Reform Watch is a video magazine program which aims to redress issues faced by marginalized communities through Constitutional Reform. Activist Dr Dayanath Ranatunga explained to the Reform Watch team how sex workers can be included in a new Constitution.

“Your honour – it was only today that I learnt that it was not I who owned my body but rather the government” – A Sri Lankan sex worker’s remarks to the magistrate court judge

Let’s start our story on sex work with the tale of a woman who we will call Soma. She comes from a wealthy family in Ratnapura. Soma falls in love as a young girl in the 1950s and gets pregnant. Suddenly, the man she falls in love with goes missing so she goes to Colombo in search of him. Although she does not find him, Dr Ranatunga says that what ends up finding her is sex work. Soon she is arrested by the police and brought in front of the Magistrate Court judge who asks her if she has anything to say. It is then that she says that she only learnt that her body belonged to the government and not her on that day.

Sadly, there are plenty of stories of women and girls falling prey to sex work and the sex trafficking industry in Sri Lanka in very similar ways. Some women arrive from abroad, but many are Sri Lankans from villages who arrive in cities believing in false promises they are made that they can work at a good job in the city or receive a good education. Others still enter the profession because they cannot pay the bills upon the death of a breadwinner or another crisis such as the microfinance trap. The end result is always the same – women being forced into a harsh and cruel industry with few benefits and many opportunities for exploitation. Many sex workers allege that even government and law enforcement officials obtain their services, but often turn around and attack them as well.

Does it always have to be so? Dr Ranatunga highlights the case of Cambodia. In Cambodia, when sex work used to be illegal the red-light district was filled with many unwitting women and girls from villages who had been trafficked there under false pretences. Many died of cirrhosis by age 40 or 50 because they were often made to drink alcohol. They had no rights so they had to work under very harsh conditions, says Dr Ranatunga. “The Cambodian government could not bear to see this so they legalized sex work,” he says, adding that this changed everything for the better. The sex workers were no longer trafficked, and if they were, they could complain to the police. They were offered the same traditional benefits as other jobs such as overtime pay, holidays and health benefits etc. Their health and overall welfare improved, says Dr Ranatunga, illustrating how legalizing and strictly regulating the sex work industry has many benefits. How can Sri Lanka improve? “What we bring into a Constitution is the stories of people and the Constitution is a way to solve these issues,” says Dr Ranatunga, who feels that a new Constitution must offer everyone equal protection and rights in the eyes of the law, which includes the rights of sex workers. The discriminatory provisions in the penal code need to be rewritten alongside reforming the Constitution and the industry needs to offer workers the same benefits as other industries would.