If u look around and read or see the repeated headlines of "sex racket " busted or "bar girls caught" and footages of girls hiding their faces in their dupattas at police station flash across your tv screens...You might have a sense of deja vu. This scene is played over day in and day out with alarming regularity. One thing that actually hits me is how come the customers of these girls are never caught? Yes there might be a display of few "taporis" as customers but all of us kno its a face wash. We cringe in our "middle class" homes about loss of moral standards and how the country is going to dogs in this issue...! We are all right..in a way it is but I differ from the point of perspective.
How do we stop this hapenning day in day out..how do we stop Prostitution?More important should we legalise Prostitution!!
To look at answers we should answer a few basic questions:
1. What constitutes prostitution?
2. What drives the demand and supply chain?
3. What is the moral aspect of this and why does this come into view?
4. What is the social impact of this trade and why is it harmfull?
5. What can be done to curb this so called "menace"?
1. What constitutes Prostitution?
Regarded as the world's oldest trade Prostitutions means trading of sexual favours for financial or other gains. We take it as involving both men women and children. However there are few kinks in this argument. Does a wife who slleps with her husband everyday in trade of love and affection and yes financial security constitute a prostitute? Does a girl having sex with a boy on a campus in return for companionship constitute a prostitute?Does an employee who returns sexual favors to his/her boss constitute one? As we see there is no definite answer. Ethically and financially most actvities rather sexual activities would constitute "prostitution" ...! Hence I don not see the logical argument of singling out a brothel or a street hooker only as prostitution. We all sell our talents , power, Position and emotions to some degree ..do we constitute the Prostitution business?
2. What drives the demand and supply chain?
Why and what drives a man/women to approach a "sex worker". I see it differently for men and women. Men primarily would approach sex as a tension reliever. The more the work/personal pressure the more is the need to relax and wat better way than sex. It is also biologically proven that the high level of testesterone that drives a man in his achievements also is in a way responsible for the high sex drive . And men suffer from the "rooster syndrome " where the novelty of sex is enhanced by sex with different partners. There is nothing right or wrong ethically in this. Its a biological phenomenon which has been given a total ethical angle by society. Thus one finds the prevalance of sex more in a high tension city like a metro where the work prseeures are immensely high and anonymity is reassured. If this need of sex is not met by commercial sex workers the man either resorts to violent outbursts or "grabs" at any available "meat".
Women approach the need more subtely. Its more of a question of companionship and great sex which is lacking in their present relationships thatdrives them
3. What is the moral aspect of this and why does this come into view?
Sex and morality has been linked from time immemorial , because I think, sex is one of those things which makes one forget the logic of normal Living. Physiologically its nothing more than a pleasure inducing activity , howver like all pleasure seeking activities its selfish. It is an anathema to collective co-operation. Its a competative activity (in a way to get the best and sexiest mate..its another thing that a sexiness to an animal might mean longer cannines or furriest tails). While religion is a conservative activity which promotes collective thinking however mundane that may be. Thus at very core sex and religion are fundamentally at loggerheads. No wonder religion opposes the public availability of sex. For religion , prostitution is akin to selling drugs on the streets...and even more poisonous. Apart from the so called power games there is nothing factually or logically "immoral" about prostitution.
4. What is the social impact of this trade and why is it harmfull?
The social impact of Prostitution is less harmfull than the social impact of selling cigarettes. Thats because its a harmless service which if regulated and run properly will never be physiologically harmfull, unlike cigarettes. Secondly for men sex is a universal need. If they wont get it on the shelf they will forcefully get it. What a rich man can get for big money, a poor guy gets by raping. So in a way avalaibility of sex will cater to men/women seeking sex ..in a hygenic and legal way. Secondly the revenues that are to be earned from this trade is awesome. There are reports of a parallel "brothel" economy worth billions..Just imagine if that economy can be integrated with the mainstream. Plus the additional benefit of having a regulated trade whose strings are in the hands of law will lead to a drop in exploitation of women and children and also lead to a drop in AIDS cases. Further it has been shown that where there are legal ways of having pleasure the pleasure industry has seen a drop in crime rates.
5. What can be done to curb this so called "menace"?
The Social menace of prostitution is as bad or as good as the social menaces we tolerate ..smoking, drinking , discotheques, marriage and religion.....!! We tolerate them because we cant get around them. So we try out and legalise them to give it a structure and pattern. I suggest we do the same for prostitution and forgo our victorian concepts of MORALITY..!!!
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