Pornography in India

Pornography in India is illegal and attracts several penal provisions. The law also states that distributing and publishing pornography is illegal. As per the act accessing pornography is not mentioned to be illegal. Pornographic films in India are referred to as Blue Films and are available virtually anywhere; especially in areas where pirated material is already being sold.

Softcore Pornography

Top Soft Porn Actresses include Abhilasha,Pratibha,Shakeela and Reshma.However others like Devika,Sindhu,Umamaheshwari etc are also famous.

In Mumbai C grade actresses like Poonam Dasgupta and Sherlyn Chopra (Mona Chopra) are also alleged to have acted in softcore films.

Hardcore Pornography

It is banned in India ,However cases have come and some hardcore Indian porn is available illegally in Indian market like chamiya the first hindi porn with dialogs,also one came from manali where former miss Jammu Anara Gupta was alleged to have acted which was later found to be false. [http://o3.indiatimes.com/dinakaran/archive/2005/01/13/52733.aspx The plight of Anara Gupta] There are also reports of National Liberation Front of Tripura NLFT ,rebel group in tripura making and selling poronographic movies to raise funds. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4190570.stm bbc] , [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1212825.cms indiatimes] .

Online pornography

The Information Technology Act, Chapter XI Paragraph 67, the Government of India clearly considers online pornography as a punishable offense. The Indian Penal Code, 1860 section 293 also specifies, in clear terms, the law against Sale etc. of obscene objects to minors.

;Chapter XI

"67. Publishing of information which is obscene in electronic form. - Whoever publishes or transmits or causes to be published in the electronic form, any material which is lascivious or appeal to the prurient interest or if its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it, shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years and with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees and in the event of a second or subsequent conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years and also with fine which may extend to two lakh rupees."

In Tamilnadu ,Dr Prakash was arrested in December 2001 on charges of taking obscene photos of his women patients through hidden cameras and uploaded them on the World Wide Web site, AMAZINGINDIANS with the help of his US-based brother. [http://www.indianexpress.com/story/270072.html Sex doctor found guilty in cyber porn case] [http://www.xboard.us/showthread.php?t=20462&highlight=inspector more details]

Recent Developments

Pornography was a verbal taboo in India even as late as in 2006. The circulation of a home-made mobile video, involving two minors from the Delhi Public School ,RK Puram branch and hence infamously dubbed the "DPS dhamaka," brought issues involving pornography and its effects on minors to the limelight. The CEO of the Indian subsidiary of Ebay was charged with various criminal offenses for allowing the trading of a CD containing these clips on the website. [http://iltb.apargupta.com/?p=57 Avnish Bajaj back in Safe Harbors]

See also

* Internet censorship in India
* Sex in Indian entertainment
* History of sex in India

External links

* [http://indiacode.nic.in/ India Code Legislative Department]