You can depend on Renuka Chowdhury to pick up catfights with all men in general and with male colleagues in particular.
Amendment to the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act is being reconsidered
NEW DELHI: You can depend on Renuka Chowdhury to pick up catfights with all men in general and with male colleagues in particular.
The argument she had with science and technology minister Kapil Sibal over the proposed amendment to the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act at last week’s cabinet meeting was so heated that the matter had to be referred to a group of ministers for “re-examination.”
The amendment, besides enhancing the punishment to those involved in trafficking of women, makes the client of a sex worker a criminal. Under the present law, while the women in the trade are punished for “seduction”, the men and all others involved virtually go scot-free. The amendment seeks to ensure the opposite. Portraying sex workers as “victims” instead of “offenders”, the amendment awards a jail term of up to seven years to the customers.
During the discussion on the proposed amendment, when Sibal expressed his reservations over punishing men for visiting a brothel, Chowdhury lost her cool.
While the tiff between Sibal and Chowdhury went on and on, health minister Anbumani Ramadoss and sports minister Mani Provoked further, Chowdhury kept vociferously arguing that the move is an attempt “to prevent the harassment of innocent girls who are forced into the flesh trade by traffickers.” Chowdhury asked: “If we don’t punish men, whom do we punish?”
Her proposed amendment seeks the removal of Section 8 (“seducing or soliciting for the purpose of prostitution”) under which sex workers are booked by the police. The penalty under this section is imprisonment between two to five years while the customers are let off. If the amendment is approved, sex workers will not be asked to vacate the property they reside in as they are told to do now.
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