Rakesh Wadhwa

Kathmandu:

Do you think that your body belongs to you and you should be allowed to do whatever you want to do with it? Unfortunately most people think that the answer is no.

If your answer is yes, you are in a minority. Saying yes means you agree that every adult should be free to smoke, drink, eat in excess, ingest drugs, practice homosexuality, commit suicide, visit prostitutes, or be a prostitute. In short, as long as you cause no harm to another, you may do what you want.

Of all the acts just mentioned, why is the most opprobrium attached to prostitution? Acts between consenting adults should be of no interest to third parties.

Why do busybodies try to protect us from ourselves? Why do they cause so much misery to women by setting the police onto prostitutes? If a woman has been forced into the sex trade,

it is right to rescue her, and to severely punish those who have used coercion and violence against her. But, I do not talk here of forcible induction of women into the flesh trade. A majority of ladies enter the profession voluntarily.

If it was only dire necessity which caused woman to sell their bodies, then, perhaps, there could be some justification for rescuing them and training them for something else. However, this is not so. You find women in the sex trade in every country. America, Australia, Netherlands, Britain, Singapore, and Hong Kong have a thriving sex industry.

Affluence does not wipe out prostitution, because, lets face it, many women just do not consider it wrong to sleep with men for money. Under such circumstance why should we listen to the interfering, nosy, self designated moral crusaders and ban prostitution?

Some women right’s organisations fiercely resist decriminalisation and call the activity, demeaning. Should that justify its prohibition? I can think of many other activities which some of us may consider humiliating and debasing. What about cleaning of toilets? Should that too be criminalised? Should the police put in jail men and women who lift the nightsoil, or scrub bathrooms?

A sex worker, Heather Smith, of the US in an appearance on a John Stossel TV programme aired by ‘ABC’ said, “It is legal for two men to go into a boxing ring and beat each other bloody for money, but it’s not legal for me to go in and give someone sexual pleasure for money. What kind of sense does that make?”

Stossel says “Not much. If adults want to rent their bodies to other adults, that should be their choice.”

In most of America, prostitution is plagued by violence and disease, and often run by thugs – because it’s illegal. In much of Nevada, the sex business is legal. The sky hasn’t fallen. In fact, Las Vegas keeps appearing on ‘best cities in the US to live in’ lists. The sex business in Nevada is relatively safe and clean.”

Stossel also interviewed, Peter McWilliams for his programme. Stossel called him a very special person, a modern day fighter for individual freedom. His car’s licence plate reads, CONSENT. McWilliams commented, ‘Its shameful what we are doing in name of morality. So you have to ask yourself not, is prostitution a good idea? You have to ask yourself, is prostitution worth putting people in prison for?’

Moreover, do the laws and the police change anything? Some women land in jail, but does that stop the activity? In Nepal, we have seen, as have people in America, that vice is a part of life. Sex workers may rotate in and out of jail but will go on with their profession, regardless. Fear of the law, in fact, makes it worse. Prostitution is driven underground and hence there is no way for customers buying sex to protect themselves against AIDS and other diseases.

Let us recognise and respect freedom and privacy of others. Let us stop peeping into bedrooms.

Let us recognise the pointlessness of legal action against the sex trade.

Let us bring it out in the open. Let us stop putting people in jail for it. Let us legalise it.

(The writer can be contacted at: everest@mos.com.np)