Report No. 64

6.10. Institution to which rescued women should be sent.-

Assuming, then, that an amendment extending the scope of section 15(4) and section 16 is to be made as above1, the connected question arises whether women to be covered by the extended provision should be sent to a protective home, or whether they should be sent to a corrective institution. We have considered this question carefully and are clearly of the view that such women whatever their age, being involuntary participants in prostitution, should be sent to protective Homes and not to corrective institutions.

Corrective institutions, in our scheme, are meant for women who voluntarily adopt a career of vice and have hardened in that career. At the same time we appreciate that an adult woman whose experience in a life of vice may be much more detestable than that of girls below the age of 21 years should, while in the protective home, be treated on a different footing from such girls and provision for their residence should be made in separate cells. This safeguard could be provided for by the rules to be made under the Act under section 23(2).

1. Para. 6.9, supra.