• Classification of respectable women and non-respectable women: It is based on the belief that sex work is “easy” work and no one will or should choose to practise it.
  • It thus perpetuates the prejudice that women who do practise sex work are morally devious.
• Sex workers are prone to violence: The Act has not only criminalised sex work but also further stigmatized and pushed it underground thus leaving sex workers more prone to violence, discrimination and harassment.
• Imposition of government’s will over individual’s choice: The Act denies an individual their right over their bodies and it imposes the will of the state over adults articulating their life choices.
• Women enter agreements with traffickers: The Act fails to recognise that many women willingly enter into agreements with traffickers, sometimes just to seek a better life as chosen by them.
  • There are evidences which shows that many women choose to remain in sex work despite opportunities to leave after ‘rehabilitation’ by the government or nongovernmental organisations.
• Criminalization of sex work: It compromises sex workers’ health and safety by driving sex work underground.
  • It makes it harder for sex workers to negotiate terms with clients, work together with other sex workers for safety, and carry condoms without fear that they will be used as evidence of prostitution.

• Decriminalization respects human rights and dignity: A cornerstone of contemporary human rights is that all people are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
• Decriminalization helps guard against violence and abuse: The fear of arrest and police abuse limits the time and methods that sex workers can use to conduct safety screenings of clients without detection by police.
• Decriminalization improves access to justice: The laws that criminalize sex work cause sex workers to feel unsafe reporting crimes because they fear prosecution, police surveillance, stigma, and discrimination.
• Decriminalization challenges the consequences of having a criminal record: In many countries, harsh and biased application of criminal law ensures that a large proportion of sex workers will have criminal records.
  • The criminal records are often a source of stigma, and can drastically limit one’s future.
• Decriminalization improves access to health services: It is associated with the best access by outreach workers to brothels, and the greatest financial support for sex worker health programs.
• Decriminalization reduces risk of HIV and sexually transmitted infections: It could avert up to 46 percent of new HIV infections among female sex workers over the next decade.

• Exclusion from government’s relief programmes: The sex workers have mostly been kept at arm’s length from the government’s relief programmes due to non-recognition of sex work as legitimate work.
• Archaic and regressive laws governing sex work: The legislation penalises acts such as keeping a brothel, soliciting in a public place, living off the earnings of sex work and living with or habitually being in the company of a sex worker.
  • The Act represents the archaic and regressive view that sex work is morally wrong and that the people involved in it, especially women, never consent to it voluntarily.
• Lack of support from civil societies: The Act gives no agency to the sex workers to fight against the traffickers and in fact, has made them more susceptible to be harassed by the state officials.
• Lack of visible data on sex workers: Despite their vulnerability, sex workers remained a largely invisible, inadequately served and marginalised population.
  • The main challenges sex workers faced included health risks, violence, and obstacles to gaining access to substantial health care services, legal assistance and social services.

• Guaranteed set of labour rights: The COVID-19 pandemic has provided more reason to consider a long pending demand of sex workers in India i.e. decriminalisation of sex work and a guaranteed set of labour rights.
• Recommendation of Justice Verma Commission: It is important to recognise sex work as work and stop ourselves from assigning morality to their work.
  • The adult men, women and transgender persons in sex work have the right to earn by providing sexual services, live with dignity and remain free from violence, exploitation, stigma and discrimination.
• Decriminalization of sex work: It means removal of criminal and administrative penalties that apply specifically to sex work, creating an enabling environment for sex worker health and safety.
  • The decriminalization of sex work must be accompanied by recognition of sex work as work, allowing sex work to be governed by labor law and protections similar to other jobs.
• Strengthen services for sex workers: The governments should fully decriminalize sex work and ensure that sex workers do not face discrimination in law or practice.
  • It aims to ensure that they have safe working conditions and access to public benefits and social safety nets.

• Community-based rehabilitation of sex workers: The Seventh Report of the Panel on Sex Work, constituted by the Supreme Court in 2012, recommended adopting community-based rehabilitation, against institutional rehabilitation, thereby recognising the efforts of existing unions and organisations.

• It is time we rethink sex work from a labour perspective, where we recognize their work and guarantee them basic labour rights.
  • The parliament must take a relook at the existing legislation and do away with the ‘victim rescue rehabilitation’ narrative.
• The sex work should be legalized, and sex workers offered all the protections offered to workers in other industries because when sex work is recognized and treated as legitimate work, sex work can begin to benefit women.
• The government needs to ensure their inclusion in welfare policies such as skill development, food security, shelter, etc. in order to provide for the needs of sex workers.
• The government could follow the NHRC by consulting non-state actors including sex workers’ unions to address the negative implications of the current schemes.
• The sex workers’ right to dignity is also a human right because they do not deserve to live in the constant threat of being raided and stolen of their opportunity to work and provide for their families.

Decriminalization means removal of criminal and administrative penalties that apply specifically to sex work, creating an enabling environment for sex worker health and safety. For decriminalization to be meaningful, it must be accompanied by a recognition of sex work as work, allowing sex work to be governed by labor law and protections similar to other jobs. While decriminalization does not resolve all challenges that sex workers face, it is a necessary condition to realize sex workers’ human rights.