The focus of the discussion in this subtopic was on what participants thought of as 'sexual rights'. A few of the participants thought of sexuality and sexual rights more in the context of women and girls. Some thought that sexual rights are closely linked to factors such as 'poverty, unemployment, violence, sexually transmitted diseases and infections, population explosion, gender discrimination and sex pre-selection' etc. Participants largely felt that in order to achieve sexual rights, greater intervention would be needed not just from the sociological and economic points of view but also from cultural, religious, medical, legal and political perspectives as they are all inter-linked.

Sexual Abuse and Violence against Women

A few of the participants said that when they talked about sexual rights it was more often than not from the purview of sexual abuse and violence and that too mostly on women and girls. This hints at two things - one that the notion of sexual abuse and violence is still limited to that of women and girls and second that the concept of affirmative sexual rights is yet to fully develop in this region. A few of the participants related cases of sexual abuse of young girls who go from villages to live in cities in Sri Lanka. This is not limited to one country but could apply to several other countries in the region.

Another participant said that sometimes women in the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are traded for the sole purpose of procreating a male child and this brings us to question what reproductive rights these women have.

Participants seemed to find it easier to talk about sexual abuse and the reproductive rights of women, while the lines between reproductive and sexual rights seemed to remain unclear, indistinct and unstated.

One of the participants brought up the point that the notion of gender equality and empowerment is different in tribal societies where women are have more power than they do in urban societies. He talked about the 'gotul system' in tribal societies where men and women cohabit before marriage to find the best partner and it is often the woman who chooses her marital partner. He further added that although physical violence does occur on women in tribal societies too, it is mostly by men under the influence of alcohol and he felt this was 'natural' because men are physically stronger than women. Although this was not discussed in the forum, these are the very myths regarding violence against women that the women's rights movement has been trying to challenge for the last few decades - the myths that men are violent because they are physically stronger than women, or that men who use violence against women do it because of the influence of alcohol.

Sex Work: The Grey Area.

One of the participants shared that the greatest difficulty her friend, who is a sex worker, faces is how 'many of her male clients have a sense of "entitlement" over her, refusing to see her as a person providing sexual services, but as a body they had leased for a certain amount of time - and combined with the notion that they had a "right" to receive sexual pleasure'. The participant has suggested the use of the phrase 'right to seek sexual pleasure' instead of 'right to sexual pleasure' because the former does not pre-suppose that 'the sexual needs of everyone involved are satisfied'. Other participants strongly felt that 'pleasure has to be a mutual exchange between willing partners'.

Another felt that there should be no coercion involved and neither should there be any exchange of money for sex between the people involved. However, the latter idea assumes that pleasure does not form a part of any kind of transactional sexual relations.

The participant stated that although people who enter into sex work should not be condemned, but that 'casual use of prostitution or bachelor parties at strip clubs' should not be accepted. Further, according to this person, clients of sex workers should be condemned and punished and other economic alternatives should be made available to people who enter into sex work. The underlying message is that sex work per se is not acceptable as 'work'. Also, some people feel that most people in sex work are not doing it out of choice and have somehow been forced into it, while many of us do know from our engagement with the sex work movement that this may not be wholly true. As another participant pointed out, prosecution of clients could lead to other problems such as the clients being 'less willing to talk about the ill treatment of sex workers whether by other clients or by the employers or could create problems for the sex workers themselves for they would have to look for other working locations where the clients will not have the fear of being prosecuted'. One of the participants felt that 'all approaches to the issue of sex work are problematic within the context of patriarchal society'.

Participants were engaged in the discussions and continually challenged and questioned each others' viewpoints. While one participant talked about sexual pleasure between two persons, there were others who challenged the notion of why pleasure could not be derived by just one person or more than two. While one participant shared the idea of why sexual relations could not or should not involve the exchange of money, there was another participant who challenged the idea and brought up the concept of 'sexual surrogacy, which is increasingly being used to help people discover sexual pleasure and/or to provide sexual healing'. She pointed out that it could be a demanding job and that criminalising any kind of transactional sex could lead sexual surrogates to lose their jobs.

Sexual Right - An Entitlement?

While most of the participants felt that it was legitimate to claim sexual rights as a set of entitlements, there was one who felt that sex and the pleasure derived through sex is supposed to be a private matter between the people involved and making it an entitlement or a right, which can therefore be claimed in a court of law, could result in a situation where the privacy of people is violated and private matters are thrown into the public domain. The participant strongly felt that the privacy of individuals or groups should not be compromised for the sake of justice.

Participants agreed that education and awareness have a significant role to play in talking about sexuality and claiming sexual rights. One of the participants observed with irony that matters related to sexuality are always talked about secretly although it is something that most people engage in and derive pleasure from. She is hopeful though that with time this silence and secrecy around sexuality will be removed and a time will come when people will be comfortable talking about it.

Arpita Das (Moderator)
The South and Southeast Asia Resource Centre on Sexuality