Prostitution and the law: India
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Kaustubh Nandan Sinha, Legal Service India
The Devadasis are illegal
A Devadasi is a servant (dasi, feminine) of one or more deity (dev). Goddess Yellamma is the best-known of these deities. She is worshipped mainly in ten districts of north Karnataka, 14 districts of Andhra Pradesh and the adjacent districts of Maharashtra.
By the early 20th century—indeed, much before it—the Devadasi system had degraded into prostitution with a veneer of religious sanction. The Bombay Devadasi Protection Act, 1934, banned this practice. This law was followed by the Madras Devadasis (Prevention of Dedication) Act (later, the Tamil Nadu Devadasis (Prevention of Dedication) Act), the Bombay Protection (Extension) Act, 1957, and the Andhra Pradesh Devadasi (Prohibition of Dedication) Act, 1988. The Government of Karnataka declared the system illegal in 1982.
Is prostitution legal or illegal?
Lawyer Kaustubh Nandan Sinha writes: The Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act, 1956 ("ITPA"), the main statute dealing with sex work in India, does not criminalise prostitution or prostitutes per se, but mostly punishes acts by third parties facilitating prostitution like brothel keeping, living off earnings and procuring, even where sex work is not coerced.
Who can lodge a complaint under the Act?
It is not as if just anyone can lodge a complaint. Only specified persons can…
(7) No Court shall take cognizance of any offence punishable under this section except on the complaint of-
(a) the Chairman of the 2[ Paurashava, Zilla Board or Union Parishad] within the jurisdiction of which the premises are situated, made in pursuance of a resolution of the 3[ Paurashva, Zilla Board or Union Parishad] as the case may be; or
(b) three or more persons occupying separate premises or holdings and resident in the vicinity of the premises or holdings to which the complaint relates; or
(c) a representative of any society recognized by the Government in this behalf who has been authorized by the society to institute prosecutions under this section.
