KOZHIKODE: That began as a routine weekend commute for Sreeja (name changed) from Kottiyam to Kollam on a KSRTC bus quickly devolved into a deeply distressing ordeal. Looking forward to reuniting with her family after a week of work, Sreeja found her journey abruptly interrupted by a man in his early 40s brazenly masturbating across from her, his gaze fixed on her.
Despite her profound discomfort, Sreeja, unwilling to let the incident pass, summoned the courage to capture the perpetrator’s action on video. Her resolve stemmed from a fierce desire to expose a pervasive societal ill where victims, particularly women, are often blamed despite being the ones subjected to harassment. The incident echoed a recent online backlash against two sisters who were viciously trolled for slapping an elderly man who had allegedly groped one of them on a public bus.
These alarming occurrences highlight a disturbing trend in Kerala: a surge in public indecency, including public masturbation, flashing, and other obscene acts. Shockingly, instead of condemnation, such acts often seem to garner a perverse acceptance in certain sections of society.
District-wise data with the State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) for May 2024-25 shows Kozhikode leading the way with 193 cases of public nudity and masturbation. It was followed by Ernakulam (157), Thiruvananthapuram (123), Kasaragod (98), Kollam (76), Malappuram (74), Palakkad (67), Alappuzha (66), and Kottayam (54). Pathanamthitta (43), Kannur (35), Idukki (33), Wayanad (29), and Thrissur (24) brought up the rear.
Legal loopholes
Despite the worrying numbers, a glaring loophole in the legal framework continues to empower perpetrators: the absence of specific laws directly addressing flashing or public masturbation. This legal void often hinders the formal registration of cases. Police sources indicate that while victims sometimes bravely come forward with video evidence, many hesitate to pursue further legal action due to fears of protracted legal battles.
The silence surrounding the issue has prevented the enactment of specific legislation. While laws have been amended over the years to address crimes like voyeurism and stalking with specific punishments, “public masturbation” remains a murky area.
The lack of a dedicated law ensures that there’s no precise data on the true scale of the problem. However, social media platforms and online blogs are increasingly amplifying voices on the issue -- a chorus demanding urgent attention that cannot be ignored.
Rohit Raj, a lawyer based in Kozhikode, emphasised the profound impact of such acts. “Incidents of street harassment such as sexually explicit comments, public masturbation, and stalking are unfortunately common,” he said. “While not physically violent, being masturbated at is deeply personally violating. Public masturbation, unlike private acts, is not protected free expression; it is a grossly indecent act that outrages a woman’s modesty.” He added that such acts encompass indecent exposure, assault, offenses against public order, and violations of women’s civil rights.
He reiterated that although public masturbation broadly fell under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 354, 509, 268, 355 -- and their current corresponding sections 73, 77, 285, and 124 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) -- the absence of a specific law leads to under-reporting and very few convictions.
Psychological underpinnings
Shedding light on the psychological underpinnings of such behaviour, noted psychiatrist Reena Ravi said that individuals suffering from paraphilia are likely to masturbate in public. “Paraphilia is a condition characterised by intense fetishes towards unusual objects. When a person with paraphilia masturbates publicly, it inherently harms the ‘object’ of their fetish, often women.”
Reena added that public masturbators may also exhibit signs of regression, a psychopathological condition involving behaviour like extreme passivity, social withdrawal, aggression, and open masturbation. Exhibitionism, a form of paraphilia, involves exposing genitals to unsuspecting strangers for sexual arousal. She recounts a case where a man confessed that the presence of a woman made the act “more realistic” for him, imagining her participation in coitus. Dr Reena acknowledged that exhibitionism, including public masturbation, is a recognised medical condition, but cautions that some individuals may exploit this diagnosis to evade legal consequences.
A call for action
The issue of public masturbation has been “long ignored and strategically sidelined,” leading to the trivialisation of women’s experiences of sexual harassment, according to Aparna Baiju, a college professor and women’s rights activist. She argued that instead of trying to fit these offences into existing categories such as indecent exposure, lawmakers must create a distinct legal category with punishments commensurate with the gravity of the offence.
“A law should be made that covers indecent exposure, outraging the modesty of a woman, along with other relevant charges for the purpose of punishment, prevention, public protection, and social standards,” she asserted.
“We hear of incidents on social media and from friends all the time, but rarely do they reach the courts,” she remarked. She cited the experience of a woman from Kochi who, despite bravely exposing a man named Savad on a bus, endured severe cyber-bullying. While that woman was strong enough to withstand the onslaught, many others suffer in silence.
“The attitude that public masturbation is not a ‘serious’ crime further emboldens perpetrators,” Aparna said, attributing this to a cultural tendency to “bury embarrassing sexual advances under the carpet”.
She pointed to global examples, noting that public masturbation can lead to a 14-day prison sentence in the UK, and 32 days in Indonesia. “Our country can begin by at least talking about why it is wrong and dehumanising,” Aparna said. “Public spaces belong to all citizens, including women,” she added.