Insights on legality, rights, and duties in India
Despite landmark legal protections, transgender sex workers continue to face violence, stigma and systemic exclusion. As recent legal changes raise fresh concerns over gender recognition, activists warn that rights mean little without dignity, access and real inclusion.
In India, transgender sex workers comprise 15% of the sex workers’ populace, yet they remain an understudied and underserved group in the commercial sex sector. This group is most exploited and harassed in the sex trade. Transgender sex workers face violence, sexual assault Sex workers in India face inhumane treatment
That sex work is work seems to have been established through the Supreme Court ruling in the Budhadev Karmaskar v. State of West Bengal case. On the basis of the judgment in the case, it can now safely be argued that adult consensual sex workers are entitled to dignity and
Economic pressures, structural inequality, family circumstances, coercion, social exclusion, and personal agency are some of the factors cited as reasons globally for women entering into sex work. The Indian context The same holds true in India, as articulated in a study titled “Circumstances, experiences and processes surrounding women's
Sadly, human trafficking continues to be a pervasive form of exploitation in India and across the world. It feeds off social issues such as poverty, urban-rural divide, gender inequality and disproportionately impacts women, children, and migrant workers. While thousands of cases of trafficking are recorded annually by the National
The recognition of sex work as a 'profession' entitled to the right to dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution Through a decision in 2022 that has come to be regarded as a landmark, the Supreme Court significantly advanced the case for the constitutional recognition of sex workers
What the law says, its historical development, the sector's numbers, and the types of sex work that exist. It may come as a surprise to many, but “selling sex for a consideration” has not been called out as a criminal offence in India. The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act
