The Supreme Court on Friday virtually rang the alarm bell to the authorities on the menace of “prostitution” taking in its grip young girls from well-to-do families, including those getting education even at the university level, driven with the desire of high lifestyle and sex trade attaining “transgender” proportion.
Describing the problem of trafficking of women and children for sex trade, rescuing and rehabilitating them a “very big and complex problem”, the top court said “We find girls form very good families, even at the university level education, entering the profession driven with desire of high lifestyle.”
“If they join it (prostitution) voluntarily what you have for them. It is a very complex problem... let us have the satisfaction that we are doing something concrete (to tackle the menace). Why should it not be taken state wise,” a bench of Justices Altamas Kabir and Gyan Sudha Misra said.
The top court made the observation while hearing a case related to the plight of some sex workers from Kolkata, converted into public interest litigation.
“It is a transgender problem not confined to girls alone. It is a very very big problem, it is the problem starting with the beginning of the civilisation,” the apex court said while asking a special committee appointed by it to recommend the measures on rescue and rehabilitation, to involve the National Legal Service Authority and Delhi Legal Service Authority for providing legal help to the sex workers in the national capital region. The committee, headed by advocate Pradeep Ghosh and assisted by amicus curiae Jauant Bhushan, had earlier filed four reports recommending various measures for the welfare of sex workers, preventing the trafficking of women for prostitution, rescuing and rehabilitating them.