Prostitution: Sexual autonomy or Exploitation of Women?

Abstract

Prostitution is perhaps the most stigmatized and condemned line of work in the society in which women is engaged. In most of the third world countries talking about sexuality and sexual preferences in itself considered as a sin. Indeed, it is women who majorly take part in prostitution as work; the over whelming majority of prostitutes are female, while nearly all of their customers are male.2 Though largely in many parts of the world, women are considered as property of men and perceived as a sexual commodity, but the level of perception declines more in case of a prostitutes as they are well-thought-out as a sick person, who has no sense of character, purity and is physically as well as morally ill. Prostitution around the world is accepted with varying degrees of legality. In some places, prostitution itself is legal but the varying degrees of legality. In some places, prostitution itself is legal but the activities that make it possible-such as "soliciting" or "pandering"- are not. Prostitution is illegal in the vast majority of areas in the United States as a result of state laws rather than federal laws. It is, however, legal in some rural counties within the state of Nevada. In Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Turkey, the Netherlands, Hungary, etc. prostitution is legal and regulated. In Indian context, traffic in human beings and forced labour is prohibited under article 23 of the Constitution of India 3 . As regards the Directive Principles of State Policy under Part IV of the Constitution, it is significant to refer Article 39 which particularly contains certain directives. Under clause (e) of Article 394 , one of the directives is that the State should, in particular, secure that childhood and youth are protected against abuse and against moral abandonment. The objectives reflect the intent of the Constitution makers to safeguard the welfare of the children of our country, who often become victims of immoral trafficking and forced illegal acts. 'Freedom' and 'liberty' is usually understood to be virtually synonymous terms and defines them both as the absence of coercion5 . Women in prostitution is often looked upon as they are deprived of basic notion of liberty which is considered to be a state of being free from oppressive restrictions imposed on one's way of life, behavior, profession, social or political views by people in the mainstream society. This research paper tries to analyze the areas where liberty of sex workers is compromised along with how persistent inequalities have led to devastating and harmful situation in a way that injustice is a gift to them from the society