CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE IMMORAL TRAFFIC (PREVENTION) ACT, 1986
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Abstract
Prostitution has been regarded as one of the oldest profession in the world. If we look into Indian mythology and scriptures we can understand that at that time also, prostitutes exist and the society accepts them and there is no stigma attached to this work. With the passage of time, the work which has earlier been seen as a profession turns into the forced exploitation of young girls and the society started looking the prostitutes and sex work particularly as evil to the society. The Constitution of India prohibits trafficking in human beings and forced labour and also being a party to the international convention related to the exploitation of prostitutes, India came up with the legislation that deals with the prostitution. The particular legislation i.e., Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act, 1956 amended various times and in the year 1986 its name has been changed to Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1986 (ITPA). The ITPA did not per se prohibits the prostitution in the country but only curbs its open manifestation. So far as Act is concerned, many times, many academicians, as well as social activists, put up the demand that the Act needs to be repealed as the Act used to exploit the prostitutes by the various authorities. The Act gives a wide range of power to Magistrate and Police which they can use to exploit the prostitutes any time they want. So far as rehabilitation of the prostitutes is concerned, the Act seems to be inadequate as still, it follows the earlier detaining method of rehabilitation. The Act, indeed of looking prostitutes as victims of trafficking, criminalizes various activities of prostitutes which are very common for any person when he/she is engaged in the sex work. Therefore, the paper is an attempt to look into the Act critically and pointed out the lacunas that are present in the Act. The author also put forward various suggestions that are based on the various judgements given by the Supreme Court of India.
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