Legalise prostitution to prevent child abuse -- Report

Legalise prostitution to prevent child abuse -- Report
UNITED NEWS OF INDIA

SURAT, FEBRUARY 23: There is an urgent need to legalise prostitution as a profession and licenses should be issued to adult females who voluntarily desire to enter into this profession thus preventing children from entering the flesh trade.

This was one of the suggestions made, in a three-day workshop sponsored by UNICEF, to strengthen action against child sex workers.

Dr Satyakam Joshi of the Centre for Social Studies who coordinated the workshop however, opined that a special law be enacted to deal with all forms of sexual abuse. It should bring to light the right of a child and the recommendations made by the world congress on commercial sexual abuse of children.

The universal nature of prostitution and its wide magnitude made its prevention difficult. Our social, economic, political and religious systems have accepted prostitution as an unavoidable evil and have chosen to ignore it, Joshi said.

Joshi felt patriarchal social system, lack of political will, exploitation of third worlds natural resources by the developed countries, as some of the structural factors responsible for sexual exploitation of children. No child would like to enter into flesh trade by his or her own wishes but have been dragged into this trade forcibly.

Similarly there is an urgent need for creating solid data base on profile of child sex workers which we do not have at present. The profile should include identification of child sex workers in both urban and rural areas, their socio-economic, demographic and cultural aspects.

The report suggested that the situation of child sex workers need to be tackled at both macro and micro levels simultaneously. The macro level intervention will sharply reduce the magnitude and spread of the child sex workers, while the micro level intervention will negotiate with and bring forth pressing inquiries and discomfort to them.

The macro level interventions should address problem areas such as unemployment and marginalisation among the poor peasants, strengthening of rural development and poverty alleviation programmes and strengthening social service sector.

There are many non-governmental organisations (NGO) doing commendable work in the fields of welfare and development of weaker section. Child sex workers largely belong to weaker and vulnerable section hence involvement of NGOs can make meaningful dent in the existing situation.

There should be an amendment in prevention of Immoral Traffic Act to treat child prostitution as rape punishable under section 375 and 376 of the Indian Penal Code. Regulatory bodies like police, judiciary and administration should be sensitised on protecting the rights of child.

Voluntary organisations must have a vigil and independent sources of information to learn about new entries of children into the brothels. Raids should be conducted after receiving information, and rehabilitation of those rescued children should be done immediately. In the absence of a timely action to prevent children from entering into sex trade and rescue and rehabilitate the abused ones, the problem may compounded further, the report said.