Prostitution should be legalized: NGO

Prostitution should be legalized: NGO

JAKARTA (JP): Prostitution should be legalized to give sex
workers the same status as other employees in the country, an
activist said on Thursday.

Adi Sasongko, the head of Kusuma Buana non-governmental
organization, said if prostitution was legalized, sex workers
could be treated like other Indonesian citizens. They would have
to pay taxes and would have their rights protected by the
government.

Speaking at a seminar at the University of Indonesia on
discrimination against sex workers, Adi, who has counseled and
sponsored educational courses for prostitutes since 1993, said
the majority of the prostitutes he had worked with faced
discrimination and horrible experiences in their lives.

"Even if they're sex workers, they also have rights like any
other Indonesian."

"It was always a matter of survival for these women (to choose
such a profession). It was not their choice to become
prostitutes, " he said.

According to existing laws, prostitution is illegal. Some
provincial authorities have established so-called "rehabilitation
centers" in which prostitutes are given "official" approval to
work.

The seminar, organized by the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation
and the School of Women and Gender Studies at the University of
Indonesia, featured Edi Widodo from the City Social Agency,
Relabakti Karo Karo from the Ministry of Social Services, Topo
Susanto from the university's School of Law and Nur Azizah from
the Bandungwangi sex workers organization.

According to Adi, most sex workers entered the profession due
to economic problems and after experiencing traumatic events in
their lives, including being raped by a family member or being
married at an early age.

"In the case of early marriages, the women were usually
abandoned with children by their husbands," Adi said. "Where
should they go to earn a living?"

Another speaker at the seminar, Nur, an ex-prostitute, told
the audience of the problems faced by sex workers in the Kramat
Tunggak red-light district in North Jakarta.

According to her, the institutions and agencies which should
provide aid for sex workers did nothing to help prostitutes.

"Officers from the City Social Agency never listen to our
problems," she said.

"I, for example, once tried working in someone's house as a
maid but was kicked out when my employer discovered I was a
former prostitute. When I told the officials about my experience,
they did nothing to help me," Nur said.

She said she was not alone in receiving such poor treatment
from the community.

Some former prostitutes attempted to open beauty salons or
become street vendors. However, she said, when the community
found out they were former sex workers, people refused to
patronize them.

"Even in health matters, the nurses regularly take blood from
us just like they were taking blood from goats," Nur said.

"They never explain to us why the blood has to be taken or why
they have to examine us," she said.

She also said doctors treated sex workers unfairly.

"Doctors around Kramat Tunggak always charge us three times
more than their other patients," she said.

Police officers are no better, Nur said.

"We have to pay so much money for what the police call a
protection fee," she said.

For these reasons, Adi hopes the government will be willing to
legalize the status of sex workers.

"Many parties, including the police, the military, pimps, and
so on, abuse prostitutes physically and emotionally due to their
illegal status under existing laws," Adi said. (ylt)