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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 9:18 pm
Time: 9:18 pm
Results for prostitution (asia)
1 results foundAuthor: Shukla, Rakesh Title: Sex Work and Laws in South Asia: A Monograph Summary: The law with regard to sex work remains among the most ambiguous pieces of legislation in South Asia. Activists working for the empowerment of sex workers or in HIV/AIDS prevention programs in the region remain unclear about even the basics of prevalent laws with regard to prostitution and trafficking. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar share a common colonial past and retain penal codes framed by the British in 1860. Thus we find common or similar statutes with regard to issues like public decency, obscenity, morality, public health (often used against sex workers) and selling or buying for purposes of prostitution. We also find sections like 377 of the Indian Penal Code and Pakistan Penal Code categorizing homosexual acts as an offence. Many laws limit the definition of trafficking to only those acts involving prostitution. This focus dates back to the United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others in 1949. The SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children signed in 2002 continues the sole focus of prostitution as the end point of trafficking. The definition of trafficking clearly confines it to the moving, buying or selling of women and children for prostitution. Similarly the category of “persons subjected to trafficking” is restricted to women and children victimized or forced into prostitution through deception, threats, coercion, kidnapping or other unlawful means. This exclusive focus does not address the issue of persons trafficked for other purposes like forced or bonded labour. On the other hand by conflating trafficking and sex work/prostitution it derails all discussion about trafficking through fraud, deceit and coercion into a debate over prostitution – de-criminalization, regulation and abolition. This monograph attempts to demystify and explain the content of the prevalent laws in the region which are relevant to activists and practitioners working in the field. The available legislations and case law have been analyzed from the point of view of the issues of conflation of trafficking and sex work, right of sex workers to live in liberty and dignity, the right to move freely, the right to reside in a place of choice, the right to migrate, forced and voluntary sex work, entry of minors, rescue and rehabilitation. The material available is uneven in respect to the countries in the region and this in turn is reflected in the document. Thus most material was available with regard to India and Sri Lanka, then Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan and the least for Myanmar, which has not been included due to our limitation in obtaining English translations of documents in Burmese. While the monograph does give unequal space to the various countries of the region, however, this is not indicative of bias but of the constraint of the availability of material. Details: Maharashta, India: Sampada Gramin Mahila Sanstha (SANGRAM), 2010. 82p. Source: Internet Resource: Monograph Series 4: Accessed April 4, 2012 at: http://sangram.org/Download/Laws_in_south_asia.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Asia URL: http://sangram.org/Download/Laws_in_south_asia.pdf Shelf Number: 124816 Keywords: Child ProstitutionProstitutesProstitution (Asia)Sex TraffickingSex Workers |