ECONOMYNEXT – Media reports that Sri Lanka planned to ban women massaging men and vice versa at ayurvedic spas has been denied by the Commissioner of Ayurveda, who said he had been misquoted and that there were no such plans.
Ayurveda Commissioner Dr M D J Abeygunawardena told EconomyNext on Tuesday January 17 that a newspaper report had misquoted a remark by him that a female nurse must be present when a male doctor examines a female patient.
He had made no comment on banning women massaging men or vice versa, he insisted.
Over the last 10 years, urban centres around the island have been littered with ayurvedic spas that some claim operate as fronts for brothels. A large number of these establishments operate around the clock and are said to employ young women from all over the country who offer “additional services” post-massage.
Abeywardena said in order to regulate the spa industry, it must first be identified whether spas and massaging come under traditional medicine or western medicine. Only then can proper regulation be imposed, he said, adding that introducing regulation will be a long process.
In September 2022, former President Maithripala Sirisena said Sri Lanka’s currency crisis, which is still ongoing, was driving young girls into the sex trade.
Sex-work is widespread in Sri Lanka with stigma around the profession equally widespread. There have been calls to regulate the industry, but at the legality of sex work remains vague at present.
Street sex workers are usually arrested by police under provisions in the Vagrants Ordinance of 1841. This archaic law allows police to arrest without warrant ‘every common prostitute wandering in the public street or highway, or in any place of public resort, and behaving in a riotous or indecent manner’ with a punishment of 14 days imprisonment and/or fine. Section 9 of the Vagrants Ordinance, meanwhile, has made it a crime to live off the earnings of prostitution.
Another law that’s frequently used against sex workers is Section 360A of the Penal Code as Amended by Act No 22 of 1995 which criminalises ‘procuring or attempting to procure a male or female, of any age, with or without their consent from Sri Lanka or outside for prostitution, or as an inmate of a brothel.’
Additionally, the Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution Act 2005 defines trafficking as ‘moving, selling or buying of women and children for prostitution within and outside the country for monetary or other considerations with or without the consent of the person being subjected to trafficking.’
In a historic court decision, a Colombo Fort magistrate in February acquitted a woman arrested in a brothel on charges of prostitution, declaring that it was not considered an offence in Sri Lanka for a woman to earn a living through prostitution although it is an offence to operate a brothel. Though the unprecedented ruling was celebrated by activists everywhere, in the eyes of many ordinary Sri Lankans – including some workers themselves – sex work remains a crime. (Colombo/Jan18/2023)