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Journalism of Courage
The Supreme Court today asked the Centre whether it can legalise prostitution if it is not possible to curb it with punitive measures.
When you say it is the worlds oldest profession and when you are not able to curb it by laws,why dont you legalise it? You can then monitor the trade,rehabilitate and provide of medical aid to those involved in the trade, a bench of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice A K Patnaik told Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam.
They sex trade have been operating in one way or the other and nowhere in the world have they been able to curb it by legislation. In some cases,they are carried out in a sophisticated manner. So why dont you legalise it? the apex court said,to which the Solicitor General said he would look into it.
The apex courts remarks came while dealing with a PIL filed by an NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan and the intervention application moved by Childline complaining about largescale child trafficking in the country.
The bench said child trafficking and sex trade were flourishing because of poverty which needs to be tackled. We are taking about growing GDP. I do not know what is the development we are all talking about when the number of BPL families is at 37 per cent which has increased from 30 per cent, the bench said while posting the matter for further hearing to January 5.
The petitioners contention is that a number of minors,particularly girls,are being pushed into sex trade. Childline counsel Nandita Rao alleged several minor girls are being sexually exploited by circus owners and there has to be adequate legal framework to prevent such exploitation.
