The Supreme Court of India has voiced doubts about the panel's conclusion that sex workers should not be arrested, fined, or harassed because voluntary sex work is "not crime," whereas only maintaining a brothel is illegal.
"Whenever there is a raid on any brothel, as voluntary sex work is not illegal and only running the brothel is prohibited, the sex workers concerned should not be jailed, penalized, harassed, or victimized," according to the Supreme Court-appointed panel.
"Needless to say, this basic protection of human decency and dignity extends to sex workers and their children, who, bearing the brunt of social stigma attached to their work, are pushed to the margins of society, deprived of their right to live with dignity and opportunities to provide the same to their children," the Supreme Court said in response to the Centre's reservations.
The top court further observed, “It goes without saying that, regardless of occupation, everyone in India has a right to a dignified existence under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution,” Indian media NDTV reports.
After conducting a detailed discussion with all the concerned stakeholders, the Panel submitted a comprehensive report on the terms of reference.
The panel has recommended various guidelines including sex workers being entitled to equal protection of the law and when it is clear that the sex worker is an adult and is participating with consent, the police must refrain from interfering or taking any criminal action.
Also when a sex worker makes a complaint of criminal/sexual/any other type of offence, the police must take it seriously and act in accordance with the law.
The panel has recommended that the Central government and the state governments must involve the sex workers or their representatives in all decision-making processes, including planning, designing and implementing any policy or programme for the sex workers or formulating any change in the laws relating to sex work.
However, the Centre has expressed certain reservations in respect of these recommendations.
