Prostitution in a Patriarchal Society-A Critical Review of the SIT Act

The Suppressionof Immoral Traffic Act, passed in 1956 and enforced in 1958, was not the outcome of an independent and sustained mass movement in the country, but rather the result of India being a signatory to the United Nations International Convention for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons passed in 1950. The SIT Act did not seek to abolish prostitutes or prostitution per se and hence the practice of prostitution individually, independently and voluntarily by a women did not constitute an offence. However, certain sections of the Act conceived of the prostitute as an offender and criminalised the prostitute.