INDIA’S SEX TECH REVOLUTION

Written by Michael Thervil

Believe it or not there is a sexual revolution going on in India. In a country that is largely conservative and patriarchal, India’s sexual revolution is going beyond the world-famous writings of the Kama Sutra and the Vedas, but now encompasses what is now known as a sex tech. Whether you call them sex toys or “massagers”, that’s a personal choice that has nothing to do with India’s booming sex tech industry. Although the commercial selling of sex toys is not illegal, the public advertisement of sexual activity is illegal under India's Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita “obscenity” law. With prostitution being legal in India, the sex industry as a whole has become a multi-billion-dollar industry and with sex tech adding fuel to the fire, it is expected to add billions more to the Indian economy in the foreseeable future.

Despite the economic boom in the Indian sex industry, sex as a topic of discussion is still considered to be taboo and the vast number of female entrepreneurs in the Indian sex tech industry are looking to change that. The female entrepreneurs of the Indian sex tech industry are seeking to make sex toys not only readily available for both men and women, but they are pushing for a change in the perception of sex between men and women as something more than the opportunity to give birth. For them it’s all about “Sex positivity” and ensuring that everyone exercises the right to explore their own sexuality and the limits of such while experiencing orgasms in the privacy of their own home without the fear of being ostracized or feeling bad for wanting to do so.

Fueling the trend of Indians buying sex-tech was of course the COVID-19 pandemic, but now its social media and other online communities that serve as a “safe space” for lovers of sex-tech to express themselves and recommended certain types of sex toys and brands of sex toys over the others. On the sociological front, the outlook of sex has changed in India in the last decade primarily due to younger Indian’s sort of breaking away from the traditional societal norms that older generations of Indians had before them.

The notions of shame and the days of guilt tripping younger Indians over the choice in their choice to not only have sex, but to have sex with whoever they want with whatever latest piece of sex tech has been almost complot thrown out the window. For the younger generation of Indians, the act of having sex is just as normal and just as healthy as breathing and should be treated as such. It should also be said that younger Indians have been more willing than ever to not only have sex but to use it as a means of intimate social bonding that allows them to articulate their sexual needs, wants, and desires to other Indians without the notion of sex being indecent and taboo over their heads. In addition, younger Indians value the sexual enhancement that sex tech brings to their private lives.

On the down side, there are Indians that feel that with the explosion of the sex tech industry happening in India, it will devalue the intimate activity of sex to something trivial or artificial in nature especially when sex tech is added into the fold. For them, they fear that the added level of intensity that sex tech brings to the equation will not only become the “new norm”, but they fear that the new level of artificial intensity that sex tech brings to the intimate lives of Indians will desensitize Indians to the natural act of having sex. Whether sex tech desensitizes people or not is still up for debate. Only time will tell.