A Cover Up: The Government Just Banned Condom Ads On TV During The Day

A Cover Up: The Government Just Banned Condom Ads On TV During The Day
India.com

‘Kids these days, so unsanskaari, with all their modern values!’

‘It’s because they play video games and watch television all the time, SEX EVERYWHERE! Give them some traditional clothes and get them to pray more, that will fix everything.’

We can’t be sure but that’s definitely what we imagine conversation must have been like in India’s Information & Broadcasting Ministry this week when they made the decision to ban condom ads during prime air time and restrict them to the hours between 10 PM and 6 AM. Now while it’s true that in the past India as had its fair share of grossly inappropriate advertising the fact is, you can’t sell condoms without touching upon the topic of sex.

They cited the Advertising Code saying “that some channels carry advertisements of condoms repeatedly which are alleged to be indecent especially for children” and that they are well within their rights to ban ads with “indecent, vulgar, suggestive, repulsive or offensive themes or treatment”. But the question is, why is our government so afraid of sex?

It’s not like this fear is contained and harmless, the fallout from their puritanical ideals can be seen every page of social history. When children grow up with no concept of sex, it translates to a generation of ignorant adults for whom sex is a illusionary construct instead of a basic human requirement. Today there are millions of Indian women with no sex education and in the position of having to deal with unwanted pregnancies. Abortion rates are soaring, most of which are dangerous home-style executions because women are scared of the judgmental eyes of society, which often end badly and they’re dying for no good reason. Then, of course, without education there are men who learn all they think they need to know from movies and porn, subsequently inflicting their warped versions of sex on unsuspecting victims.

Yes, perhaps some of these ads can be a bit on the suggestive side and as a parent it would be well within your rights to restrict your child’s TV viewing habits until you deem them old enough, but for the government to take such a totalitarian stance is simply redundant. They want children to grow up with a well-rounded, healthy approach to sex, but springing the concept on them on their wedding day isn’t really the way to go about that. If parents choose to raise their children in a sheltered environment, leave it up to them to do so. Often, these ads are a catalyst for children’s curiosity and leave an opening for parents to educate them on a topic which is otherwise hard to broach.

But with the government playing moral compass, India’s just being set on a pretty risky course.

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