Bill amendment seeks to punish sex workers’ clients

A group of ministers recently approved an amendment to the Immoral Trafficking Act giving power to police to book clients of victims for sexual exploitation.

Updated on: Jun 3, 2008, 24:34:11 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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A visit to a brothel or a sex worker may land clients in jail.

A group of ministers headed by Home Minister Shivraj Patil recently approved an amendment to the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act giving power to police to book clients of victims for sexual exploitation. This would curb the demand for trafficked persons for sexual trade, a WCD ministry that has piloted the amendments, said.

The bill has been held up since 2006 when it was first introduced in Parliament because of strong objections from certain sex workers on the clause to book clients. Later, Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, who is also a lawyer, objected that this clause would not stand legal scrutiny.

The amendments, to be tabled before the Union Cabinet soon, say that the clients found to be exploiting sex workers can be jailed for up to three months and fined up to Rs 20,000 or both for first offence. For second or subsequent offences, the punishment has been increased to six months or fine of Rs 50,000 or both.

The biggest catch is in the new definition of trafficked persons and sexual exploitation. Almost all sex workers, except those from rich families, have been defined as trafficked persons in clause 5 A. Sexual exploitation means seeking sexual favour for consideration in cash or kind.

A WCD ministry said: "Even those who are pushed into prostitution because of economic (poverty) or social vulnerability or for religious reasons have been defined as victims of trafficking in the new definition".

GOM members Sibal and Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss had reservation over the new definition. They said certain parts of section 5 A, especially those referring to ‘abuse of power of position of vulnerability’, does not have sufficient legal clarity. The ministry officials said the definition has been framed as per the UN Convention against Transnational Crime to which India is a signatory.

Ramadoss had objected saying punishing the client would cause sex workers to go underground, which would affect the HIV/ AIDS programme. WCD Minister Renuka Chowdhury, however, said action against clients would curb prostitution, which would help the programme.

Brushing aside the objections, the GoM approved sections 5 A and 5 C as contained in the IITA Amendment Bill 2006.

Section 5 C is about punishment of clients who visit sex workers. The GoM felt that allowing amendments would curb flesh trade without imposing a ban.

WCD ministry officials said that the amendment bill would be soon circulated for Cabinet consideration and were confident that the bill will be introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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