'Sword or Shield': The Role of the Law in the Indian Sex Workers’ Movement

Interventions International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 15(4): 530-548 (2014)

28 Pages Posted: 23 Mar 2017

See all articles by Prabha Kotiswaran

Prabha Kotiswaran

King's College London - The Dickson Poon School of Law

Date Written: June 22, 2014

Abstract

In the contemporary neo-liberal moment, the judicial discourse of appellate Indian courts has sought to normalize the identity of sexual minorities such as bar dancers and the LGBT community. While the recognition of the rights of abject sexual groups is welcome, this article argues that the legal space for normalization is hardly equally available or even the same for all sexual minorities. Indian sex workers are a case in point. Although the Indian sex workers’ movement has engaged with the legal system for well over a decade now, it has only encountered legislative proposals for increased criminalization fostered by a global abolitionist movement against trafficking. In a bid to plot the trajectory of the movement’s engagement with the legal system, I elaborate on the familiar legislative and policy realms in which the ‘prostitution question’ plays out while also addressing the relatively unexplored arena of sex work-related litigation. While sex workers could be broadly understood to operate in ‘political society’ vis-à-vis the Indian state, I argue that viewing their legal mobilizational struggles through a social movement lens and over the life of a movement offers a more nuanced account of the varied registers on which their rights claims are based and their shifting strategies for using the venues of formal state law. This I suggest helps elaborate on the conditions under which the claims of abject sexual subjects to citizenship in neo-liberal India might be possible.

Suggested Citation

Kotiswaran, Prabha, 'Sword or Shield': The Role of the Law in the Indian Sex Workers’ Movement (June 22, 2014). Interventions International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 15(4): 530-548 (2014), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2939234 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2939234

Prabha Kotiswaran (Contact Author)

King's College London - The Dickson Poon School of Law ( email )

Somerset House East Wing
Strand
London, WC2R 2LS
United Kingdom

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
93
Abstract Views
1,602
Rank
502,806
PlumX Metrics