Sex is always seen as a taboo in Indian society even discussing it is a taboo.

The Indian legal system has

taken a note of it and upheld the social morality and made provisions with that concern. The latest provision
related to this is the criminalisation of pornography. The word pornography derived from the Greek word
porni (prostitute) and graphein ( to write) and defined as any work of art or literature depicting the life of
prostitutes. There are many definitions describing the definition of pornography one of them by Oxford
dictionary is printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or
activity, intended to stimulate sexual excitement. Though there is no specific provision dealing with the term
pornography as it is not described under IPC. But pornography is seen as an aggravated form of obscenity.
Section 292 of IPC 1860 deals with the obscenity that imposes criminal liability for sale, distribution etc. of
obscene material. But it is to be noted that the word obscene is not defined in the IPC and the concept is
dynamic as it changes from society to society and from time to time. It has also been contended that since the
morality regarding IPC has to do very little with Indian Tradition because as it was enacted in 1860 by
British people has more to do with Christian morality.

Pornographic Ban
On August 2015, a PIL has been filed by a lawyer seeking a ban on pornography in India and to declare
section 66 67 69 71 72 75 79 80 and 85 of IT Act,2000 ultra vires. The SC then directed the centre to develop
a mechanism to block websites showing child pornography but the government had failed to block some 857
websites but this time HC of Uttarakhand had imposed a strict ban on pornographic websites but it is
interesting to note the fact that even the former CJI H.L Dattu held that the total ban on sex sites would
violate privacy and personal liberty and in the land of Kamasutra the personal liberty remains supreme.
Kamasutra is the oldest surviving Hindu text on erotic love and still, in India, sex is considered as a taboo.
Even there are many temples which depict the obscene images such as The Khajuraho Temple, The
Lingaraja Temple, The Sun Temple.

Rise In Rape cases

Uttarakhand HC directed the Internet service providers to implement the ban, this judgement was given on
the basis of a gang rape of a 10th class student of Dehradun by 4 students as they told police that they have
watched porn before raping the victim. But it is interesting to note that according to the National Crime
Bureau 2013 annual report 24923 rape cases were reported in India and more than 34000 rape cases were
reported in 2016 after the ban. It is clearly seen that ban on pornographic websites does not have any effect
on the rape statistics and even the countries like Denmark where there is no ban on porn and also the 1st
country to legalize pornography has much lower rape cases in comparison of countries where there is a
pornographic ban. A paper published in the Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine named “Sexual
Crime in India: Is it Influenced by Pornography?”. The results show that easy access to pornographic
websites does not have any impact on rape rates and crime against women.

Notable people views

Even many renowned artists writers and actors lambasted the action of government regarding the porn ban
in India. Chetan Bhagat described porn ban as “anti-freedom”, impractical, not enforceable.Ram Gopal
Verma in a series of tweets said that banning porn sites is not a solution against sexual crimes.Even the
Delhi HC dismissed a plea filed by NGO Justice for Rights Foundation seeking government response to
regulate the online media streaming platforms such as Amazon, Netflix etc. as they show"uncertified,
sexually explicit and vulgar" content.

Streisand effect

It is the phenomenon in which an attempt to hide, remove or censor a piece

of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the
information more widely. As the human mind is more curious about things
which are banned as banning makes that thing more powerful. Pornsites
which were banned in India are still accessible through various VPNs (
Virtual Private Networks), proxy websites such as Hidester, Hide.me,
whoer.net, moreover even the ban is not foolproof as users can still browse
the content through the most famous UC Browser the internet is full of
options. Banning is something that makes more curious about it and
making the ban futile. In India, we ban things which we don’t like but
banning does not stop the harmful effects of pornography. It is important
to create awareness like giving sex education in schools instead of making it
a taboo. Sex education has vast benefits like reducing maternal and child
mortality, reducing sexually transmitted infections and improving sexual
health and filling the gender gap and preventing misinformation and
myths.

Sextortion: A new reality in India

It is a broad category of sexual exploitation in which a victim is coerced by

the accused to extort money or sexual favours. It refers to a form of
blackmail in which sexual information is used as a weapon to extort money
or sexual favours. Sextortion is on a rise and mostly the victims are males
and this led to many of them committing suicides due to the fear of the
images, chats and footages shown to their family or friends. Even Jammu
and Kashmir have become the 1st state in the country to have a law
concerning extortion. Amendments are made in sections 154 and 161 and
the schedule of the Criminal Procedure Code as well as section 53A of the
Indian Evidence Act 1872 so as to bring sextortion similar to offences
under Ranbir Penal Code.

Conclusion

Judiciary the most trustable organ of the government is degrading day by

day as the judgement given by them is not followed and lowers the dignity
of the courts as their orders are not taken seriously. Meanwhile, the ban is
mocked on social media. Even in the case of the ban on firecrackers many
people burn firecrackers outside the apex court only and in many cities,
the ban is not respected and making an apprehension that they don’t have
strong measures to implement their orders. Courts had also failed in
demarcating the line between the “obscene” and “vague”. According to my
opinion, we should be the one who decides porn is good for us or not as
many studies suggest that whether porn is good or bad depends on whether
you think it is. This isn’t about porn, it is about censorship. This is about
government paternalistic attitude that citizens are not wise enough to take
decisions that concern his well being. Rapes are not related to
pornographic material or obscene material if it is related then most rapes
should be done on the beaches instead of buses or on roads. Courts should
give orders removing the child pornography and rape content from the
Internet instead of banning them all.