LOS ANGELES — Following increasingly strict measures to combat the spread of coronavirus in India, including yesterday's announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi which placed all residents of the world's second most populous country, with over 1.3 billion people, on a 21-day lockdown, reports have surfaced that Indians are stocking up on more than just food and other essentials.
According to the Hindustan Times, pharmacists and retailers say that sales of condoms, other contraceptives and sex toys have skyrocketed, seeing up to a 50 percent increase in sales in the past week.
"In times of war and epidemics, intimacy levels go up among sexual partners," said Rajiv Mehta, a consultant psychiatrist at Delhi's Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH), told The Economic Times.
"Couples, married or otherwise, who were too busy with their professional lives are now getting proximity and time. So intimacy will increase as it has increased during wars," equating the coronavirus pandemic to a "war-like situation."
Ajay Sabrawal, a shop owner from Mumbai who's since had to increase his stock of condoms by 25 percent, similarly noted, "It’s funny because generally we see a surge in sales during the festive period, especially during New Year. People are stocking up medicines and are also buying condoms."
With relatively few confirmed cases compared to China, Italy and the U.S., India has implemented what the New York Times has called "the most severe step taken anywhere in the war against the coronavirus."
While the latest stay-at-home directive poses a series of problems for a large swath of India's population that lives in close quarters with restricted access to healthcare and basic essentials at even the best of times, for others, the three-week quarantine presents the possibility of a "'coronavirus [baby] boom'... and an entire generation of 'quaranteens' in 2033," The Economic Times noted.
Combating a spike in pregnancy rates over the coming weeks, an Apollo Pharmacy employee noticed a palpable increase in various birth control products. "In fact, the demand is superseding the supply," they said.
Similarly, Indians are looking towards sex toys to fill their newfound time at home, with one online retailer reporting a 10-15 percent increase in sales in the past 10 days.
Unfortunately, due to already restricted sale of sex toys in India and the newest round of lockdown measures that bar any non-essential personnel from leaving their homes, the retailer said that orders placed in the past two days would likely be delayed.
"We are trying to dispatch as many orders as possible," they offered.
