Catherine MacKinnon believes that as long as men continue to demand sex in lieu of money, prostitution and trafficking will continue. The only way out, however, she feels is to criminalise the demand, and not prosecute the victims, something that perhaps did not go down too well with the men in the audience. Not that the stares ever bothered MacKinnon, a feminist and legal scholar, whose victory in the trial representing the Bosnian victims marked a huge change in the legal system that recognized rape as an act of genocide.

In Kolkata recently as a part of her India tour, MacKinnon took time out to speak out on the issues closest to her heart and interacted with people who are working on similar projects. She also made it a point to drop by the red-light area near Shovabazar to talk to the women working there, something she has been trying to do in her India tour.

“I have visited the red-light areas in Delhi and now Bengal as well as villages in Bihar. The main difference between the sex workers in India and in the US is that prior to joining the flesh trade very few had been abused at home here. In the US, most of those who run away from home to join the trade are victimised and sexually abused by their family members and friends by the age of six-seven,” she says.

Ironically, her travels across the world have already made it clear that legalisation of prostitution is not the solution to the problem. In countries where prostitution is legalised, trafficking hits through the roof.

“The illegal industry explodes underneath the legal one with the age limit of the girls dropping further. Moreover, the traffickers know that once they sell the girls to these countries they can make a lot of money. Also legal prostitutes are not allowed to have sex without condoms hence many men are willing to pay extra and go to women who can service them without it, in spite of the fact that it may endanger their lives,” she says. The only way to curb prostitution, she feels, is to criminalise the demand.

While visiting the prostitutes in the country, she says that in spite of the geographical differences their demands were all the same. For those wanting to get out of prostitution, they had two main demands: the first was to get a place to stay from where they would not be driven out and could be saved from police exploitation. Secondly, they wanted education for themselves and their children so that they have choices in life, an option about what they wanted to do in their

future.

Of course, she also feels that unlike many other countries India has a strong body of NGOs working for the cause that do make a difference, especially by trying to provide alternative livlihoods. “Institutions like Apne Aap provide these women with an exit strategy. Not many countries have so many organisations willing to take up the cause.”

However, most importantly, MacKinnon says that women need to be given power so that they are equal with others in society so that the stigma is removed.