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Sex education is a bad idea. Pornography, even worse. So, perhaps it was only a matter of time before condom commercials were equated with promoting free sex. All that talk of pleasure, after all.

No wonder, then, that the government is reviewing a proposal to limit condom ads on television to the late night slot, according to a news report in The Telegraph.

A senior leader of the Communist Party of India, Atul Kumar Anjan, recently blamed a condom campaign starring Sunny Leone for causing a potential increase in rapes. Sure, he had to apologise for this statement after earning his party's disapproval, but he did insist on the government's reviewing the broadcast of these advertisements.

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It's a point of view that some people in power seem to share. The same report says the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has taken up the issue of condom commercials after receiving a barrage of complaints from viewers, "including politicians". One letter cited alleges that these ads promote "free sex". And that while the ads were shown as simply a means of contraception 25 years ago, they now promise pleasure to consumers.

The complaints demand an outright ban on condom commercials, but the ministry is looking at moving them to the late-night hours only. There are no restrictions right now on when these ads can be aired.

It is, presumably, another matter altogether that condoms promote safe sex, and that, according to UN estimates, India has the third-largest population of HIV-infected people in the world. Obviously everyone who is having sex in India also watches late-night television.