SC agrees to suggestion to replace ‘sex worker’ in its handbook: NGO

Panaji: A Goa-based anti-trafficking NGO on Saturday said that the Supreme Court has accepted their suggestion to replace the term “sex worker” in its handbook on gender stereotypes with “trafficked victim/survivor or woman engaged in commercial sexual activity or woman forced into commercial sexual exploitation”.

It came after a group of anti-trafficking NGOs from across the country wrote to chief justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, pointing out that using the word “sex worker” for words like “hooker and prostitute” — as preferred in the “Handbook on Combating Gender Stereotypes” published by the top court in August this year — may end up promoting another set of gender stereotypes.

Arun Pandey, an official from ARZ (Anyay Rahit Zindagi), Goa-based anti-trafficking NGO, said they received an email from Anurag Bhaskar, deputy registrar of the Supreme Court’s Centre for Research and Planning (CRP) on Friday evening, saying the CJI has accepted the change as suggested in the letter by NGOs.

“Based on your suggestion, the nomenclature/word ‘sex worker’ is being changed to the following: ‘Trafficked victim/survivor or woman engaged in commercial sexual activity or woman forced into commercial sexual exploitation’,” Pandey said, reading from the email to ARZ.

The email, Pandey added, mentioned that the change will be updated soon to the handbook.

Earlier, a group of NGOs under the banner of Anti-Human Trafficking Forum and comprising ARZ, Prayas from Mumbai, KIDS from Karnataka, and SPID from Delhi, among others, on August 28 wrote to CJI Chandrachud, requesting him to reconsider use of the term “sex worker” in the glossary of terms mentioned in the handbook.

“Most women are forced, kidnapped, lured, and trafficked into situations of commercial sexual exploitation. By using a generic term like sex worker, one may be assuming that all women engaged in commercial sexual activity may be in this out of free and positive choice,” the NGOs wrote to the CJI. “It negates the reality that most women enter the trade through force or fraud and many remain in it out of negative choice due to lack of better alternatives.”

It further said that under the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act, 1956, while women are free to engage in commercial sexual activity, anyone who forces or lures them into this activity shall be prosecuted including those living off their earnings. Section 2 (f) of the 1956 law defines “prostitution” as the sexual exploitation or abuse of persons for commercial purposes, and the expression “prostitute” is to be construed accordingly, the suggestions from the NGOs added.