The Delhi government has ended the discriminatory practice of segregating sex workers and brothel-keepers from other women prisoners in the Capital’s jails after a Supreme Court -appointed amicus curiae flagged the provision during an ongoing suo motu case on discrimination inside Indian prisons.
So far, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh are the only two states so far to implement the recommendation made by amicus curiae and senior advocate S Muralidhar, who was tasked by the Supreme Court with identifying discriminatory provisions in prison laws and jail manuals across states and ensuring their deletion or amendment. The move also follows the Supreme Court’s May 29 judgment in Prajwala v Union of India, which cautioned against treating prostitutes and sex workers as accused when they are, in many cases, victims of trafficking and exploitation who deserve rehabilitation rather than further stigma.
In his latest report, submitted to the court on July 30, Muralidhar said several prison manuals, including the Model Prison Manual, 2016, continue to mandate the segregation of prisoners described as “prostitutes”, “brothel-keepers” or “procuresses”.
The judgment recognised that a person prosecuted under the soliciting provisions of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956, may simultaneously be a victim of trafficking under the same law.
“These provisions appear to be based on assumptions about the influence such persons may have on other women prisoners and operate primarily as a means of furthering stigma,” the report said. Referring to the Prajwala ruling, the report noted that the Supreme Court had rejected the “false binary” that treats a person as either a victim or an offender.
