Prostitution in Goa..

Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. People who execute such activities are called Prostitutes. Goa has become a main target for prostitution in the recent years. The history of prostitution in Goa dates back to the late 16th and 17th centuries when Goa was a Portuguese colony. There was a community of Japanese slaves, who were usually young Japanese women and girls brought or captured as sexual slaves by Portuguese traders and their South Asian crewmembers from Japan.
REASONS FOR WOMEN GETTING INTO PROSTITUTION

• A woman is molested in the past and this is become acceptable in her life.
• Receiving less love and attention from families.
• Woman who earns poor income feel that prostitution is an easier and quicker way to get money for a better standard of living.
• Some women among the backward masses are forced into prostitution by peer groups, families, husbands and kidnapping is also a cause.
• For a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction.
• Failure in marriage and abandoned family life.
• Having acquaintances with a pimp or brothel, or women living as guest houses, hostels easily get carried away in this trade.
• No proper sex education
• The rise in number of child prostitution is because girls are given false promises of marriage, jobs and are sold to other states. Also as children want to adopt newer ways of luxurious life and their pocket money doesn’t permit them to do so. They choose prostitution as a means.

Prostitution in Goa began came to rise due to the prostitution racket in Baina, Vasco. The women here were mainly from Karnataka, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Kerala and many more states of India. The place was divided into slums or “gallis” known as Andhra galli, Karnataka galli, Kerala galli and so on. After tearing down of Baina’s red light area in 2004 prostitutes were promised rehabilitation but the Government failed to keep up to their promise. It is like “old wine in a new bottle”. The business is the same but the girls are now better educated and pimps are using latest technology to operate and attract high paying clients. From then, prostitutes spread all over the state of Goa. They are almost in all the cities in the North and South of Goa carrying out the trade on a full swing in Lodges, Hotels, Massage Parlours, Cyber Cafe’s, Call Centres, Fishing Trawlers, Shacks, Highways, Slums, Residential Areas, Interior Hidden Places, Clubs, Beaches, Hostels, Paying Guest Homes and many more places. Taxi drivers, Motorcycle Pilots, Waiters, Chai boys, Beach Hawkers are contact points.
WHY GOA AS A TARGET FOR PROSTITUTION?

• Increasing number of events and festivals.
• Tourism on the rise
• Easy to bribe cops.
• No strict laws and regulations
• Politicians support for votes
• Increase in need for migrant labour as means for employment.

TYPES OF PROSTITUTION PHENOMENON IN GOA

• Brothel based prostitution: Baina & Margao
• Street based prostitution: Vasco, Margao, Colva, Panjim, Calangute, Anjuna
• Hotel based prostitution: All over Goa
• Vehicle based prostitution: North & South Goa- Tourist belt and crowded market areas

Traffickers are the people involved to get sex workers in Goa and the trafficked people are the victims.

• Brothel keepers previously operating in Baina
• Few pilots (Two wheeler taxi) and taxi owners
• Few hotels and lodges in the tourist areas and on the highways – Karwar, Mollem & Sawantwadi.

Mostly in Goa the target of action is not the traffickers but the trafficked victims. Most of the offences booked are against trafficked victims and not against the traffickers. Trafficked victims are arrested but no customer, pimp, transport agent, lodge owner; hotel owner, taxi owner, etc are arrested, though the law is very clear that those who commercialize prostitution and those who benefit from the earning from prostitution are committing an offence.
SOUTH GOA PROSTITUTION REGISTERED CASES
The police have registered a few cases. But a majority escaped from the hands of the police. Prostitution in South Goa is mainly in Margao, Vasco, Canacona, Curchorem, Curtorim, Colva, Benaulim, Sanguem, Ponda and the coastal belt. There are many prostitutes loitering around in search for bait. The police identify them through the obscene hand gestures, vulgar body acts and facial expressions made by them. The prostitute women caught were mostly from districts of Rajmandhi and Vishakapatanam in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and sadly a few from Goa as well. They mainly are from the age group of 35-50. But child and teen prostitutes are preferred due to their virginity and less risk of transmition of AIDS and Sexually transmitted diseases. The customers are men from other states who migrate to Goa as migrant labourers and other backward men. They are from the age group of 20-60. Goans are also involved in as customers but mainly act as traffickers or brothels for earning by means of sex trade. Goan women get into prostitution mainly due to poor standard of living.
The female prostitutes including Goans earning higher incomes are usually found in massage parlours, beach side shacks, cyber cafe’s, beauty parlours, hotels in Goa. They use cars as means of obtaining customers and shelter in luxury hotels for their business. These are less caught by the police. Tourist prostitutes are also found in the same category and are found mostly on beach areas, shacks, hotels situated on the coastal belt.
Some of the examples of traffickers in the coastal belt:

• Brothel in Benaulim carrying out sex trade and customers are mostly locals of South Goa. Almost 7-8 dogs are kept outside as means of protection.
• Almost all the shacks and shops on the Colva Beach are major traffickers and agents for sex trade. Even the taxi drivers and motorcycle pilots are involved in this racket. 49’ers is a major prostitution spot in Colva.

2008: 8 cases

1. Navelim case happened in a closed house in Fradilem
2. Old market- 3 cases
3. Gandhi market- 4 cases

19 people were arrested in this year among the registered cases of which 6 were male customers and 13 were females involved in the case.
2009: 10 cases

1. Hotel Goa Land, near the flyover, Margao- 3cases
2. Hotel Tandoor, Margao- 2 cases
3. Near flyover over Bridge, Margao
4. Near Hari Mandir, Margao
5. Karishma Hotel, Margao- 2 cases

18 accused were arrested in this year among the registered cases of which 6 were male customers and 12 were females involved. 4 females were rescued by the police and sent to the NGO named Positive People.
2010: 11 cases

1. Shezer Hotel, Khareband, Margao- 6 cases
2. Hotel Goa Land, Near flyover, Margao- 4 cases
3. Hotel Karishma, Margao

2011: 3 cases till date

1. Shezer Hotel, Khareband, Margao

LAW

Section 3- The Suppression of Prostitution Act
Section 4- “Prostitution” means sexual intercourse, or any other act, or the commission of any other act in order to gratify the sexual desire of another person in a promiscuous manner in return for earning or any other benefit, irrespective of whether the person who accepts the act and the person who commits the act are of the same sex or not.
Section 5- Any person who, for the purpose of prostitution, solicits, induces, introduces herself or himself to, follows or importunes a person in a street, public place or any other place, which is committed openly and shamelessly or causes nuisance to the public, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one thousand.
Section 6- Any person who associates with another person in a prostitution establishment for the purpose of prostitution of oneself or another person shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month or to a fine not exceeding one thousand or to both. If the offence under paragraph one is committed on account of compulsion or under an influence which cannot be avoided or resisted, the offender is not guilty.
Section 7- Any person who advertises or agrees to advertise, induces or introduces by means of documents or printed matters, or by any means makes known to the public in a manner apparently indicative of importunity or solicitation for the prostitution of oneself or another person shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of six months to two years or to a fine of ten thousand to forty thousand or to both.
Section 8- Any person who, in order to gratify the sexual desire of oneself or another person, has sexual intercourse with or acts otherwise against a person over fifteen but not over eighteen years of age in a prostitution establishment, with or without his or her consent, shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of one to three years and to a fine of twenty thousand to sixty thousand. If the offence under paragraph one is committed against a child not over fifteen years of age, the offender shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of two to six years and to a fine of forty thousand to one hundred twenty thousand. If the act under paragraph one is committed against one’s own spouse, and not to gratify the sexual desire of another person, the offender is not guilty.
POLICE ACTION
The Goa Police doesn’t take any strict action against prostitution in Goa. Incase of the women/victim they are just warned and asked to pay some fines. And if they are found on continuous basis, they are sent to the NGO i.e. Positive people for rehabilitation. In case of male customers they are arrested. A chargesheet is filed against them and they are kept in the lock up. And if they are found on continuous basis they are put in the Aguada Jail. And if he is found with a minor, the punishment exceeds even upto life imprisonment.
If any brothel or hotel still continues even after warnings they are closed down and their license is cancelled. 2 hotels in Margao are closed down.
They conduct frequent raids mostly in Gandhi Market area and near the flyover.
PROCEDURE FOR CONDUCTING RAIDS
The police have spies known as Peer Educators who act as prostitutes for them. They are given responsibility of certain areas. If they find any  suspicious behaviour or if they come across any prostitution case happening they inform the police. These spies even give details such as location or brothel in which the business is carried out. These prostitutes then come to the victims along with the police in civil clothes to the areas and raids are conducted. Initially, the lower level in the Police department had n o authority to conduct raids. But now they are allowed to do so.
NGO IN ACTION
Positive People is an NGO which presently functions in collaboration with the Margao Police. It started operations in the year 1992 as a media to pass on awareness about HIV AIDS and conduct counselling to the public. Since 2005, the Goa State Aids Control Society has given them the responsibility to conduct awareness programmes among the prostitutes and counsel them to lead a better life. They are expected to take care of certain areas in South Goa.
They mainly provide awareness about HIV AIDS and STD’s to the prostitutes and supply condoms as a means for protection. They do this in a manner of field trips, i.e. they visit all the areas take them for ELISA test to Hospicio Hospital and educated them. They get help from the police and Peer Educators to find the victims. If required, they get the victim to the NGO to counsel them. They cannot stop prostitution as it is an individual choice. But they help to make it safer preventing the risk of Aids. Presently they have 21 Aids patients.
Taluka wise distribution of HIV cases detected in Goa since the Baina incident are as follows:

Taluka	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Tiswadi	166	161	111	113	122	104	68
Bardez	150	127	133	149	133	140	117
Pernem	20	12	33	24	16	14	10
Bicholim	26	29	35	35	25	30	17
Satari	7	17	9	12	12	19	16
Ponda	48	62	55	48	55	41	34
Salcete	195	198	175	183	172	154	106
Mormugao	182	192	183	148	154	149	153
Sanguem	12	36	15	26	12	30	23
Quepem	23	23	14	39	21	22	23
Canacona	17	20	22	29	23	11	27
Non Goans	110	152	155	223	209	187	175
Total	956	1029	940	1029	954	901	769

Some victims choose to lead a better life but as they are already known as prostitutes they are pin pointed wherever they go. So, they get back to their business. Some victims choose a better life and approach them for help. They are now working elsewhere and are quite happy about it.
The main areas focussed by the NGO

• Canacona- Palolem Beach, Chaudi Market, Market Area, Bus Stand
• Curchorem- Garden Area, Bus Stand, Market Area
• Quepem- Tilamol
• Margao- Gandhi Market, Flyover, KTC, Municipal Garden, Colva Circle, New Market, Railway Station.

Activities carried out by Positive People:

• They have regular meetings known as Support Group Meetings in which victims express their problems and are helped by the NGO.
• They have DIC (Drop In Centre) wherein the NGO organises a programme for them at the NGO wherein they have various competitions like Dance, singing, mehendi, celebrate birthdays etc..
• Organising HealthCamps
• Celebrating World AIDS day & Women’s day

SOME OF THE POLITICIANS INVOLVEMENT IN PROSTITUTION
Dayanand Narvekar 
As far back as in 1989, a young woman claimed that Dayanand Narvekar had attempted to molest her in his chamber in the Adil Shah Palace when he was speaker. Though a police case was filed and Dayanand Narvekar was forced to resign his position as speaker of the then Legislative Assembly, the case never was charge-sheeted. Narvekar did not have as much luck with the charge of molesting and looting cricket fans during the one day match held in the Fatorda stadium in 2001. The case is still pending in the courts and Narvekar was dropped from the cabinet on the claim that since the case had been charge-sheeted, his continuance as finance minister in the cabinet of Digamber Kamat would not be ethical.
Babush Monserrate
Education Minister Babush Monserrate is said to be running a call girl racket from a building opposite Dhempe College of Arts and Science in Miramar, using a cybercafé as a contact point. The rumours were that the call girl racket was being operated by Babush Monserrate and that several other politicians had been patronising the prostitution den. Presumably, because very important people or their sons were involved and the political compulsions of running a coalition government, the police were instructed not to follow up the case. There have always been rumours about the voracious sexual appetite in Taleigao. There were persistent rumours that the flats in the Kamat complex opposite the Dhempe college which were supposed to be the scene of the Miramar sex scandal, were owned by Babush Monserrate. The Hallmark franchise shop is owned by Babush Monserrate, where several women were pointed to be Babush’s passions of the moment and his son Rohit was also involved.