On legalising prostitution and drugs
Morals apart, the most serious argument the legitimisation of prostitution is that by destroying families it strikes at the root of society, leading to all sorts of undesirable social consequences. Practically, eliminating or even curbing down prostitution has been impossible. Many have tried, but no regime in history has succeeded in this task. Their attempts have only driven the industry underground, leading to more undesirable consequences for the prostitutes themselves, as well as for society in general — organised crime and HIV/AIDS among the most significant.
While social acceptance of prostitution may not be the government’s business, the government does have an interest in tackling the social problems the ensue from prostitution. Countries like the Netherlands have legalised prostitution; both to avoid the social costs of an industry driven underground, and also to achieve the economic benefits of a formal, organised industry. Can this happen in India?
Not if the central government in New Delhi is expected to make a moral, economic, political and social decision that really is a matter for individual communities to make and live with. Prostitution is really a local business. A brothel in a small, closely knit village of 20 families is quite a different matter from a brothel in a city of 10 million people. For that reason, the decision to legalise or not must be left to the lowest level of government. In India’s context, this means that it may be a matter for the panchayati raj system. States already have the ability to impose prohibition, that another impractical measure. Empowering communities to make their own decisions on matters affecting them most may be a good way to go.
Drugs are quite another story. Amsterdam’s coffeeshops sell soft-drugs to anyone who is above the legal age. Hard drugs remain illegal. The need to make this distinction shows that the question of legalising drugs is tricky. While it can be argued that while consenting adults engage in prostitution on their own free will, this becomes harder to justify in the case of drugs. While prostitution is local, the drug industry is not. China, for example, is only too aware of how opium played a major role in undermining its society and weakening its power. This genie is best kept in the bottle for now.
(On the other hand, putting rum in hot chocolate is a perfectly safe, legitimate and legal activity. But Srijith prefers a cappucino)
Especially in India, this is not a decision to be made at the lower levels. India is a land of diversity, but there are certain common threads that hold us together. And the sacred concept of the “Bharatiya Nari” is central to Indian culture and tradition. And as differently as different regions in India may seem in their cultural and social evolution, the high, albeit often unreasonable and contradictory, standards that is expected of women is a common thread connecting all of us. And to delegate the decision making of whether or not to legalise prostitution to local communities trivalises the matter. Would you let each state decide on your freedom of speech? Arguably the two are not of equal importance, but in a land where our mythologies extol Sita’s trial by fire and her subsequent abandonement just to ratify public opinion even though she comes out of the fire unscathed, the issue of whether it is “legal” to name a price for a woman’s chastity or virtuosity should be given its due importance.
And from a more practical perspective, if each local community has its own legal framework regarding prostitution, and given free movement across states, we can expect prostitution to be concentrated in the more liberal communities. Not a very desirable scenario, especially for people who live there. And do you really want to brand whole panchayats or districts or states as ‘red’, which is what the more conservative ones among us might do.
The central goverment may not be in a position to ‘support’ prostitution like they do in Amsterdam, with a defined red light area that is well policed and safe. They could leave it to the local authorities to build the necessary infrastructure, but the decision, IMHO, will be better made at the highest centers of our democracy.
Hope u had a good time in Amsterdam =)
I’m not sure if I’d like such a misogynistic common thread. I do not think the concept of Bharatiya Nari is sacred, because if it were, why would it be necessary for words like eve-teasing, dowry-deaths and female infanticide to be India’s contributions to the contemporary English language?
On the point about practicality — you are right; prostitution will begin to concentrate in pockets of liberalism. If the locals there decide they don’t like it, they can always change it. Decentralising the decision-making is a self correcting mechanism.
Finally, there’s something contradictory in your argument: that while it is quite okay for the central government to decide on your freedoms, it is not okay for the state governments to do so. Quite a lot of faith you have in India’s Members of Parliament!
I think what ultimately needs to be done is what’s in the best interests of the sex workers themselves, which would best be found out by consulting the grassroots organizations that build community among sex workers. Of course, if Indian politics works anything like American politics, that’s unlikely to happen.
I support local decisionmaking on principle, so your analysis was appealing to me. However, I think you overlook the national/international labor dimension to it, particularly in the form of trafficking.
Incidentally, Nicholas Kristoff’s articles in the New York Times on Cambodian prostitution are worth looking at.