Legalisation and Regulation of Prostitution in India: Issues and challenges

The Legalisation and regulation of prostitution in India is a perpetual polemical debate. Though marked as unethical, it is thriving behind the curtains in India.India is also a nest to the largest red-light districts in Asia with thousands of Brothels and pimps selling minor girls and women for sex without consent or any protection, thus also home to rapidly growing human trafficking and increasing STD. Prostitution is the oldest profession in the world, as also mentioned by Kautilya in his masterpiece ‘Arthashastra’, and eradicating this profession is futile. As quoted by the Honourable Supreme Court in December 2009 -“if you cannot curb it by laws, then legalise it”, it also added that legalising prostitution would help monitor the trade and rehabilitate sex workers. This paper is written in the context of an evolving minded societies where criminalisation doesn’t help the prostitute abscond from prostitution, and legalisation wouldn’t snare them in it. Writing this paper, my initiation is to throw light on the path of a welfare system where the profession is regulated and protects minors from sexual exploitation, basic rights, and safety as being involved in sex work doesn’t mean that consent is negated, rights in the workplace, health card with routine checkup’s, removal of middlemen man and pimps, with also comparative studies with countries that have legalised and regulated it.