Many believe it is the right time to have a national conversation on the related issues of sexual expression, pornography, sexual exploitation and consent, given recent and emerging policy trends.

• The Indian government, which blocked 857 porn sites in early August, is currently considering two petitions to ban online porn. The last Supreme Court hearing on this took place on 10 August.

• The legal definition of ‘sexual exploitation’ may be expanded to include sexualized images of women offline and online and to re-interpret sexual trafficking. The Supreme Court has asked the Indian government to detail its stand on this by 13 October.

• In 2013, a parliamentary committee discussed the need to enlarge the scope of the Indecent Representation Act, 1986 to bring new forms of communication like the internet and mobile etc within the ambit of the Act.

Gender, sexuality or digital rights activists have been discussing these issues in smaller groups. Some have made submissions to the Rajya Sabha against banning online pornography while some are conducting research to better understand these issues.

But we have yet to have a cross-movement dialogue around these issues. We have yet to develop a collective voice that articulates our realities, positions and concerns. We may aspire to change the conversation around these issues, but our voice is missing, invisible or not adequately heard in the public, policy and legal discourses surrounding them.

This conference intends to bring such relevant voices to this conversation on sexual expression, pornography, sexual exploitation and consent.