It's not about sex, it's about rights

Sex workers in Sri Lanka face a constant risk of abuse. This is not news. Nor is it news that they are an extremely marginalized group of people, frequently forced to live outside the law. But when a group of them get together to fight for their rights, it becomes a sit-up-and-take-note kind of news byte, not so much because human rights of the sex workers is something that has been accepted and dismissed with cavalier disregard, but because this is the first time they are standing up for their rights as an organised entity and demanding a life free of social injustice and victimisation.

Sex workers protest

The group, comprising commercial sex workers, transgenders and other individuals marginalized because of their trade, identify themselves as the Centre for Sex Workers' Rights (CSWR). Their aim is to form a trade union to fight for their rights as human beings, but for now, they are demanding that the Vagrants Ordinance be repealed.

Attorney-at-law Thushara N. Daskon, representing the group, explains why sex workers are demanding for the Vagrants Ordinance to be abolished. "It's outmoded. The conditions are too old to apply to the current context and the Ordinance need to be looked at all over again," he says.

Dias Abeysekara

Thushara N Daskon

Senaka Perera

Sakuni Mayadunna

The Vagrants Ordinance enacted in 1841, one of the oldest Ordinances introduced by the colonial rulers, deems punishable "Every common prostitute wandering in the public street or highway, or in any place of public resort and behaving in a riotous or indecent manner."

The CSWR hopes to continuously pressure the Legislature to make the changes as soon as possible to protect the human rights of the sex workers and ensure their safety and dignity.

When booked under the Vagrants Ordinance, sex workers more often than not, accept the charges levelled against them, pay the fines as mentioned in the law and go back to the streets.

Daskon pointed out that the difference between prostitution and sex work is a thin line and that both are done as a service to customers in return for a fee. He also pointed out that though the Ordinance mentions men and women equally, as it uses the term 'persons', in most cases only female sex workers are arrested.

Police harassment

Police harassment of sex workers he says, puts a greater burden on the lives of men and women forced into the trade, mostly because of a lack of alternative employment or a social security network.

"There are many instances when these human beings face unending humiliation and intimidation from society as well as from the law enforcement agencies. Even if these people or their progenies, want to seek other forms of employment and education they are unable to do so and repeatedly get pushed back to the old system. And the cycle needs to stop," Daskon elaborates.

"If the government takes action to decriminalise the trade or validate it in some manner it will save lives and put an end to the underground criminal gangs who run brothels," he added

Attorney at Law Senaka Perera, who provides legal advice to the CSWR, says as a marginalised group, commercial sex workers are merely asking for better social standards and to safeguard them from harm and violation of their human rights.

Abuse and humiliation

Individually all members of the CSWR have had their rights being trampled upon all too frequently and subjected to abuse and humiliation on a regular basis. Co-president of the CSWR, identified only as 'Kulsum' says it is the only trade from which she was able to earn a sufficient living to feed her three children. "My children are married and living happy lives and I do not want to destroy that," she explained.

Now, Kulsum(53) says she was forced to become a sex worker by her husband and after sometime left her and the children. "Since then this has become the only trade I was able to earn a living from. Even if I tried to do something else, no one wanted to give me a chance," she pointed out.

Kulsum has been in the commercial sex worker trade since her late teens and together with another sex worker who identifies herself as Maheswari, runs a spa in a main suburb.

According to the two women, the majority of female sex workers are hoodwinked by men and dumped at brothels after being sexually used by them. All too frequently these men appear as boyfriends or job agents showing compassion to gullible teenage girls from poverty -stricken families, they explain.

Better future

"Our children cannot get birth certificates or get admitted to government schools even if the mother is willing to give the children a better future. In the end our children face the same tragedy we faced," they say, adding, "But we do not want to see that happen." Representing the transgenders, Sakuni Mayadunna says questions over their right to self identification has become a great problem.

"Though our desire is to be recognised in a sex we like to be in, society is not accepting and our identities are questioned," she points out, adding that as human beings the transgenders expect to live a violent free life in their own country in a way they are comfortable with.

According to Police Spokesperson, ASP Ruwan Gunasekara, under the Vagrants Ordinance running a brothel is an unlawful act. "But there are certain clauses which states indecent behaviour in public by not only prostitutes but even beggars can be arrested," he explains.

When questioned about police conduct after the arrest of sex workers, ASP Gunasekara said that the persons are charged under the Ordinance and produced before Courts. "If arrested during the day, a Woman Constable will be present. And in the night, the police station has a matron - an elderly woman to look after these women. And they are compulsorily kept in separate cells," he further said.

He added that when a brothel is raided and if there is evidence of human trafficking the penalty is tough. "Then the case will be heard at the High Court," he said highlighting a recent case where the police found clear evidence of human trafficking following a raid on a brothel in a famous shopping complex in Colombo, where underage girls were forcefully kept.

The Human and Nature Resource Development Foundation in Galle, is a member organisation of the Centre for Sex Workers' Rights, in a study done in 2010 revealed that in Anuradhapura, Batticaloa, Nuwara Eliya and Colombo there are approximately 45,000 sex workers. "In the Galle Dstrict alonethere are about 1200 sex workers," said Dias Abeysekara, head of the Foundation, which is funded by INGOs and carry out welfare and health programs to protect the marginalized community.

In many instances, desperation and the need to provide for children would drive divorced or widowed women to the easy option of prostitution. This being the main reason, thousands of war widows who suddenly became breadwinners without education or employable skills are vulnerable to fall into the sex worker category. If their lives are to be turned around, these women must be equipped with education and skills. Subjecting them to the trauma of abuse and humiliation through arrest, production before a judge and fining them and releasing them is not a solution.

Reported by Dhaneshi Yatawara