhabiting a minimum of 11,000 sex labours. Kamathipura in Mumbai, Budhwar Peth of Pune, Meergunj in Allahabad, G.B. Road in Delhi are some other large red light areas located in our country.

Wherefore, we can conclude that in a country like India the tradition of having paid sex is nothing new. Trafficking is an old curse our country has been suffering from since the long past and still continues in different parts of the nation. Earlier we had Devdasis and Tawaifs, a portrait clearly shows how women were discriminated due to their gender and also depicts violence against females was a common thing in families since ages. Although we are living in the 21st century where people have modernized to talk openly about critical issues yet people shy away on the topic of prostitution, let alone they are neither bothered to take a stand for providing justice or helping the victims.

Women are trafficked and then sexually exploited for the benefit of pimps and those who own brothels. They are not provided with proper legal status and the victims end up receiving unfair judgments whereas the offenders even if caught are not punished the way the victims had suffered. This is a major issue and our society should be aware of it. Instead of treating the sex workers as culprit they should examine the actual situation of the case and implement stringent laws to punish the offenders who benefit by enslaving trafficked women for prostitution.

Aishwarya Says:

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

If you are interested in participating in the same, do let me know.

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