FORCED PROSTITUTION IN RAJASTHAN WOMEN UNDER PRESSURE
Introduction:
Girls are being forced into prostitution in Rajasthan, mainly in the places of Bhilwara, Bharatpur, Sawai Madhopur and with highway sides being the most common locations.
Rajasthan became source and a destination for the trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation and prostitution, the National Commission for Women (NCW) said in a report submitted by a two member fact-finding committee.
Girls are sold into prostitution on stamp paper i.e., conflicts over loan repayments were purportedly resolved by auctioning off young women on stamp papers. Sometimes their mothers are also sold and even they were raped as a compensation for their debts.
Special Investigation Team was situated to enquire matter further. This article includes that how prostitution is violating the Human Rights of women and how prostitution is becoming obstacle to women in Rajasthan.
Does Prostitution Violates Human Rights?
Prostitution- Prostitution is a female performing sexual intercourse with a male, not her husband, in exchange for money. Prostitution is a sex work performed by females. American Heritage dictionary defines prostitution as “The act or practice of engaging in sex acts for hire”.
At the end of second World War, the United Nations states parties adopted two key texts: the charter of the United Nations, signed in San Francisco on 26 June 1945, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948.
These two founding texts of the international human rights corpus establish a fundamental principle: respect for and protection of the dignity and worth of the human person. Prostitution is seen as unethical in general.
The United Nations also see prostitution as unethical and it says that making people torture and giving cruel treatment violates human rights. Until people are treated equally with respect, Universal Human Rights cannot be achieved.
The United Nations Convention for the suppression of the traffic in persons and the Exploitation of the prostitution of others (1949) of 2 December 1949 adopted by its general assembly states says in its preamble that “prostitution and the accompanying evil of the traffic in persons for the purpose of prostitution are incompatible with the dignity and worthy of the human persons.
Prostitution is indeed incompatible with article 3 and 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But Amnesty International argues that prostitution is a lawful expression of the right to work and freedom from non-discrimination guaranteed in international human rights law, and must be liberalised and protected as such. Instead, United Nations argues that it is a form of exploitation which violates the right to dignity of women, among others; hence it is rightly prohibited and criminalised in most jurisdictions.
Forced Prostitution in Rajasthan:
“WOMEN ARE SOCIALLY VILIFIED AS “SELLERS” OF ILLICIT SEX, BUT MEN ARE NOT VILIFIED AS THE “BUYERS””.
There are enough evidences that girls being forced to prostitution in Rajasthan which violates their human rights such as right to work. Prostitution is against human dignity and human rights.
Universal Human Rights can be achieved if every person is given respect and dignity. Each person in this world has right to life, liberty and security of person and no one has right to torture someone or right to be cruel towards other person.
In Rajasthan, girls are being forced to prostitution and they were treated cruelly by others and they don’t even get a minimum respect as a human being. Even if prostitution is considered as moral and if it is considered as one’s choice to do anything but in Rajasthan it is being forced.
If girls are choosing prostitution as their work, it is valid under right to work but in case of Rajasthan, girls are not given choice, instead they are tortured to enter into prostitution sphere. The National Commission for Women (NCW) took DNA samples to identify relationship between people.
Police also failed to protect young girls in Rajasthan. During inspection, many girls were found under one roof who don’t know that to whom they are belonged to, which means they don’t know the relationship with each other.
The situation of girls in Rajasthan is very cruel and they were in very extreme position of torture. Generally, no girl wants to become a sex worker but because of some financial issues or other issues they will enter into prostitution and becomes sex slaves.
It may be considered correct under freedom of right to choose their work but forced prostitution will not be considered correct. Although Brothel related practices still remain illegal in India.
Conclusion:
Girls in India are already under discrimination in many sectors. In that prostitutes are discriminated more. Prostitutes are not given respect and their work is seen as cheap. They were not even considered as human beings by others.
If girls are forced to become prostitutes then we can imagine how they are treated by others. They are becoming prostitutes without their consent. They were not even given protection by police.
If girls are in problem, they consult higher authorities like police for protection but if police not helping them then how can they get justice. In this discriminated world, we already know the condition of women but the condition of this forced prostitutes is more cruel which we can’t imagine.
References:
1. http://www.cap
international.org/wp content/uploads/2016/11/ProstitutionUnderIntlHumanRightsLawEN.pdf 2. https://www.researchgate.net/
3. https://www.jstor.org/
4. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/ncw-says-girls-being-forced-into-prostitution in numerous-districts-of-rajasthan/article66153949.ece
5. https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/jaipur/young-girls-being-forced-into-prostitution in numerous-districts-of-rajasthan-ncw-8276730/
6. https://theprint.in/india/enough-evidence-of-girls-being-forced-into-prostitution-in rajasth
