CONDITION OF SEX WORKERS IN INDIA

Health Education

Reading ACHARYA CHATURSEN SHASTRI’S book “VAISHALI KI NAGARVADHU” drown us into the river of sorrows. A prostitute or a tawaif or devadasi as different times have called them in India- are the facilitators of what some people say the “oldest profession of the world” i.e. prostitution. The pathetic condition of sex workers is clearly visible in a number of media reports and a dozen of you-tube documentaries. According to official estimates, there are over 12, 00,000 sex workers in India, though the actual figures are well over that. People in sex work face a number of discrimination and violence owing to their criminalised status and the continued conflation of sex work with trafficking. Human Rights are universal, absolute and fundamental moral claims, in the sense that they belong to all human beings, they are inalienable and are basic to a real living. In a number of pronouncements supreme-court of India has quoted for dignity of sex workers but still the conditions aren’t improving. Author in his research found they lack fundamental rights as provided in Articles 14, 19 and 21 of Indian Constitution and also they lack human rights as in accordance with Articles 1, 3, 4, 5, 19, 22, 23(1), 24 and 25 of UDHR. This research paper based in doctrinal research methodology tries to understand the flesh trade prevalent in India, mode of operation of sex trade, trafficking and exploitation of needy humans to compel them into this dark ocean of flesh trade, legal provisions and miserable condition of sex workers and critically examine availability of human rights as well as fundamental rights of sex workers with lenses of UDHR and Indian constitution.

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