In India, a ban on pornography may be a good idea
Amrit Dhillon says amid the horrific accounts of rape, the proposal should be taken seriously
It might seem extreme but Indians are so troubled by the spike in sexual violence against women and children that they are considering extreme measures - including banning pornography.
The idea has been gaining ground after the revelation that the two men who raped a five-year-girl in a New Delhi slum for two days and left her for dead had watched porn clips on their mobile phones before their alcohol-fuelled attack.
In India, no one who wants to watch porn buys DVDs any more; instead they pay a few rupees at a local market for clips to be downloaded onto their mobile phones.
What has provoked the debate is a petition in the Supreme Court by lawyer Kamlesh Vaswani who wants watching pornography to be made a non-bailable offence.
As in the rest of the world, Indians are divided on the issue; some believe there is a direct connection between sexual assault and watching pornography, while others claim the incidence of rape has fallen in many countries as pornography became more easily accessible.
Vaswani is in the first camp and cites a grow fascination with pornography. According to Google Trends, in 2012, New Delhi recorded the highest percentage worldwide for the number of times the word "porn" was searched online.