Handbook for
Sex Workers

A written complaint registered by police when someone reports a crime for the first time. You can go to the police station and file one to make them take action; a zero FIR can be filed even outside the local jurisdiction.

Taking someone into custody legally by police or another official, usually with an arrest warrant unless it's an emergency.

Being kept at a police station or elsewhere by officials. Police cannot detain someone more than 24 hours without presenting them before a magistrate.

Bail is release from custody while awaiting a hearing. For non-bailable offences, this isn't automatic — a judge's permission is needed.

A legal paper from a court giving police permission to arrest someone or search a place. Police should have one before entering a home, barring emergencies.

The area a police station or court has power over. A station outside the relevant area can still register a "zero FIR" and forward it.

A person said to have committed a crime — legally presumed innocent until proven guilty at trial.

Police questioning. You have a constitutional right to stay silent and not be forced to testify against yourself — get a lawyer before answering anything.

A written record police must make when arresting someone — time, place and reason — signed by the arrested person and a witness.

A check-up to record injuries. Every arrested person can request one, and is entitled to one every 48 hours in custody.

Abuse of someone while in police custody. This is illegal regardless of the alleged offence.

Broad, often loosely-applied charges — for disturbance or lewd conduct in public — that are sometimes misused against sex workers.

A "notified area" is one the government has declared prostitution-free — sex work there can be punished. "Soliciting" means asking for paid sex, usually in public, and is often broadly interpreted.

Legally, any place with more than one sex worker is considered a brothel — maintaining one (not sex work itself) is the offence.

Raid and rescue is police or NGO action removing sex workers from their workplace, often against their will. Protective/rehabilitation homes are where they may be sent afterward — courts have held that consenting adults should not be forced to stay.

Removing laws that make sex work itself a crime — a key long-term demand of the sex workers' movement, distinct from legalisation or regulation.

Saying "yes" freely, without pressure or coercion — central to distinguishing voluntary sex work from trafficking under Indian law.

Exploitation is being used by others for profit without real choice. Redressal is getting justice or help afterward — filing an FIR is one form of redressal.

Training people — like police officers — to treat sex workers and other vulnerable groups with dignity and understanding, to help prevent abuse.

Government health programmes (originally for HIV prevention) that also help sex workers access identity documents like Aadhaar via a verified proforma certificate.