Can the porn ban put an end to sexual violence against women?

Internet users woke up to a ban onnporn sites as government has asked various Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) to block nearly 800 of them. There is a raging debate on social media on whether banning porn is the answer to issues like women's safety, 'improving' the mindsets and so on. So I thought we must analyse if porn really encourages incidences of sexual abuse against women?

Calling it an attack on individual freedom, twitter reacted to the news rather aggressively criticising the government of having a conservative mindset. In a petition filed at the apex court seeking to ban porn, the petitioner said that pornography encourages sexual abuse cases in the country according to a report in The Hindu. The Supreme court however ruled out the petition on the grounds that it violates the Right to Personal Liberty. It has maintained that watching porn at home is not a crime.

According to a survey report in Times of India, almost 70% of boys begin watching porn before reaching puberty, 93% said that porn was addictive and around 86% felt that it led to sexual activity. “Children are exposed to so much sex and violence on mainstream TV, so it would be hypocritical to blame porn, said activist,” V Geetha, in a TOI report.

What would we ban next? Television?

Photo Credit: oneindia.com

According to National Crime Record Bureau report 2013, total of 118866 cases were reported for crime against women by her husband or his relatives while about 70739 sexual assault cases were reported due of people unknown to the girl. What drives such perpetrators is their regressive thoughts and sexual frustration.

If anything needs to be blamed, it is the patriarchal society which gives unprecedented power to men to subjugate and oppress women, in a desperate attempt to stop them from emancipating.

Paradoxically, India is the fifth largest consumer of porn around the world according to PornHub user data. Nearly 30 per cent Indian women watch porn daily. Infact "Women are spending more time watching porn - a worldwide average of 10 minutes and 10 seconds compared to men at just nine minutes and 22 seconds," according to a TOI report.

Although there is no direct correlation between pornography and sexual violence, it is imperative that we as society abolish sex as a taboo. We must be able to discuss sex openly without feeling humiliated. What could be better than discussing your ‘sex life’ with parents? No amount of banning can put an end to such atrocities till we evolve as a society.