Reva Nayyar
Secretary
Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD)
Ministry of Human Resource Development
Government of India
Room No. 601, 6th Floor, Shastri Bhavan, A wing
New Delhi

Re: Proposed amendments to the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, (ITPA), 1956

Dear Ms. Nayyar,

Thank you for giving us an opportunity yesterday morning to express some of our concerns regarding the proposed amendments to the ITPA. Following the headlines/front page story reported in today’s Hindustan Times (HT) titled "Sex workers get a break", we tried to contact you this morning and managed to get through only once. Thereafter, we spoke to Mr. R.K Ojha of the DWCD, who suggested that we write to you. The HT story claims that that sex workers and NGOs support the DWCD’s proposal to amend the ITPA. However, we would like to submit the following:

I. Lack of consultations with sex workers

According to you, the DWCD had put up the proposed amendments for comments and consultations for quite some time. Though we appreciate the fact that some consultations were held, the same have not been effective from the point of view of sex workers and organizations working on HIV/AIDS, some of which are signatories to this letter.

1. Though the proposed amendments have been posted on DWCD‘s website (http://wcd.nic.in) for some months, we would like to point out that these differ significantly from the amendments scheduled to be placed before the Cabinet, which, Mr. Anand Grover, Advocate and Project Director of the Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit, was allowed to see yesterday. In particular, the draft amendments on the website do not include any reference to criminalisation of clients of sex workers.
2. Ms. Tripti Tandon, of the Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit had spoken to Mr. Ojha over the phone after seeing an article reported in the Times of India dated 2nd October 2005 that indicated that the DWCD was considering provisions to punish clients of sex workers under the ITPA amendments. Mr. Ojha did not confirm the contents of the news report stating that the same were not based on any official statement from the Department.
3. We would like to point out that the text of the final amendments, which the DWCD is expected to place before the Cabinet for approval, have not been made available to the public. The question of consulting the community and inviting comments therefore does not arise.
4. It was not until yesterday afternoon when Mr. Ojha shared the proposed amendments at the request of Mr. Anand Grover that we learnt what the final amendments are.
5. Though Dr. Protim Ray, from Durbar Mahila Samanvay Committee (DMSC), a sex workers' collective based in Kolkata did attend a meeting organized by the DWCD in 1st September 2005 in New Delhi, he has informed us that the only issue discussed was the nature of trafficking in sex work and responses to counter the same including role of self regulatory bodies set up by sex workers in Sonagachi, Kolkata. Yesterday, Mr. Ojha refused to share the minutes of the said consultation with us, thereby creating a doubt over the nature of consultations held on the ITPA amendments
6. We fail to understand why the final amendments are not being uploaded on the DWCD website. Clearly, without access to the final text, sex workers and the public alike will remain in the dark about the nature of legal changes being introduced in sex work.

Clearly then, sex workers’ have not had an opportunity to examine and comment on the proposed ITPA amendments.

II. Sex workers do not support the proposed amendments, in their present form

At our meeting yesterday, you were of the view that sex workers should support the proposed amendments because two of the existing provisions that penalise sex workers, namely, Section 8 (punishment for soliciting) and Section 20 (removal of prostitute on orders of Magistrate) are being deleted. According to you, sex workers stand to gain significantly from the proposed amendments. This is what is reported in today’s HT story as well.

We, the undersigned, would have agreed with you, were it not for the fact that the present amendments propose to punish clients of sex workers under Section 5 C. Additionally, Sections 14, 15 and 16, that vest wide powers with the police to search, raid and supposedly ‘rescue’ sex workers are retained. Furthermore, the rank of police officers authorized to conduct raids and arrest is being lowered under Section 13 (2), which we fear will increase harassment that we face at the hands of the law enforcement officials.

In light of the above, members of the National Network of Sex Workers have come to a unanimous conclusion that we are not in favour of the proposed ITPA amendments as they stand.

We would like to have a meeting with you to share our points of view before the ITPA amendments are sent to the Cabinet for approval.

Thank you

National Network of Sex Workers
Durbar Mahila Samanvay Committee (DMSC), Kolkata
Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit
SANGRAM, Sangli
VAMP, Maharashtra & Karnataka
SANGAMA, Bangalore, Karnataka
WINS, Andhra Pradesh
Sex Workers Forum Kerala
Rainbow Planet
Godavari Mahila Sangha, Andhra Pradesh
CHANGES, Andhra Pradesh
VRMSS, Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh