India sex workers demand rights

[benburch]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4256412.stm

Sex workers from across India have pledged to intensify their campaign for legalisation of their profession.

They said the move, announced at a national convention in Calcutta, has become necessary following the closure of dance bars in Maharashtra.

Campaigners say that legal recognition is crucial for the future of the children of sex workers.

The National Network of Sex Workers says that it will organise a protest march to the Indian parliament.

<SNIP>
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As you may know this is one of my BIG issues. The laws against sexwork only wind up victimizing the sexworker. The do not now and never have prevented sexwork. Even the Soviet Union, the most repressive major modern government, could not end it.

[goddess40]

1. You must have read "Disposable People"

if you haven't you should, it is about all kinds of slavery that exists in the world. It makes me sick to think how so many in the world live and they have no hope for the future.

[benburch]

2. Well, remember that sexwork is not slavery, it is labor.

When sexwork is coerced under conditions of slavery, it becomes slavery and rape - it is not longer a labor issue!

Labor assumes that a worker has the free will to leave the job and that the worker benefits in some financial or in-kind way from the effort expended.