Flesh trade victims stage protest

CALCUTTA, August 18: Eighteen-year-old Rita Biswas, who managed to escape from the clutches of flesh traders in Mumbai and their touts operating here, staged a protest along with other victims against the demand for giving legal status to prostitution.

Rita and 20-year-old Jaheda Bibi and other victims, who gathered here on Monday under the aegis of the Centre for Communication and Development, told reporters that “giving legal status to prostitution would be like legalising trafficking of women.” Later, Mumtaz Khatun, a social activist told mediapersons that “a section of social activists and trade unions are carrying on the campaign to legalise prostitution either without realising its damaging impact on society and implications or trying to serve an unworthy cause”.