Code. The Penal Code guarantees protection of female children from sexual abuse, with any persons found having sexual intercourse with a girl of under 14 years (with or without consent) charged with rape. The Child Law, enacted in 1993, raised the age of consensual sex to 16 and made prostitution of children illegal. It is an offence to knowingly allow a girl younger than sixteen years of age under one's guardianship to engage in prostitution. There is no obvious corresponding offence for boys. The Child Law also makes it a punishable offence to use children in the creation of pornographic materials. Sex workers are often placed in detention centres prior to being charged. Work, such as sewing clothes, is compulsory in the compulsory. Some are subsequently released without charge. In 2013, MP Daw Sandar Min called for prostitution to be decriminalised but this was rejected by the government. Currently (2018), the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement are working on amendments to the law in order to protect sex workers. History Konbaung dynasty Prostitution was banned in 1785, during the reign of King Bodawpaya in the early Konbaung dynasty period. When King Mindon Min founded Mandalay in the 1850s, a separate administrative quarter for prostitutes was included. British rule From the British occupation until 1937, Burma was part of colonial India. The British sought to regulate prostitution as a matter of accepting a necessary evil. The Cantonment Acts regulated and structured prostitution in the British military bases. The structuring features of the Cantonment Acts provided for about twelve to fifteen Indian women for each regiment of British soldiers. Each regiment contained about a thousand soldiers. These women were kept in brothels called chaklas. They were licensed by military officials and were allowed to consort with soldiers only. Most of the women came from poor families and had no other opportunities for social or economic independence. The structural inequalities that pushed women into prostitution were often enforced by the colonial governments. Furthermore, the Cantonment Act of 1864 provided for the establishment and extension of hospitals in cantonments. Women working in chaklas were often required to undergo medical examinations once a week, in order to examine them for traces of venereal diseases. Prostitutes were often confined against their wills in these prison hospitals, especially if they were found to have a venereal disease. The Cantonment Act of 1864, originally meant for