India should have a sex industry

Photo of a prostitute by Capitan Giona

The collective sexuality of the nation is still very Victorian, and now moving toward worse Victorian. Moral judgments around sex are such that sex is near dead beyond the instinctive “itch” that gets tittered about by frustrated women or blustered about by equally frustrated men.

I think we need to accept that sex exists, lots of people enjoy it and that it is not all that evil. In the next budget the government could have more alternatives to fleece the population than raising taxes on cigarettes alone. We need a legitimate sex industry. Give people loads of jobs, earn money in taxes, and so on. Win. Win.

  • Legitimize everything to do with prostitution. Enforce policing against child prostitution and other exploitative practices – you will now have the budget for it as well as legal businesses interested in maintaining legal status.
  • This means everyone from pimps to brothel owners are legal. Regulate them on how services should be advertized, living standards to be maintained where applicable, consent of sex workers to be paramount.
  • Enforce police protections for prostitutes. If a person can be arrested for assaulting a prostitute, that goes a far longer way to making lives of prostitutes better and reducing exploitation than hiding prostitutes under some socio-political carpet.
  • Encourage sex related services beyond prostitution – education services for safe sex, coaching for better sexual skills, etc
  • Legalize production of porn and sex toys and accessories and adult-only sex shops. Will give jobs to countless people. People buy their sex toys covertly anyway. Make their sale taxable. Let quality control reach an area of intimate use. I dare say many people may move away from prostitution services if they have other interesting things they can do with themselves.

Exit the British Raj, make the country sex-positive.

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18 thoughts on “India should have a sex industry”

  1. I have visited your site many times till date. I found relevant information about sex toys and its using benefits. Some of the information you have given through your site is correct from my sense. Though, I am an Indian and I must tell you that using sex toys in India still not applicable and most of the people in our society believe using these types of adult toys are sin. But I am not at all agree with their views. I am a modern man and I believe if a man can think to fulfill his lust then a women should have. I prefer practicing yoga to improve health and wellness in life. You can see my blog also where I have discussion yoga and wellness. This link can be helpful for your site readers to get some valuable information how yoga poses can boost one’s his or her sexual life for stronger libido and better orgasm. http://www.yoga2all.com/yoga-pose/top-20-yoga-asanas-for-stronger-libido-better-orgasm/ Nice article. Thanks Kabbyik Mitra

  2. Legalising prostitution in India will increase sex trafficking and lot of poor girls will be victimised to drive this industry. It wont make any change and not suitable for country like India where people struggling to find their daily meal.

  3. Overall, I’d call this article mere wishful thing and nothing more. All of what you have said is sound theoretically but what are the odds of such legislation passing in Indian parliament in our lifetime?

    Off-topic question: How are people buying sex toys? Local brick and mortar shops can’t sell them obviously. If you try to buy online, I’m sure customs will seize them upon entry.

    1. I had asked on twitter. Answers included some lingerie shops, discrete queries in electronics shops in malls, online purchases, asking friends going abroad to get them and such.

      I don’t have personal experience – all this is second hand info. I am planning to ask around in a few lingerie shops when I get time to see what happens.

      1. I did some research and it seems only *sale* of sex toys is prohibited under S292 of IPC[1]. This means if you purchase it online and they deliver to India, nobody commits a crime.

        Customs only specifically prohibits the import of pornography under the head of “prohibited goods”.[2]

        [1] http://www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/indianpenalcode/s292.htm
        [2] http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:xAeIq2SZBxMJ:www.cbec.gov.in/travellers.htm+indian+customs+banned+items&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=in

        Maybe you could do some digging and convert this into a blog post? I think encouraging debate about sex toys and legalising them will be far easier and maybe more useful than amending laws regarding prostitution!

  4. Wow! Super controversial topic. Five years ago, I would probably have wholeheartedly agreed to every point, and shouted it from the rooftops too! I used to be a big votary of sexual freedom. But now, my thoughts on the subject are more nuanced.

    Legalizing prostitution is fine. And I agree about giving prostitutes police protection too.

    But I stop short of agreeing to give them lots of visibility, total social acceptability, industry status etc. My reasoning: Secrecy and covertness is necessarily a part of sex. If you remove the mystique, you lose pleasure quotient. If you make a prostitute’s parlour as readily accessibly as your neighbourhood barber-shop (and as safe too), then I think people will lose the tase for it too. 

    I mean, visualize this scenario in a normal Borivli neighbourhood. Lalit Shah, Chartered Accountant, is wearing his rubber flipflops and going out. His wife asks: “And where are you off to?” And he replies, “I’m going downstairs to Jigna’s Parlour… I need a quick blowjob. If Jigna or any of her assistants are free, I should be back home in 20 minutes. Be ready, I’ll take you out for dinner.”

    And this guy’s 14-year old son says, “Dad, can I come too? I want a hand-job.”

    And the wife says, “Tell Jigna I said hi, and she owes me 3200 bucks. And tell her I won’t be coming to work tomorrow morning… I’ve got a yeast infection.”

    Much as I like the kinkiness of this scenario, I think that if sex came out of the closet and became this common, it would become seriously boring! Nobody would value it any more.   

    Warmly,
    Krish

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