Legalising Prostitution: Legitimising Slavery ?

[Guest guest]

LEGALISING PROSTITUTION-LEGITIMISING SLAVERY ?

In the unknown terrains of darkness…

I see for light to guide my soul

In the untold depth of my being….

I yearn for dignity to hold my whole…

For hundreds of thousands of victims of commercial sexual exploitation whom you

can call by any name depending on the perspective you carry, a prostitute or a

commercial sex worker this is their heartrending plea- a need to be a part of

the mainstream society - a need to belong. Ask any of them whether they want

their children in the trade and the answer is a firm NO. And there the dichotomy

begins.

In recent times there have been a lot of debates on whether

prostitution should be legalized/decriminalized etc…I am actually

now waiting for a time when people will start debating whether rape

or murder should be legalized. Sounds absurd. Well if prostitution

can be legalized then in the course of time even crime and slavery

should be legalized, for prostitution or sex trade is the oldest

form of sexual slavery.

From time immemorial various deviances and discrepancies have

existed in the society many of which internalized and integrated in

the normal day today social functioning, be it feudalism, sati or

dowry.

To maintain the power hierarchies these have been reinforced

by social systems such as patriarchy that makes male hegemony the

all powerful process. The male domain has constantly found ways to

maintain women subserviently so that power blocks are never

threatened. Over the centuries women and the larger society have

slowly internalized all this with a `culture of silence' and also

have learnt the ways to be the torch bearer of this system.

The consequence- a society that is specialized and skilled in the art of gender

discrimination which is manifested in various forms ranging

from female foeticide, infanticide, child marriage, eve-teasing,

rape, dowry death etc..etc… And somewhere this message is also

grilled that as a woman you are an object …a commodity that can be

suitably traded off.

Only the orifices in your body have certain significance otherwise you are

worthless. This has been the primary logic of women being in flesh trade. That a

woman's identity is either for procreation or as a sexual being who will sustain

the well being of the society.

Interestingly the arguments in favor of prostitution to be legalized go up to

the extent of calling sex as a service industry that actually protects other

women from being sexually molested or raped.

Well if that is the case there should not be a single rape in countries where

prostitution is legal!!!!

Slavery has never empowered a human being and therefore prostitution

can never empower a woman. Prostitution is a bi-product of lack of

options or alternatives in the society. No woman or man for that

matter, will ever voluntarily opt for flesh trade in a context of

adequate sustainable options. Therefore let us not legitimize our

own inadequacies to provide options or our own deviant need to

maintain power hierarchies and call it sexual right of a person to

sell his/her body.

On the other hand in this era of HIV/AIDS and foreign funding there

is a genuine need for many to gain entry points to disburse their

funding and appear to reach out to an epidemic problem. A need to

implement strategies that will target the so called communities

with `high risk behaviors'.

But the catch is that these well wishers/savior of the society are not willing

to address any deep-rooted issues in the society.

Their pre-dominant obsession is to impose shortcut methods to prevent HIV/AIDS

buy promoting condoms, not at any point realizing or acknowledging that change

cannot occur from the periphery.

No doubt on paper the primary policy is on abstinence and behavior modification

but by the time latex companies hijack the space what is left is only condom

promotion which they appropriately call `safe sex'(of course if business

interests can be promoted why not!).

In a situation of absolute slavery, helplessness and optionlessness

what is the bargaining power one expects from an individual. " So is

condom given, condom used? "

But the dilemma is that money is taken and it has to be expended so

the most convenient strategy is to gain entry through promotion of

a slogan `sex is work, let us legalize it'. This ensures that their

work is done in a relatively non-threatening atmosphere, business

interest taken care of, without any extra efforts of reaching to

scattered crowd. But the women at the end of the day are labeled

further, isolated to marginalization, with a double edged sword of

stigma and discrimination. How is it empowering? Yet they call

it `right based'!.

There are very many factors that are stonewalling the empowerment of

women, but the worst among them is the whole vicious cycle of

commodification of women's body. If there is a trade in human misery

that violates all human rights it is the commercial sexual

exploitation of women and children. By being a silent spectator we

are all a part of the `culture of silence' that promotes this

dehumanized trade. Our silence supports demand.

Our inaction motivates exploitation, we have disempowered ourselves.

Break this chain of silence, for it is our own sisters and daughters

who are being traded.

Dr Sunitha Krishnan

Prajwala

Hyderabad

www.prajwalaindia.org

e-mail: sunitha_2002@...