Three sex workers detained at a state corrective institution in Mumbai have been under order to be immediately released, with the middleman being arrested. The women were sent to the institution after being found during a raid at a Mumbai guest house.
After being arrested and sent to a correctional facility, the women’s legal guardians were denied custody by the magistrate’s court. However, the Indian court ruled that due to India’s Immoral Traffic Prevention Act of 1956, Indian law dictates prostitution is not a criminal offense.
Sweden and other western countries have revised their prostitution laws to make prostitution a criminal offense only for the middleman and the customer. However, Swedish law does not consider the prostitute themselves to committing a crime. This is based on the principle that the prostitute is a victim being exploited. Swedish law however does consider procuring and purchasing prostitutes to be crimes.
In Thailand Criminal Law, prostitution is a criminal offense per the updated Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act (1996), with both prostitutes and pimps liable to fines and imprisonment. Originally the law criminalizing prostitution was enacted in 1960 with the updated Prostitution Act has subsequently reduced the punishment for prostitutes and increased the punishment for middlemen. Regardless, prostitution still occurs often and openly in many parts of Thailand.
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