Pornography in India

Pornography in India is restricted and illegal in all form including print media, electronic media, and digital media (OTT).[1] Hosting, displaying, uploading, modifying, publishing, transmitting, storing, updating or sharing pornography is illegal in India.[2][3]

A map showing pornography laws of Asia.
  Fully legal
  Partially legal, under some restrictions, or ambiguous status
  Illegal
  Data unavailable

In February 2021, Supreme Court of India said, OTT regulation a necessity as some even showing nudity, obscenity even porn too, because of the absence of any proper rules and regulation.[4][5]

In March 2023, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said that the government is serious about the complaint of increasing obscene content on OTT platforms and strict action will be taken to stop obscenity and Nudity.[6][7][8][9]

On 22 August 2023, Government of India assured that it will bring rules and regulation to check Vulgar and obscene content on social media and OTT platforms.[10][11][12]

Legality
  • The selling and distribution of pornographic material is illegal in India under section 292.[13]
  • The distribution, sale, or circulation of obscene materials and the selling of pornographic content to any person under age 20 years are illegal under section 293 and IT Act-67B.[14]
  • Child pornography is illegal and strictly prohibited across the country under section 67B of the Information Technology Act, 2000[15]
  • The manufacturing, publishing and distribution of pornography is illegal in India under section 292, 293.[16]
  • In 2022, the DOT has banned 63 Porn websites as per the IT Act (Amendment), 2021.[17][18][19]

Types of publication

Print

Studies have found that print media is less widely accessible than internet media in India. A randomized survey of 96 random vendors, such as video stores, mobile downloads/recharge stores and cybercafés, in Haryana, India found that 17% displayed pornography openly, 34% displayed it semi-openly, and 49% kept it hidden.[20] It is possible that cultural taboos[21] and legal issues (such as those described below) make it more desirable to view pornography in India through internet mediums, such as computers or smartphones, for more privacy.[22]

Internet
Sherlyn Chopra (left) and Poonam Pandey (right) are very active on adult platform OnlyFans.

Internet pornography has become very popular in India with from 30% up to 70% of total traffic from porn websites. It has become a major portion of traffic and source of data revenue for telecom companies.[23][22] A popular porn site released viewership data and national capital Delhi recorded up to 40% of all traffic.[24]

One self reporting survey found that 63% of youths in urban areas such as Haryana reported watching pornography, with 74% accessing it through their mobile phones.[20] As smartphone and internet access in India continues to increase, more people will be able to privately view pornography.[25] Quartz has found that 50% of Indian IP addresses accessed popular pornography websites on mobile phones. Online erotic comics have also become popular in India as the internet becomes more readily available to the common citizen.[26]

Judicial opinion

In July 2015 the Supreme Court of India refused to allow the blocking of pornographic websites and said that watching pornography indoors in the privacy of one's own home was not a crime.[27]

Again in 2015, DOT has banned 857 pornographic websites and lifted the ban again and has asked the ISPs to ban only such websites where there is child pornography.[28][29][30]

The Supreme Court of India, in Khoday Distilleries Ltd. and Ors. v. State of Karnataka and Ors. - (1995) 1 SCC 574, held that there is no fundamental right to carry on business of exhibiting and publishing pornographic or obscene films and literature.[31]

Kamlesh Vaswani vs. Union of India and ors in 2013 (diary 5917, 2013), a PIL petition was filed in the Supreme Court of India seeking a ban on pornography in India.[32] The Court issued a notice to the central government of India and sought its response. The government informed the Court that the Cyber Regulation Advisory Committee constituted under Section 88 of the IT Act, 2000 was assigned with a brief with regard to availability of pornography on the Internet and it was looking into the matter.[32]

On 26 January 2016, the Supreme Court in written order, instructed govt "to suggest the ways and means so that these activities are curbed. The innocent children cannot be made prey to these kind of painful situations, and a nation, by no means, can afford to carry any kind of experiment with its children in the name of liberty and freedom of expression. When we say nation, we mean each member of the collective".[33]

The Supreme court has said that it can't stop an adult from viewing pornography or sexually explicit material in private space citing Article 21[right to personal liberty] of the Indian constitution.[34]

Prajwala Letter dated 18.2.2015 VIDEOS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND RECOMMENDATIONS, a suo moto PIL was admitted in Supreme Court (Diary No.- 6818 - 2015). Prajwala NGO pleaded to court to stop rampant circulation of rape videos through mobile application WhatsApp. Supreme court has ordered CBI probe to find and arrest the culprits clearly visible in the rape videos.[35]

Socio-cultural attitudes

Many sex related topics, such as pornography, are considered taboo in traditional Indian households.[21] This trend seems to be rapidly changing, especially in urbanized cities. Researchers have found that the primary sex education of youth born in the 1990s onwards in India comes from pornography and conversations amongst their peers, which has been known to cause long term sexual anxiety and frustration in other cultures where youth learn sexual attitudes from pornography.[36] However, due to the internet and increased access for the common citizen, pornography has slowly entered the public discourse, most notably with the outrage towards a 2015 government order to censor 857 websites that contained explicit materials.[37]

Homosexual pornography

Homosexual pornography is not widely available in print, due to the socio-culture taboo surrounding both pornography and homosexuality (see LGBT culture in India). However, Indian IP addresses access both lesbian and gay porn using the internet, with a 213% increase in searches for gay porn from 2013 to 2014.[38] Additionally, the most popular search for pornography amongst females in India, centers on lesbian and gay pornography.

Violence

Important people in media have argued that censoring pornography would decrease rapes in India. There has not been a link between pornography being a significant factor in the rate of crime and violence in India.[39] On the contrary, in other countries, increased availability of porn has been correlated with lower rates of sexual violence.[40][41][42]

Sex work

Some studies have speculated that pornography influences sex work in India.[43][44][45] For instance, one study of 555 female sex workers found that 45% self-reported pornographic influence driving clientele desire for anal sex.[44] In another study, female sex workers reported being asked to perform new sexual acts such as anal sex, masturbation and different sex positions, requests that they believed were due to an increased exposure to pornography.[45] The implications of such work is currently unclear for public health policy in India.

See also

References
  1. "OTT platforms have freedom for creativity not obscenity: Anurag Thakur". India Today. Archived from the original on 28 May 2023. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  2. "IT Act Amendment 2021" (PDF).
  3. "Explained: Laws Related To Pornography In India". IndiaTimes. 15 September 2022. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  4. "OTT regulations a necessity as some even show porn, says SC". Hindustan Times. 5 March 2021. Archived from the original on 21 September 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  5. "'No teeth': SC wants stricter OTT rules". Hindustan Times. 6 March 2021. Archived from the original on 1 June 2023. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  6. "Live: Strict action will be taken against obscenity, abuse on OTT, says union minister Anurag Thakur". Hindustan Times. 19 March 2023. Archived from the original on 1 June 2023. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  7. "Explained: What Does India's Law Say About Nudity And Obscenity That Ranveer Singh Has Allegedly Violated". India.com. 27 July 2022. Archived from the original on 28 May 2023. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  8. "Should nudity be legalised in India?". Hindustan Times. 14 April 2005. Archived from the original on 28 May 2023. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  9. "Explained: Laws Related To Pornography In India". IndiaTimes. 15 September 2022. Archived from the original on 26 April 2023. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  10. "Centre To Bring Rules To Check Vulgar Content On Social Media And OTT Platforms". English Jagran. 22 August 2023. Retrieved 7 September 2023.
  11. "Centre To Bring Rules To Check Vulgar Content On Social Media, Streaming Platforms". NDTV.com. Retrieved 7 September 2023.
  12. Tripathi, Rituraj; Hindi, India TV (22 August 2023). "OTT प्लेटफॉर्म पर अश्लील कंटेट परोसने के मुद्दे पर केंद्र सरकार ने कह दी बड़ी बात". India TV Hindi (in Hindi). Retrieved 7 September 2023.
  13. "Section 292 in The Indian Penal Code". indiankanoon.org. Archived from the original on 18 April 2009. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  14. "Section 293 in The Indian Penal Code". indiankanoon.org. Archived from the original on 24 May 2020. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  15. "Central Government Act: Section 67 [B] in The Information Technology Act, 2000". Indian Kanoon. Archived from the original on 7 August 2015. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  16. Rajak, Brajesh (2011) [2011]. Pornography Laws: XXX Must not be Tolerated. In order to curb this Jio has blocked around 827 pornographic sites in Oct 2018 (Paperback ed.). Delhi: Universal Law Co. p. 61. ISBN 978-81-7534-999-5.
  17. "857 porn sites banned in India; Govt plans ombudsman for Net content". FE Tech Bytes. 27 December 2021. Archived from the original on 28 May 2023. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  18. "Here is the full list of 827 porn websites blocked by DoT". The Indian Express. 29 October 2018. Archived from the original on 29 October 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
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  20. Ravi Shankar, (2012). NU (DE) MEDIA: A PRELIMINARY STUDY INTO THE YOUNG PEOPLES' ACCESS TO PORNOGRAPHY THROUGH THE NEW MEDIA. Indian Streams Research Journal, Vol. II, Issue. IV, http://isrj.org/UploadedData/975.pdf
  21. Verma, R. K., & Mahendra, V. S. (2004). Construction of masculinity in India: A gender and sexual health perspective. Journal of Family Welfare, 50, 71–78.
  22. Raj, Sony J.; Menon, Devadas (December 2023). "Porn Tube sites: How do gratifications, interactivity and contextual age predict usage and addiction in India?". Science Talks. 8: 100272. doi:10.1016/j.sctalk.2023.100272. ISSN 2772-5693.
  23. Ghosh, Shauvik (4 August 2015). "Oops, Indian ISPs, telcos could lose 30-70% of data revenue because of porn ban". Archived from the original on 7 May 2017. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
  24. Mohammed, Syed (7 April 2016). "Indians love 'desi' porn, Delhi tops with 39% traffic - The Economic Times". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 1 November 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
  25. Shaik S, Rajkumar RP. Internet access and sexual offences against children: an analysis of crime bureau statistics from India. Open Journal of Psychiatry & Allied Sciences. 2015 Mar 8.
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  32. Mohit Singh (10 July 2015). "Kamlesh Vaswani v. Union of India & Ors. (Pornography ban matter)". 1, Law Street. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
  33. "Writ Petition(s)(Civil) No(s). 177/2013" (PDF). Supreme Court of India. 26 February 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 May 2018.
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  35. "Suo Motu W.P.(Crl.)No(s).3/2015" (PDF). Supreme Court of India. 27 February 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 November 2018.
  36. Abraham, L. (2001). Redrawing the Lakshman rekha: Gender differences and cultural constructions in youth sexuality in urban India. South Asia, 24, 133–156.
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  38. "Everything you wanted to know about how India watches porn in one map and five charts". 21 November 2014. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
  39. S.B. Math, B. Viswanath, A.S. Maroky, N.C. Kumar, A.V. Cherian, M.C. Nirmala. Sexual crime in India: is it influenced by pornography? Indian J Psychol Med, 36 (2014), pp. 147–152
  40. Kutchinsky, Berl (1973). "The Effect of Easy Availability of Pornography on the Incidence of Sex Crimes: The Danish Experience". Journal of Social Issues. 29 (3): 163–181. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1973.tb00094.x. Archived from the original on 27 October 2021. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  41. Diamond, Milton; Uchiyama, Ayako (1999). "Pornography, rape, and sex crimes in Japan". International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. 22 (1): 1–22. doi:10.1016/S0160-2527(98)00035-1. PMID 10086287. Archived from the original on 26 October 2021. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  42. Diamond, Milton; Jozifkova, Eva; Weiss, Petr (2011). "Pornography and sex crimes in the Czech Republic". Archives of Sexual Behavior. 40 (5): 1037–1050. doi:10.1007/s10508-010-9696-y. PMID 21116701. S2CID 19381087. Archived from the original on 27 October 2021. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  43. Bradley, J., Rajaram, S. P., Isac, S., Gurav, K., Ramesh, B. M., Gowda, C., Moses, S., & Alary, M. (2015). Pornography, Sexual Enhancement Products and Sexual Risk of Female Sex Workers and their Clients in Southern India. Archives of sexual behavior, 1-10.
  44. Tucker, S., Krishna, R., Prabhakar, P., Panyam, S., & Anand, P. (2012). Exploring dynamics of anal sex among female sex workers in Andhra Pradesh. Indian Journal of Sexually Transmitted Diseases and AIDS, 33(1), 9–15.
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Bibliography
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