From furtively asking chemists for condoms to seeing influencers openly endorse clitoral stimulators, India’s sex culture, while not truly enlightened, has come a long way. For years, the acquisition of sexual pleasure toys meant carefully packed imports via friends travelling abroad. And while even today, most Indians aren’t exactly ready to stroll into a store and casually buy a vibrator, there is no denying that in the last decade or so, they became more curious and more open to talking about these tools.
The demand was impossible to ignore—it was clear that the world’s most populated country enjoyed sex (the Indian sexual wellness market size was valued at US$1,153.5 million in 2020, and is estimated to reach US$2,095.4 million by 2030). Despite a lack of real sex education and open conversation, the desire for these products spurred the growth of the sexual wellness market.
Sachee Malhotra, who founded sexual wellness brand That Sassy Thing (TST), believes pleasure is wellness. “In the past, the narrative around pleasure has been clouded by notions of sleaze. We’re now normalising it, starting with positioning it as an integral part of our self-care routine.” But discretion is still a key element in this category in India (we’re sure you’ve seen euphemisms like ‘massager’ instead of ‘sex toy’ on packaging), where discussions about intimacy are often still taboo.
Read Saumyaa Vohra's chat with experts about the subtle normalisation of pleasure tools in India and the role that e-commerce (especially Blinkit) has played.
