Paper short abstract:

Based on ethnographic research with women working in a red light area, my paper rethinks decriminalisation of sex work as anti-violence. This challenges the abolitionist framing of 'decrim' efforts as oppositional to ending violence against women in India.

Paper long abstract:

The pandemic witnessed negotiations between Indian grass roots sex workers' collectives and the state, where 'sex work is work' was used as a rallying cry to ensure sex workers' access to to state relief. However, these attempts were criticised by abolitionists who equate sex work with violence against women (VAW). Embedded in a radical feminist approach and couched in concerns about human trafficking, this approach decries decriminalisation efforts as oppositional to ending VAW. I draw on four months of ethnographic research with sex workers in an Indian red light area to challenge this, arguing, in turn, for a rethinking of decriminalisation as anti-violence in the lives of marginalised women in India. I highlight how the origin of criminalisation of sex work in and as colonial control of Indian women's sexuality continues to shape everyday violence against marginalised Indian women (including outside sex work) through control of her sexuality, autonomy, and participation in the informal labour market.

A detailed analysis of two ethnographic vignettes illuminates this through (i) a close examination of the impact of a brothel raid on the social relations of a brothel household within the red-light area, and (ii) an exploration of how everyday violence in sex workers' lives is affected by gendered violence outside the red-light area. Decriminalisation, in this context, allows us to imagine different possibilities , where state and familial power in the lives of the women is removed. Moving beyond 'sex work as work', 'decrim', therefore, is configured as an integral part of the toolkit to end VAW in India.