Newswallah: Long Reads Edition

ReutersA magazine stand on a railway platform in Mumbai.

India Today magazine focused on the juvenile justice system this week, noting an alarming rise in crimes by minors.

In a cover story titled “Young and Dangerous,” reporters Bhavna Vij-Aurora and Amitabh Srivastava point out that the Delhi gang rape has sparked a nationwide debate on whether reform is better than retribution when it comes to crimes committed by youth. One of the six suspects in the rape case is believed to be 17 years old, and if convicted, his age would determine if h is sent to a reform facility for three years or the gallows.

“It is quite possible that Delhi’s gang rape juvenile took great pleasure in the pain he inflicted on his victim,” the authors write. “If he is a psychopath, he will no doubt commit a crime again, as soon as he is freed at the age of 20. A juvenile justice law which allows him to roam free so soon with his criminal record erased and no provision of supervision is in urgent need of reform. It is time for a new juvenile law which considers not just the age but also severity of an offender’s crime.”

In The Caravan magazine, Snigdha Poonam casts a skeptical eye on recent sex surveys of smaller Indian cities that have been published by Indian magazines:

Consider the history of such surveys. They were launched in 2003 by Kamasutra condoms, and then lapped up by India Today and Outlook i! n partnership with condom brands like Durex. Durex, of course, conducts sex surveys in potential markets across the world. It’s awfully important for brands to repackage mundane things â€" eating, having sex â€" as having great, historical importance when they are done after paying a little more money first. And thus small towns have to become proper centers of consumption, proper sites for a society aspiring to the promised Utopia of consumer modernity, before they are allowed to have real sex, the sort that needs surveying.

Ms. Poonam also questions some of the dubious findings by these surveys.

“What do we learn from the latest exercise” she asks. “Kolhapur leads in frequency of orgasm (44 percent always achieve one); Jamnagar in sex toys (27 percent); Aizawl, multiple partners (11 percent); Ratlam, threesomes (11 percent); Kottayam, extramarital affairs (41 percent say it is acceptable); Guntur, one-night stands (48 percent think they are OK); Asansol, wife swapping (6 prcent); and, startlingly, 63 percent of Kota has anal sex.