Immoral Traffic Prevention Act

Subject – Governance

Context – Detention of HIV+sex worker upheld

Concept –

A Mumbai court recently upheld a magistrate court order to detain a sex worker for two years as she was HIV-positive, and setting her free was likely to “pose danger to the society”.
On August 20, the lower court directed the detention of the woman for two years under the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act.
The court directed the detention of the victim as she was found to be infected with HIV, observing that there was a possibility that the woman will transmit the virus through sexual intercourse

Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, 1956

The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act or ITPA is a 1986 amendment of legislation passed in 1956 as a result of the signing by India of the United Nations’ declaration in 1950 in New York on the suppression of trafficking – International Convention for the Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of others.
The act, then called the All India Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act (SITA), was amended to the current law. The laws were intended as a means of limiting and eventually abolishing prostitution in India by gradually criminalising various aspects of sex work.
The act states the illegality of prostitution and the punishment for owning any such related establishment
Any person involved in any phase of the chain activities like recruiting, transporting, transferring, harbouring, or receiving of people for the purpose of prostitution is also liable to be punished
If a person is found guilty of involving a child in any such activity, he/she is punishable by law and may be imprisoned for seven or more years.