Due to the societal stigma surrounding their work, sex workers in India and around the world often face a lot of discrimination while they try to live their own lives with dignity. They suffer from a lack of basic healthcare facilities, physical and mental violence, and poor working conditions among many other problems. The security of sex workers is rarely talked about because no one really wants to engage in conversations pertaining to the workings of prostitution. It is therefore important to bring out their voices as equal citizens of our country.
On May 7th, 2022, the Supreme Court of India finally recognized sex work as a profession therefore legalizing voluntary sex work (Ananthakrishnan, 2022). The court stated that police are not allowed to arrest, harass or victimize sex workers while raiding brothels and that all sex workers are entitled to live with dignity and equal protection under the law (Jain, 2022) It is important to establish the difference between sex trafficking victims who suffer under forced prostitution and voluntary sex workers in India. The former are protected under the “Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act 1956 and the latter are protected after the 2022 verdict.
But are they really protected? Does providing security also cause insecurity among these people? To answer these questions I will be analyzing the issue through multiple theoretical lenses.
To start off my theoretical analysis I will be establishing sex work within the broader context of Securitization as proposed by Ole Waever focusing on his conception of speech act. This act states that an issue is deemed worthy of security when the security actor engages in the verbal act of speech. Waever works with the process of broadening and deepening security. This includes security actors and the referent objects. Security actors decide what is considered threatened and the referent objects are the ones facing the threat while having a legitimate claim to survival. In this context, The Supreme Court of India takes the role of the security actor providing security to the sex workers who then become the referent objects.
However, due to the current state of unresolved court cases regarding sex workers exploitations and the loopholes within the legal system, there is a need to problematize this speech act proposed by Waever. I do this with the help of Lene Hansen’s view on security. She puts forth the concept of Security as Silence as a critique of the speech act. This is relevant in situations where subject of security cannot speak up about their security concerns or can only do so to a limited extent.
Many sex workers wish to keep their identities confidential because of societal stigma and discrimination. Along with this they also face threats because of the criminalization of associated acts such as managing a brothel or soliciting in public spaces. For example, in Section 3 of the 1956 Act, says that anyone caught operating or managing a brothel would face punishment. According to the law, a brothel was defined as a place "for the mutual gain of two or more prostitutes." This meant that even if prostitutes shared a house together, there were false assumptions that the place was a brothel (Sharma, 2022). This made it difficult for sex workers to live a normal life. They are denied basis shelter they are not even given the opportunity to speak for themselves and therefore silenced.
Moving on, another important dimension that complicates the security of sex workers is the concept of biopolitics proposed by Michel Foucault. This shows how the state exercises power over its population. In the context of sex work, we witness the biopolitics “power over Life”. Biopolitics is the combination of disciplinary power which allows the state to discipline its population and governmentality which allows regulation the population.
During the HIV/AIDS epidemic, sex workers bodies were marked as diseased, and they were put under increased surveillance. They were alienated and often disciplined by the police and legal systems. To control the spread of AIDS the govt. organised public health programs that created awareness among the sex workers and monitored their behaviour (Lakkimsetti, 2014). They lack privacy, shelter, healthcare facilities and are constantly violated by authority and society. The existence of sex workers is reduced to bare life, and they become exceptions set apart from the rest.
As we wrap up our examination of the theoretical viewpoints concerning the struggles of sex workers, let's consider the PARIS Approach to (In)securitization for a deeper understanding. This approach moves beyond the boundaries of different disciplines and instead focuses on the “lived experiences of people affected by the practices of those who claim they can decide what is security, insecurity, and fate” (Bigo & McCluskey, 2018). In this case it is the government of India who oversees the security of sex workers. This puts them at higher risks of (in)security while they try to go about their daily life. This can be explained through the use of surveillance technology by the Indian govt. as a means to gain control over the data and bodies of sex workers along with other minority citizens.
Due to the digitalization of payments all over India, sex workers now have to rely on UPI methods to get their payments. In 2017, the govt. made it compulsory to link digital wallets to Aadhaar. Aadhaar is meant to provide security, in the sense that it gives state benefits, and subsidies. But it also leads to insecurity among the Trans people engaging in sex work as is it mandatory to reveal your gender while registering for Aadhaar. Owing to the minimum job opportunities many Trans people in India engage in sex work, therefore they fear that the state can now target them through this data and expose their identities as sex workers (Kovacs, 2020).
The lives of sex workers are under constant threat even after laws being passed to protect them. The theoretical lenses of Securitization, Security as Silence, and Biopolitics shed light on the complexities surrounding the security of sex workers. While the state plays a role in providing security to sex workers, it also exercises power over their lives through biopolitical mechanisms, subjecting them to surveillance and control. The PARIS Approach to (In)securitization on the other hand illustrates the two-fold nature of security. Therefore, it's important to support actions that help sex workers stand up for their rights and dignity, have access to essential services, and ensure that they are protected from discrimination and exploitation.
References
Ananthakrishnan, G. (May 28, 2022). Supreme Court directions on sex workers: history of the case, and where it stands now. The Indian Express. https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/sc-directions-on-sex-workers-history-of-the-case-and-where-it-stands-now-7940364/
Bigo, D & Cluskey, E. (2018). What is a PARIS Approach to (In)securitisation? Political Anthropological Research for International Sociology. Oxford Handbook
Foucault, M. (1954-1984). Power: the essential works of Michel Foucault. Penguin UK, 2019 (Selection: "Governmentality").
Gupta, S. (July 21, 2022). India’s Supreme Court rules to protect sex workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Open Global Rights. https://www.openglobalrights.org/india-supreme-court-rules-to-protect-sex-workers-amid-covid-pandemic/
Hansen, L. (20000. ‘The Little Mermaid’s Silent Security Dilemma and the Absence of Gender in the Copenhagen School’. Millennium 29 (2): 285–306.
Jain, A. (June 08, 2022). Supreme Court order on sex work historic, but execution will be the real hurdle. The Print. https://theprint.in/campus-voice/supreme-court-order-on-sex-work-historic-but-execution-will-be-the-real-hurdle/988049/
Kovacs, A. (June 06, 2020). India’s surveillance technology is policing the data and bodies of its most vulnerable citizens. The Scroll. https://scroll.in/article/963693/indias-surveillance-technology-is-policing-the-data-and-bodies-of-its-most-vulnerable-citizens
Lakkimsetti, C. (2014). “HIV Is Our Friend”: Prostitution, Biopower, and the State in Postcolonial India. Signs, 40(1), 201–226. https://doi.org/10.1086/676898
Sharma, A. (December 21, 2022). Sex Work in India: A Bird’s Eye View. Spontaneous Order. https://spontaneousorder.in/sex-work-in-india-a-birds-eye-view/
Wæver, Ole. (1995). “Securitization and Desecuritization.” In On Security, edited by Ronnie Lipschutz. New York: Columbia University Press.
Thank you for bringing attention to such an important and often overlooked issue. I'm curious about the existing support systems or initiatives in place to address these specific challenges faced by transgender sex workers in India. Are there any advocacy groups or organizations working to protect the privacy and rights of transgender individuals engaged in sex work within the context of digitalization and data security?
Compelling choice of case study and nuanced analysis of the plight of sex workers in India using the theoretical frameworks. Great read Amrutha! It’s a unique approach to put the Supreme Court in the shoes of the Security Actor rather than the State. However, I wonder how the tables might have turned if one had to conceptualize this by making the state the security actor who sees the sex workers as a threat to the larger public (as you mentioned through PARIS lens). Do you think that would have rendered you a stronger counter to the Securitization framework while analyzing it using Hansen Lene’s security as silence concept?
This is a very insightful blog! In the lives of sex workers, your analysis negotiates the complex junction of legal recognition, societal stigma, and official control. It makes one consider the contradictory nature of security for underprivileged groups, as protective measures taken by the state frequently increase vulnerability and surveillance.