Making a case for decriminalising sex work for the right to live with dignity
Prameela K
Published on: 8 June 2023, 07:40 am
On May 19, 2022 the Supreme Court Bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao, B.R. Gavai and A.S. Bopanna, in Budhadev Karmaskar versus State of West Bengal observed that sex workers across India suffer from a lack of legal identity. The Bench passed Orders based on the final report of a Supreme Court-appointed panel. Notably, the most significant observation was that sex workers have the right to live with dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution.
—-
THE story of the struggle of sex workers in Bengaluru against police atrocities paints a picture of the problematic way in which the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 (ITPA) functions. Their legal recourse in the form of complaints to the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission makes an argument against criminalisation of sex work and their paternalistic institutionalisation as a result of raids. It also highlights the significance of the recent direction by the Supreme Court in Budhadev Karmaskar versus State of West Bengal.
Police brutality against sex workers has been a perennial problem everywhere in India. However, in recent years there has been a serious escalation in the city of Bengaluru. Street-based sex workers have been continuously targeted, detained and beaten up by the police. For years now, it has been a recurring pattern for the law enforcement agencies to harass and intimidate sex workers in public under threat of registering cases under the ITPA.
