[Reader-list] PUBLIC INTEREST ALERT: Delhi Times promotes pornography & alcoholism

[Lehar ..]

Dear Friends
in a disturbing development, many Indians-parents,
readers and adolescents 
have displayed their concern over the sexually
demeaning and semi 
pornographic content of the Times of India colour
supplement, Delhi Times. 
This is the largest read daily in Delhi- and oneof the
largest readerships 
(Top three ) papers in the country.
This paper is read by children and adults alike – and
is the quentessential 
‘National’ and ‘family’ daily.

1. The Bizarre sex Column: On TOP of the front page-
next to title - DELHI 
TIMES. It is on bizarre sexual practices:
Examples from editions from Aug. 25 2003- Aug 31 2003
- Woman breaks record for having intercourse with 1400
men:( a 10 yr old 
child asked me: What is intercourse)-picture of woman
in underwear with 
spreadeagled legs.
- Woman has sex with ghost
- Woman revs up sex life
- Man drives into river while having sex: Qoute: The
man and sex worker in 
the car did not laugh.. but then being in deep water
while being in top gear 
doesn’t tickle the funny bone. Unqoute

2. Since the last month they have run stories to
promote alcoholism and the 
sex industry. The FRONT PAGE HEADline stories are
- Why bar drinking in public after midnight- Delhiites
should get 24 hr 
alcohol!
Bars and license should be given to very subzi wala,
shopkeer, retailer ( 
like in the West- sic)- and alcohol should be served
24 hrs a day- 'like in 
the West'. NO data is given to substantiate the
ludicrous claim the alcohol 
is served 24 hrs a day in the UK and the US. ( the 11
pm deadline in the UK 
is well known)- as is thats a justification!
IN a country like India where arrack lobbies, sexual
violence, drunk drivers 
abound- what does promoting this kind of behaviour
amount to..??

3. Increase speed limits to 100 miles p h for Delhi
cars- again the 
justification is the autobahns of Germany and that it
is annoying to drive 
'foreign' cars at speeds less than 80 mph!! ( July
2003)- we cannot use 5th 
gears in our Mercs- says a commuter, quoted in the
city edition ( Delhi is 
yet to recover from the BMW massacre- where more than
5 people were killed 
by the speeding BMW of a drunken driver – belonging to
an industrial house)

4. Legalise prostitution: While pretending to take the
sex worker cause line 
- the article was essentially in tune with the other
stories preceding it. 
Bars and sex workers go together, thus they should be
encouraged legally. 
More women will feel encouraged to enter the flesh
trade if it offers 
lucrative career options. - yes at the end of the
article, one comes away 
feeling that it is encouraging the flesh trade. and
not taking up any cause- 
surrounded as it was by titillating pictures of semi
nude women.
They also advertise call girl phone sex lines. This
amounts to carrying 
illegal ads for commerical sex activity in a National
daily.
IS this legal in India? Can we take this up?
Is happening ( illegally so) in other any other
country, is at all??

4. Playboy bunnies and semi nude actresses next to
national headline in the 
main paper- this has become a policy matter since the
FDI in print was 
allowed last yr. the Delhi times Daily carries an
average of 10 naked and 
semi naked women EVERYDAY. (majority of the pics are
underwear clad women- 
Hollywood starlets and explicit downloads of Britney
spears etc).
It is read by age groups between 10 -75.

Would the New York Times or the Guardian carry playboy
bunnies in their 
front pages- and their supplements- and that WIHTOUT
any note/ warning etc.?

It is completely justified for citizens to demand that
exposing and 
literally dumping sexually explicit material for pre
teen age groups is a 
phenomenon unparalleled anywhere else in the world.
The excuse of free speech doesnt gel as sexuality as a
responsible 
phenomenon is being destroyed by this behaviour.
The lobbies may take the much abused ‘Khujaraho’ line,
but that is nowhere 
an issue in this case.
Neither are readers, majority of whom read the paper
with their morning cup 
of tea, informed that sexually explicit material is
inside. They can then 
CHOOSE to read to leave it. But there is no choice
allowed.
As a woman it demeans me to see semi clad women peeing
out the paper every 
morning, with sexually discriminatory ads flooding the
rest of it-majority 
being underwear and marriage jewlers ads, call girl
phone lines etc.
This is a gender discrimination at it highest order.
We have answered innumerable young children on
questions about dildos, sex 
life of an actress etc. which are front page columns
in the Delhi Times.
It is tragic that the National paper of the stature of
the Times of India is 
stooping to such a level- and displaying itself
underhandedly as a 
pornographic ‘playboy’ boys magazine.
This phenomenon is in tune with the semi pornographic
videos which are 
flooding the market.
While no one is objecting to a healthy awareness of
sexuality- more cirtical 
in this age of HIV/AIDS, this infiltration of
commodified and pornogprahic 
sex into every channel with unregulated 24 hrs access
- is dangerous. Any 
film which tries a progressive line on sexuality like
Water and others is 
'censored' even before it is made- but lewd and semi
pornographic material 
is flooding evry quarter of the media- and exposing
unaware chidlren to 
sexuality in a completely unhealthy and anti-women
way.
Sexual violence and dowry death have increased 20 fold
in Delhi in the last 
10 yrs.
While the West at least monitors what its children
watch on its own shores, 
why is pressure there in India to expose its children
to the sex industry 
and the commodification of women? And in any case,
should we really ape the 
West in everything anyway?
Also, ‘Adult rated’ American films which are not shown
before 12 am in the 
US, are easily available on Indian channels 24 hrs a
day. There are no 
ratings or timings for these channels in India.

Thus, it is obvious that sheer advantage is being
taken to flood a 
‘developing’ country like India- and thus export the
sex industry to the 
South- which has a naïve and sexually repressed
populace- and easily 
procurable government/ media lobbies.

The current govt. is responsible for this phenomenon-
which parrots a 
fundamentalist and regressive line on one end -
promotes the comodification 
of women on the other. The though police of the
current regime found the 
real life plight of Indian widows objectionable- and
vandalised the sets of 
the film Water.
( Its Rajya Sabha MP, Hema Mailini has been the Editor
of the Indian edition 
of the American magazine New woman- which also
promotes this kind of 
commodified 'sexualised' new woman) - it overlooks
rapes of marginalised 
women - and is thus destroying the rights of Indian
womne in every quarter.

The 1986 Indecent representation of Women act is a
powerful tool which can 
be invoked in this caseand even a PIL filed for this
issue.
Also, letters to the Editor must be written:
edit at timesgroup.com
delhitimes at indiatimes.com

Please feel free to contact the local women’s
organizations to take up is 
issue on larger scale.
aidwa at ndb.vsnl.net.in
saheliwomen at hotmail.com
jagori at del3.vsnl.net.in

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