India's Growing Obsession with Porn Culture

Going by India Today Sex Surveys, Kolkata has the least taste for pornography. But still it is one of the top seekers of porn online, as per Google Trends reports. Sunny Leone's CDs are bestsellers in Kolkata. Step inside the dirty alleys between shops selling electronic goods, and piles of pirated blue film come out of hiding with 120 for just a CD and 250 for one with Leone on the cover. You ask too many questions and they show you the door. The police are their friends, though motorcycles stand ready for sudden crackdowns. One said "Sunny's CD is selling like hot cakes, 200 a day." While a 33 year old customer puts away the CD in his plastic bag with quiet satisfaction and says "I will have to watch when the wife is not looking."

Watching porn alone is another rising trend among men, all thanks to the Internet. India Today Sex Surveys in 2009 suggested video as the most popular porn format with just 10 percent men out of 2,661 watching porn alone. This year the number has gone up to 44 percent. Dr Vijay Nagaswami, Chennai-based expert on sexual psychotherapy said "It is usually a sign of cybersex addiction." He said that "Compulsive porn-watchers often become dysfunctional. They stay up late for online porn to get active on instant messengers, webcams, demand more private time, neglect family, work and normal sexual activity." As for what most Indians watch. Google Trends indicates that the typical Indian porn-watcher opt for more tame keywords, 'sex' and 'how to kiss', the most.

So, has the battle against porn been lost? Anti-porn feminists in the U.S. have admitted defeat while India is not quite there. In spite of the hyper-sexualized climate, ministers do get thrown out over porn. Cyber law expert and senior associate of SNG & Partners, Rahul Sud points out "Personal consumption of porn has never been an offence. Child pornography, publishing and transmitting are."