Guest post by AARTHI PAI and MEENA SARASWATHI SESHU

STOP Panic around Sex Work; by conflating it with Trafficking

VAMP, SANGRAM and The National Network of Sex Workers, India (NNSW); a network of sex worker organisations, collectives, federations and unions from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh;  seek decriminalization of sex work. 

First, a quick distinction between ‘decriminalization’ and ‘legalization’.

Decriminalisation is the repeal or amendment of laws or statutes which make certain acts criminal, so that those acts are no longer crimes or offenses.

Legalisation, on the other hand, will mean regulation and control by the state authority ushering a zone specific ‘licence raj’ with mandatory health check-up, criminalizing defaulters. It could also mean criminalizing of some aspects of sex work e.g. clients.

The UNDP Global Commission on HIV and the Law stated that, “Sex work and sex trafficking are not the same. The difference is that the former is consensual whereas the latter coercive. Any point of view that casts “voluntary prostitution” as an oxymoron erases the dignity and autonomy of the sex worker in myriad ways. It turns self – directed actors into victims in need of rescue.”[1] Sex work is adult consensual provision of sexual services and must not be equated with sexual exploitation or sex trafficking. Continue reading Understanding the De- Criminalisation Demand: Aarthi Pai and Meena Saraswathi Seshu →