Budhadev Karmaskar v. State of West Bengal: Recognizing Sex Work as a Profession

Abstract

Workplaces and working conditions for sex workers vary widely. Sex workers might work in the sex industry full-time or part-time, and they can be employed or self-employed. Sex work can be formal since some sex workers are associated with a business in an employer-employee capacity. However, in countries where criminalizing sex work results in its exclusion from national employment laws, sex workers are left with no choice but to put up with frequently abusive working circumstances. However, a large portion of the sex industry operates informally, with sex workers working alone, in groups, or together with other sex workers. There are numerous working arrangements and business models in the unorganized sector as well. These sex workers, like many others employed in the informal sector, sometimes lack access to social safeguards and endure more unstable working conditions. The fight for decriminalization is strongly related to the fight for the recognition of sex work as a job. The notion that sex workers should be granted the civil, labor, and social protections that are a right for all workers, regardless of vocation, is at the heart of the call for decriminalization. Research on the real circumstances and conditions present in these markets, however, is still scarce. The significance of creating accurate comparisons between various sorts of sex work, participating in qualitative and quantitative methods to assess work quality, and ultimately going outside the sector.