Prostitution in Singapore in itself is not illegal, but various prostitution-related activities are criminalized. This includes public solicitation, living on the earnings of a prostitute and maintaining a brothel. In practice, police unofficially tolerate and monitor a limited number of brothels. Prostitutes in such establishments are required to undergo periodic health checks and must carry a health card. The rapid economic development of Singapore in the late nineteenth century combined with the city's gender imbalance the male population greatly outnumbered the female [2] resulted in prostitution becoming a flourishing business and brothels a boom industry.
Prostitution was seen by the colonial authorities as a necessary evil [2] but a number of steps were taken to place restrictions on prostitution in the city. The registration of prostitutes and brothels was made compulsory in an attempt to prevent forced prostitution , and an Office to Protect Virtue was set up to help anyone unwillingly involved in prostitution.
A report described the misery and indecency of the prostitutes working in the red-light districts around Malay Street and Smith Street, and pressure was placed on the Colonial Office in Britain to further restrict licensed prostitution. Sir Arthur Young , governor-general of the Straits Settlements , considered prostitution indispensable for the colony's economy and labour supply [7] but the sale of women and girls into prostitution was banned in In the Consulate ordered the banishment of all Japanese prostitutes from Singapore, though some of the women remained as unlicensed prostitutes.
During the Japanese occupation of Singapore β45 , brothels were set up for the use of Japanese servicemen. There were about twenty such brothels in the city, typically housed in deserted Chinese mansions. In the s striptease acts took place at the city's getai shows, performed by specialist travelling dance troupes. The shows developed a sleazy image, partly as a result of stories about performers working as prostitutes.
During this decade the city's police organised operations to reduce prostitution and Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock sought out suggestions as to how prostitution could be limited. Women's rights activist Shirin Fozdar described Singapore as "one big brothel" [10] and the city was a regional centre for prostitution. The People's Action Party under the leadership by Lee Kuan Yew initially banned prostitution when they came to power in the late s, switching to a strategy of containment in the mid s.
