India has about ten million sex workers across the country. The profession is regulated by the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956. The act criminalises commercial sexual exploitation or prostitution and penalises those who facilitate and abet such activities, including clients and those who live off the earnings of prostitution. Yet, severe and continued income inequality means that this industry continues to thrive, exposing its workers to a host of physical and medical dangers. The unique concerns of this highly vulnerable section of India’s population are often ignored due to stigmatization and a lack of foresight guiding the laws that regulate and criminalise their work. These dangers and a concurrent lack of governmental protection have been especially apparent during the ongoing coronavirus-induced lockdown, wherein sex workers have been rendered even more financially vulnerable.
Several studies conclude that criminalising sex work and related activities cause violence and other harmful stigmatisation against the workers in the industry. The COVID-19 outbreak has only added to these wounds by causing a suspension of their businesses. For sex workers across India, the lockdown and social distancing policies bring forth a unique threat to their livelihood. Following the announcement of the lockdown, police authorities cracked down on red-light districts, forcing sex workers to shut their businesses down entirely, rendering red-light districts across the country wholly deserted. With their entire ecosystem in jeopardy, sex workers face an existential crisis, wherein the lack of income and resources are causing immense deprivation, with no redemption from the government.
Nearly 31% of sex workers in Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu were financially insecure even before the pandemic. The majority of sex-workers live a hand-to-mouth existence, wherein they rely on daily wages. The nationwide lockdown has eliminated their source of income and made them even more financially insecure.
Aside from the additional financial difficulties imposed by the lockdown, social distancing protocols are highly impractical for most sex workers as most of them reside in crowded housing facilities with insufficient hygiene and sanitation standards. Moreover, sex work is by definition a ‘contact profession’, hence rendering the physical distancing policies irreconcilable with the very nature of their job. Therefore, there is uncertainty about the resumption of their work even after the lockdown rules are eased while social-distancing protocols continue to remain in place.
Furthermore, sex workers are at a higher risk for sexually transmitted diseases, and are therefore more susceptible to COVID-19. This susceptibility is further complicated by the fact that the lockdown has also deprived these communities of essential medications. For instance, sex workers are 13 times more likely to be infected by HIV/AIDS. The disease is highly prevalent in brothels and ‘red-light districts’. For example, a study conducted in brothels in Mumbai concluded that almost a quarter of women were HIV/AIDS positive. Antiretroviral Therapy, which is crucial for such workers, is now unavailable due to the lockdown. Further, sex workers also face higher rates of HIV, hypertension, and diabetes. The medication for this, while still available, has become more expensive during the lockdown, and has thus become inaccessible for several workers.
Recognising the exaggerated effects of the pandemic on sex workers, a PIL was filed before the Delhi High Court, wherein the petitioner urged the court to direct the central government to “take effective measures to provide financial aid including food, shelter and medicines etc. to sex workers […] in Delhi for their survival during the COVID-19 pandemic”. The PIL also sought to exempt sex workers from rent to ease their hardships. The Delhi High Court dismissed the petition and said that the central and state governments have already brought out several schemes and “the persons for whose benefit this petition has been filed are also entitled to such schemes and the benefit of the directions and it is not the case that they are being discriminated against”.
The order, however, fails to recognise the realities of sex workers in India. As sex work remains an unregulated profession, most members of the community do not have access to the schemes put forth by the government due to lack of documentation. Sex workers have reported instances where they are coerced into providing sexual favours in return for obtaining documents such as identity cards and ration cards. Several sex workers also reported that they are often unable to obtain documentation as landlords refuse to issue rent receipts or rental agreements to them, which are necessary to obtain official documentation and identification. Hence, most sex workers are unable to procure the identity proof required to access vital government schemes.
For instance, they are excluded from the Public Distribution System and programs such as the Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana, which offers a financial package of Rs. 500 per month for women under the Jan Dhan Yojana. At a time when non-essential economic activities in India have been brought to a complete halt, denial of access to relief schemes increases the deprivation of such workers.
In fact, even if the schemes explicitly included sex workers, they would be practically disabled from accessing its benefits as it would create a Catch-22 situation. In order to access government benefits, sex workers risk having to divulge their profession, which opens to the door to conviction under the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act. This risk is seen in Japan, where, despite the criminalisation of sex work, the government attempted to provide workers with financial aid. The central government offered a package worth $989 billion, which was also accessible to sex workers. However, most sex workers reported that they were unable to avail the benefits of the relief as they did not want to be identified as sex workers, given their profession remains criminalised in Japan.
A solution to this could be to decriminalise sex work in India. If the profession was recognised and regulated, not only would it reduce the stigma surrounding the profession, it would also pave the way for dedicated assistance and relief programmes to address the specific needs of their community. In Bangladesh, for example, where sex work for women over the age of 18 is legal, the government announced a special relief package of 30 kg of rice and $25 to each sex workers. The authorities also ordered a freeze on rent till the end of the lockdown. According to local media reports and police authorities, several sex worker communities already availed the benefit of this, in contrast to the sex workers in Japan, who are unwilling to accept the assistance that is extended towards them for fear of being punished.
While NGOs and philanthropists initially assisted sex workers by providing them with food rations and medical supplies, this support continues to fade away as movement across cities has been severely restricted. NGOs in Delhi, for instance, have reported a shortage of rations due to their limited funding. At the same time, several NGO workers also spoke of their inability to meet the sex workers due to the restrictions on movement around the city. Therefore, the first step towards protecting the interests of sex workers is to recognise them as a part of the workforce and as a group that requires special relief and attention. During the ongoing pandemic, the Indian government has become saddled with an overwhelming amount of economic, medical, and strategic concerns. Against this backdrop, there is a danger that the woes of sex workers will slip even further from the priorities of the government and continue to be overlooked.
Image Source: VICE
Sex Work Needs to Be Decriminalised in India, and the COVID-19 Crisis Shows Exactly Why
May 14, 2020
