Prostitution In India: A Battle Not Fought Wholeheartedly

Vishal Majumdar, National Law School of India University, Bangalore

INTRODUCTION

Prostitution is known to be one of the oldest professions in human history. If we try to trace back its history, it would be very problematic to find where and when to locate it. It is evident from certain sources that it was quite prevalent in ancient Greek times. If we talk about the Indian context, several religious texts give us idea about its prevalence in ancient India as well. There are reasonably good records of prostitution in large Indian cities during the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries of British rule; prostitution was not considered as a degrading profession in that period as it was from the second half of the 19th century. Indian Prostitution was completely independent of the British and other foreigners. Temple dancers, aristocratic courtesans, independent village girls and big brothels could be found in every corner of Indian subcontinent (Sithanan 9-14). Thus, prostitution has existed in the society since ages and is still prevalent in modern society.

Though it’s been practised in India for a very long period, prostitution as an institution has always been evil. On the other hand, some part of the society states that prostitution is a necessary evil in order to avoid rapes and unwanted sexual coercion. The prostitutes are the most vulnerable people in the society. To protect them there are many laws in the society. In 1956, immoral traffic (suspension) act was passed, which ban the practise of prostitution in public but can be done privately. Section 372 of IPC prohibits the selling of children for prostitution. Though there are certain provisions and act to protect them, it is not clearly mentioned whether prostitution is legal or illegal unlike United Kingdom where it had made prostitution as illegal (Sahni et al).