Is Prostitution Legal in India?

08/15/22 • 30 min

Co-founder of Prerana, Dr.Pravin Patkar helps us understand what is prostitution and commercial sexual exploitation and as a country how we deal with it. We answer questions like,

Is prostitution legal in India?

What is the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act?

Can a woman be punished for selling her bodily sex?

Where does the demand for legalisation of the sex trade come from?

For more information go to https://fighttrafficking.org/faqs/

Credits:

Producer: PRERANA C/O Exe Secretary-Priti Patkar

Conceptualised by Dr Pravin Patkar & Kashina Kareem

Host & Exe Producer: Kashina Kareem

Content & Expertise: Dr. Pravin Patkar

Creative Director: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Senior Producer: Divita Oberoi

Junior Producer: Nikkethana Kamal

Sound Design & Mix: Kartik Kulkarni

Sound Editor: Yash Hirave

Graphic Designer: Alika Gupta

Additional Voices: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Co-founder of Prerana, Dr.Pravin Patkar helps us understand what is prostitution and commercial sexual exploitation and as a country how we deal with it. We answer questions like,

Is prostitution legal in India?

What is the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act?

Can a woman be punished for selling her bodily sex?

Where does the demand for legalisation of the sex trade come from?

For more information go to https://fighttrafficking.org/faqs/

Credits:

Producer: PRERANA C/O Exe Secretary-Priti Patkar

Conceptualised by Dr Pravin Patkar & Kashina Kareem

Host & Exe Producer: Kashina Kareem

Content & Expertise: Dr. Pravin Patkar

Creative Director: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Senior Producer: Divita Oberoi

Junior Producer: Nikkethana Kamal

Sound Design & Mix: Kartik Kulkarni

Sound Editor: Yash Hirave

Graphic Designer: Alika Gupta

Additional Voices: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Previous Episode

What are destination crimes of Human Trafficking?

Destination crimes are the purpose for which individuals are trafficking.These include prostitution, slavery, servitude, bonded labor, indentured labor, organized beggary, human organ harvesting and trading, mail brides, sex tourism, adoption/baby-selling rackets, illegal commercial surrogacy, etc

On this episode, co-founder of Prerana, Dr. Pravin Patkar explains

What are destination crimes?

Is sex trafficking the same as prostitution?

What is sex tourism?

What is the Indian law on surrogacy?

For more information go to https://fighttrafficking.org/faqs/

Disclaimer : The stories presented here are based on true events. Names have been changed to protect the individuals’ identities. Any resemblance to any person living or dead is incidental and not intentional.

Credits :

Producer: PRERANA C/O Exe Secretary-Priti Patkar

Conceptualised by Dr Pravin Patkar & Kashina Kareem

Host & Exe Producer– Kashina Kareem

Content & Expertise – Dr. Pravin Patkar

Creative Director: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Senior Producer: Divita Oberoi

Junior Producer: Nikkethana Kamal

Sound Design & Mix: Kartik Kulkarni

Sound Editor: Yash Hirave

Graphic Designer: Alika Gupta

Additional Voices : Kartik Kulkarni , Divita Oberoi, Varun Parikh and Aashna Goradia

News clip sources:

World Day Against Child Labour: Kailash Satyarthi On The Impact Of COVID-19 On Children by NDTV (June 12th 2021)

Child Labour in India by WorldVisionStir (February 16th 2009)

Human rights organisations warn of rising child labour in India amid COVID-19 pandemic by CNA (October 27th 2020)

India's shameful child labour mining for beauty industry sparkle by ITV News (February 23rd 2017)

Next Episode

How has the HIV Epidemic and the Covid-19 Pandemic affected women in the sex trade?

In the late 1980s and early 1990s in India, HIV/AIDS epidemic was growing at an alarming rate and particularly in the red light areas in the country. Many women in the sex trade faced discrimination, stigma, and suffered due to the lack of proper medical treatment. And more recently in the year 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, these women and their children suffered the same hardships all over again.

On this episode, Ms. Priti Patkar, co-founder of Prerana discusses the overall impact the HIV epidemic and Covid-19 pandemic had on the lives of prostituted women and their children. We answer questions like,

What was the impact of HIV on the lives of the women in the sex trade?

What role does stigma and discrimination play in their lives?

How did the State support prostituted women with HIV?

How has the COVID19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown affect the prostituted women and their children in the red-light areas?

For more information go to https://fighttrafficking.org/research/health-services-red-light-area-2019/

https://fighttrafficking.org/atc_blog/covid-kamathipura-lockdown/

https://fighttrafficking.org/research/covid-ras-2020/

Credits

Producer: PRERANA C/O Exe Secretary-Priti Patkar

Conceptualised by Dr Pravin Patkar & Kashina Kareem

Host & Exe Producer– Kashina Kareem

Content & Expertise – Dr. Pravin Patkar