When asked if she called the ministers “chauvinists”, Choudhury laughed it off. “There may be a difference of opinion, but we have to come to some conclusion. We are meeting soon and I hope that we finally set things right,” said the firebrand minister who had once created a sensation by driving a tractor into the Parliament complex.

Portraying prostitutes as “victims” instead of “offenders”, the proposed amendments will treat a client of a prostitute as a criminal, liable to a jail term of up to seven years. Under the present law, while women in the trade are punished for “seduction”, the clients go scot-free. The proposed amendment seeks the removal of Section 8 (“seducing or soliciting for the purpose of prostitution”) under which prostitutes are booked by the police.