NGOs move SC,oppose legalisation of prostitution

Four NGOs on Friday approached the Supreme Court opposing any move to legalize prostitution in the country.

Far from regulating the profession,it would only lead to proliferation of the trade,the NGOs submitted citing various research reports in their joint intervention application filed before a bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and A K Patnaik.

Citing the instance of Netherlands where prostitution is legal,the NGOs Prajwala,Guria,Sanlaap and Saarthak,through counsel Aparna Bhat,said the country recorded a 300 per cent increase in prostitution between 1996 and 2001.

Victoria state in Australia also recorded a 300 per cent increase in prostitution after it was legalised there in 1999,it said.

The NGOs’ application comes in the backdrop of the apex court’s earlier suggestion to the Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam to examine whether prostitution can be legalized to regulate the trade since punitive measures over the years had failed to curb the menace.

Quoting certain international research reports,the NGOs claimed rarely does a woman comes into sex trade voluntarily but is pushed into it by pimps and mafia dons.

Legalisation of prostitution had not in any manner improved the conditions of prostitutes who are mostly at the mercy of the mafia and pimps operating brothels,the application said.

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The apex court said it would examine the application and pass appropriate orders on it.

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