Immoral Traffic Prevention Act
- October 17, 2021
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
No Comments
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.