Sex sells fast and it is no more a secret. Across the globe porn CDs and DVDs flood the open and grey markets depending on whether viewing pornography is legal or illegal in a country.
 
The Internet is flooded with porn sites like never before.  Consider some of the following facts from last year’s surveys and the numbers are definitely on the rise with recession keeping more people tense and looking for a vent.

• Sex is the most searched word in the Internet
• 266 new porn sites appear on the Net everyday
• 70% of Internet porn traffic happens during the 9-5 workdays
• There are an estimated 372 million web pages of adult sex viewing pages
• 35% of all Internet downloads are porn stuff

Many studies are conducted on the connection between porn and crime. There are those who contend that viewing Internet porn has reduced sexual crimes in developed countries. The US dept of Justice statistics confirm that sexual assault has dramatically fallen in the US since the beginning of the 1970s. Northwestern Law Professor Antony D’Amato’s essay “Porn Up, Rape Down” cited FBI stats of 85% decline in rape since 1970 and attributed it to freely available pornographic material in the country. (The essay was however, slammed by the likes of Dr. Judith Reisman, President of the Institute of Media Education, on the grounds that the FBI stats were the result of “cooking the books” and cover-ups to show a lower crime rate!)
 
Concurrently there are people who observe that in developing countries porn viewing affects a segment of the population that is uneducated and sexually frustrated.  It fast tracks them on to a sexual crime spree targeting the most vulnerable—women and children. There is also a danger of Internet pornography abetting sex at its worst—incest, sadism and bestiality.

For further reading in Medindia:

Sexual Deviance

Mumbai’s Kranti Maidan saw a gathering of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender activists on August 16, 2008 for a “queer” rights march—the first of its kind to be held in Mumbai. According to media reports, what made this march special was the good number of “straight” supporters who joined in to show their solidarity for the socially ostracized people, in their struggle for acceptance into mainstream society. Apart from some members of the general public, friends and family members of the gay and transgender community and human rights activists like Flavia Agnes and Anand Patwardhan, there was a contingent from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences that marched as an official group with its faculty’s permission. The hopes of those activists who participated in the Queer Azadi March must have soared when the Union Health Minister Dr.Anbumani Ramadoss recently observed that homosexuality would have to be de-criminalized in India in order to facilitate health interventions especially in preventing the potential killer HIV/AIDS.

Concurrently, according to the Union Home Ministry in India, the law enforcement against same gender sex is upheld in view of the Indian social ethos and moral values. Section 377 of Indian Criminal Code brackets homosexuality with bestiality (sex with animals) and pedophilia as an “unnatural” offence that can punish a person with a jail term of up to 10 years. In 2005 the Union Home Ministry in India dismissed a petition to have the law changed, citing examples of other countries in Asia, the Middle East and Africa where homosexuality was considered illegal. While dismissing the petition to repeal the law the Ministry declared,
“Public opinion and the current societal context in India do not favor the deletion of the said offence from the statute book.”

The Central government is currently entangled in the crucial question—to allow or to continue to disallow gay sex. The Delhi High Court last week censured the Central government for speaking in two voices on the issue of same gender sex among consenting adults. The Union Health Ministry has proposed the abolishing of penal provision that can incriminate homosexuals and lesbians, and members of the transgender community because it drives such people underground fearing consequences and hampers health interventions in serious cases like HIV/AIDS. The Health Minister has suggested legalization of homosexuality as a way to help in better treatment of people suffering from AIDS. The Union Home Ministry on the other hand has told the Delhi High Court to ignore Health Minister Ramadoss’ views on allowing the practice and requested the court not to de-criminalize gay sex on moral grounds. Latest news is that Health Minister Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss is piqued by the Union Home Ministry’s observation and is to take up the issue with the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh soon after his return from foreign visit. Guess the Indian public will just have to wait and watch what emerges from this tug-of-war between the Union Home Ministry and Health Ministry in India.