The Centre is considering a proposal to introduce licences for sex workers in the country, Union Minister of State for Human Resources Kanti Singh said on Tuesday.
Singh told reporters in Patna that the move is part of the measures contemplated by the government to bring sex workers into the social mainstream and improve their standard of living by giving them a formal status.
There are nearly two million sex workers in India, almost half a million of them living in subhuman conditions.
Technically, prostitution itself is not a crime in India, though soliciting for clients, advertising prostitution, living off the earnings of prostitutes, recruiting prostitutes, or trafficking in women are crimes.
There are many countries which have accorded legal sanction to prostitution, not only to bring it under the purview of rules, but to also play a more proactive part in enforcing safe sex for the benefit of both the prostitute and the client, and by extension the client's family.
Non-governmental organisations working with prostitutes strongly feel that licences will give the trade a formal status and help remove the stigma associated with it.