Sex work is now a legal profession in India!

Sex work is no more a crime as per the Supreme Court of India. In its Wednesday observations, the apex court stated that sex work is a profession.

If sex workers are doing consensual sex with their clients, there is no case for the police to interfere, the SC said. The order has brought “dignity and equal protection under the law” to prostitution, activists and legal experts have said. 

It goes without saying that the protection is available only to an adult sex worker. Minors are covered by the CrPC sections that deal with rape and sexual harassment. 

The court’s observations are path-breaking. “Every individual in India has the right to a dignified life under Article 21 of the Constitution,” the order says. Owing to the new and broad reading of Article 21, the media has been barred from publishing the pictures of sex workers who get caught (for whatever reason) during a raid on a brothel or something. 

Commenting on the verdict, Twitter user Bhuman Shatreywat wrote, “This is good, decisions like this gradually shift the government’s status from a parent(or god) to the population towards being a benevolent friend. Activists working against trafficking have been demanding a separation of consensual vs forced sex work (trafficking and slavery).”