Legal Implications of Sex Tourism

Abstract

Topics related to the sex industry including prostitution, sex tourism, pornography, etc. rarely find expressions in civilized people’s debates but instances related to such activities are constantly increasing at a rapid speed across the world including India. Sex tourism means tourism to commit sexual activities. It is a travel or tour to any certain locale to engage in sexual commercial relations. The sex tourism industry is prevalent in almost every country but mostly is popular in those developing countries having low travel costs. Globally, the industry has grown to be a thriving market, fiscally benefitting the host countries. Annually, India is visited by more than 2.4 million tourists but, in recent times, sex tourism has emerged as one of the fastest developing industries in India. Sex tourism is flourishing as a new profit-generating enterprise and is largely contributing to India’s economy. India has emerged as a hub of sex tourism attracting sex tourists from wealthy countries. In India, the law about sex tourism is quite vague and ambiguous. Therefore, it becomes essential not only to discuss such topics but to comprehensively analyze their positive and negative implications in society. This paper not only focuses on the sex tourism industry in the county but also emphasizes some of the major issues associated with the industry – the problem of child sex tourism-commercial exploitation of children-child sex abuse. In addition to that this paper also seeks to determine whether or not sex tourism or rather prostitution or like activities are legal in India.

Keywords: Sex Tourism, Child Sex, Prostitution, India