Doc World

Ask the Sexpert

By Vaishali Sinha. A co-production of Independent Television Services.

After the brutal gang rape and murder of a Delhi woman in 2013, the topic of sexuality in India has received international attention. For one 93-year-old man, the answer to preventing violence against women comes through sexual education. Dr. Mahinder Watsa, whose career spans obstetrics and gynecology, has spent several decades promoting the importance of sexual pleasure, consent and information through a non-moralistic and often humorous column in a daily newspaper. 

However, a powerful conservative movement blames sexual openness as a key reason for sexual violence. Moral policing is on the rise, and police have arrested young couples in public places. Consent based sexuality education remains banned and taboo, and charges of indecency and corruption of the Indian youth have been brought against Dr. Watsa. 

Even so, Dr. Watsa’s work is a lens into a society at the crossroads of tradition, censorship, self-described morality, free speech, and education.