LELY NOVITASARI

WRITING III

THE EXISTANCE OF PROSTITUTION IN SURABAYA

Prostitution can be defined as the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in
return for payment. People who execute such activities are called prostitutes. Prostitution is one
of the branches of the sex industry. Nowadays, prostitution seems to be the hottest topic and
matter that have to be faced and handled seriously by the government and people especially in
the big city or town, such as Jakarta and Surabaya. I often read the issue and matter about several
prostitution places in Surabaya and how it becomes the most complicated thing for the people
and it has gained pro and contra from different society groups particularly in Surabaya and East
Java In general

Surabaya has become popular as the big town which has several great places of prostitution and
well known as the largest prostitution complex in Southeast Asia.. In fact, officials have tried just
about everything to reduce the number of sex workers strutting around the city. They have
arrested prostitutes for solicitation, sent them back to their hometowns and provided them with
job skills so they could earn a living without having to sell their bodies. There are two places
which become the most popular prostitution place in Surabaya, they are Dolly and Jarak

Dolly was apparently named by a brothel madam in the area, in colonial times. There are
estimated to be about 1600 prostitutes (PSK)) living and working in the legal red light district of
Dolly, in rather close proximity to ordinary residential neighborhoods, with their mosques,
houses, kindergartens, etc. almost all of the whores are 18 – 22 years old. They tend to be lack of
knowledge about the disease which is caused by their activities as a whore. Prostitution is
associated with the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) such as HIV: "One of the
main reasons for the rapid spread of HIV in Asian countries is the massive transmission among
sex workers and clients".As a result, prevention campaigns aimed at sex workers play a major
role in restricting the spread of HIV. Last month I read the news about it in one of the newspaper
in Surabaya that they held a campaign by Walking and giving a flower and condom to the people
around
Jarak is located beside Dolly. The name of this prostitution place is according the name of street.
The differences between Jarak and Dolly are the whore in Jarak most of them are about 25 – 35
years old, and the guests can offer the fixed price or make negotiation with them. As the second
big prostitution place in Surabaya, the government always tries to close this localization and give
the better solution for them to change their profession. But it is not easy, because it already
becomes legal and the policy that government takes may affects all of the aspect of life there,
such as the economic and social condition.

As the result, it needs a big role from the society and government about this issue. Even they
cannot close those localizations, at least they can give the guidance and giving the training to the
whore in order to get skill and change their profession to get the better job for their life. This also
can reduce the spreading of the disease such as HIV AIDA in Indonesia.