Indian court recommends legalizing prostitution

If you can’t beat ‘em, regulate ‘em — that’s the Indian Supreme Court’s take on the country’s illegal sex trade.  

The court’s advice came in response to an NGO’s public litigation regarding child trafficking in the country.  As of 2007, UNICEF estimates 2.4 million Indians were HIV-positive (with the high estimate ranging up to 3.2 million). The sex trade is at the center of the epidemic: reportedly, a young prostitute can charge a customer just over $2, while an older woman will only receive about 65 cents – and that figure usually drops if the prostitute demands the use of a condom.  And the youngest girls in the trade, forced into prostitution before 15, are at the greatest risk of contracting the virus – they work longer hours, serve more clients, and are more likely to work in multiple brothels.

A UNAIDS report issued a couple of weeks ago reports that efforts to control the spread of HIV has been effective, with HIV prevalence among female sex workers declining by more than half, from 10.3 percent to 4.9 percent, between 2003 and 2006. Still, as the court points out, there are an estimated 2 million female sex workers, and legalization would allow monitoring of the trade and further provision of medical aid.

As the judges asked, “When you say it is the world’s oldest profession and you are not able to curb it by laws, why don’t you legalise it?”

Photo: PRAKASH SINGH/AFP/Getty Images