India’s first legal offline sex toy shop opens doors

India saw a 65 percent rise in online sale of sex toys after the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated extended lockdowns in 2020. (Image: Shutterstock)

Amid the elusiveness around sex and sex education in India, the country now has its first legal sex toy and wellness products store ‘Kama Gizmos’ in Goa.

Launched on February 14, 2021, the brick-and-mortar sex shop is a joint venture by competitors Kamakart and Gizmoswala, Vice reported.

The two sex product retailers set up shop in Goa’s touristy area of Calangute selling items such as Viagra-like sprays, sex toys and novelty condoms – all items that customers can touch and get a feel for before purchasing.

The “hole-in-the-wall shop has no “flashy signs or seductive mascots,” but a neon scroll reading: “Unique condoms and more,” as per the report.

Unlike expectations, the report noted the interior is rather “pharmacy-like” – which was a conscious decision as per co-founder Nirav Mehta.

“We have purposely not made it flashy or like a dark underground dungeon, which is how most shops like this abroad are. We modelled it like a medical store, while all our [legal] certificates are on the wall. We do this to avoid any political backlash,” he explained.

Often seen as ‘indecent’ or ‘immoral’, public censure and political pressures have made it difficult for physical sex shops to operate in India. Notably though, the country saw a 65 percent rise in online sale of sex toys after the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated extended lockdowns in 2020.

So how did Kama Gizmos do it? According to Mehta a “grey space” in the law allowed them to open the store.

“The law allows you to sell any [sex] product as long as it is not obscene. We purposely chose toys and products with packaging that did not have nudity or show women in a demeaning manner, so it does not violate any obscenity laws,” he explained.

The law in question is explicitly on import of any obscene article, book, drawing, figure, pamphlet, painting, paper or representation, but is also applied to adult toys and products.

While customers have been steady, Mehta says the caginess persists. “When people come to our store, they try to buy what they want as quickly as possible. Customers don’t want to be seen lingering in a shop like this, and will buy everything in a rush. That’s why we didn’t get any chairs and kept the shop very compact,” he added.

Among the products, Kama Gizmos’ BDSM products are very popular in smaller cities and their clientele is usually older couples in the 50-plus age range who come to buy role-play lingerie or kink accessories, Mehta shared.

Other customer favourites include crystal condoms, cock rings, marshmallow flavoured, glow-in-the-dark and vegan condoms, leather BDSM sets, penis pumps and role-play costumes.

Mehta said the most noted difference in online versus offline shopping was that the latter led to more impulse buyers. Many unconventional products, featuring no explicit packaging are imported from the Netherlands, China or Canada, it added.

According to Mehta, him and business partner Prawin Ganeshan want to cater to the underserved sexual wellness market.

“We were working with a team of technologists and gynaecologists to help HIV and cancer patients pleasure themselves. Self-pleasure is everyone’s fundamental right, so we wanted to figure a way to make it accessible,” he said.

The offline stores also provides customers the chance to physically feel the products before buying, and Mehta likened it to shopping for a phone – where you “might trust the details given online, but would prefer to see and feel it yourself if given a choice.”