Prostitution is unlawful in India, under the law of the country. Some of such activities which include soliciting, procuring, keeping or operating a brothel, brokering, adult prostitution, selling and pimping are also unlawful. The criminal sexual activity act is an offense against women and is punishable with rigorous punishment. Prostitution also includes the menace of live-in-houses, pauperization, carnality, unnatural carnality, streetwalking, highway harassment, soliciting from and enticing, driving or hiring another person for sexual purposes, vagrancy, child prostitution and relationship prostitution.
Besides, any person who solicit any woman to come to a place for the purpose of prostitution, and any person who knowingly and procure any woman for the purpose of prostitution, is an offender and liable to imprisonment for life. Prostitution in India has taken many forms, names and shapes, with the most famous being the massage parlour, bharata mandal, ashok (market), ashwagandha (herbal), sonagachi (food stall), tawaif (agents or middlemen), panjabi girls, Delhi girls and khawa. There are many organizations, societies, associations, institutions and individuals who support the downtrodden women and support them in their cause of social advancement.
Some of them have been instrumental in stopping the prostitution in India. They have organized groups and cells and demanded stern laws against prostitution in the Indian society. They have been instrumental in putting across awareness among masses about this menace of prostitution in India. They have organized seminars and workshops on the subject and encouraged people to report cases of prostitution to the authorities. Prostitution in India can be defined as the hiring, managing, keeping or running of a brothel for the purpose of commercial sex trade.
There are many areas in and around Mumbai in and around the national capital of India in which prostitution is in great increase. The commercialization of this trade has led to problems like the spread of diseases and infection to those women working as prostitutes. This has led to increased deterioration in the conditions of life of these women working as prostitutes in the localities. These brothels and the madrasas that they are attached to have also resulted in spreading disease and infections to other women and the environment.
Prostitution in India is not only found in the working class areas of the country. Prostitution has also found its way into the middle classes. The commercialization of the lower castes in the cities has given rise to such cases of child prostitution in the city. Most of the child prostitutes in the cities of India are from the working class. The working class of the country is considered as low-caste group and this has given rise to prostitution in the low-caste strata of the society. Some of the states of the country such as Delhi, Mumbai, and Uttar Pradesh have more cases of child prostitution than any other state in the country.
The moral degradation and exploitation of the child prostitution case in the country are such that the government is very much concerned about it and is working hard to prevent the incidents of this nature from increasing in the states of the country. The laws that have been framed for the protection of children from exposure to the immoral traffic has led to increase in the awareness among the people working as cleaners and servants in the offices and the houses of the people.
In some of the cases, the people working as maids are found to be associated with the prostitution and this has also led to increase in the demand for these people and increased the number of pimps who prostitute girls. Pimps are those people who are found to be in charge of the children or the young girls and are involved in all types of immoral traffic. There is a great demand for these pimps and they can be easily found in the Delhi area. Many people have been arrested for the violation of the anti-prostitution act and many people have been charged with brothels and the involvement of the sex workers in the activity of trafficking.
One such famous brothel in the city of New Delhi is located at a distance of 15 miles from the capital. The main difference between the brothels in the major cities of India and in the kolkata is that the former does not permit the entry of foreign tourists who come to visit and can be arrested under the prostitution act for bringing in girls for the purpose of commercial intercourse from other countries. So the situation of brothels in the city of kolkata and the other cities of India are different.
