Should testing be compulsory?

There's an interesting campaign building in Tamil Nadu. For those of you whose geography is not strong, Tamil Nadu is one of the states in India and it has a large population. It's also very socially conservative. This means that "family values" are very strong. Marriage is definitely only for heterosexual couples with divorce strongly disapproved. So far, India matches the Western model but here the similarities end because the usual form of marriage is arranged between the families without the need for the happy couple to meet before the ceremony. Marriage is seen as building links between families of comparable status and wealth. For most, marriage for love is an alien concept.

The problem with this system is that it can trap women in marriages that are, at best, loveless and, at worst, violent and dangerous. There are a number of reasons for this. Because the marriages are often made to consolidate property ownership, the welfare of the couple is irrelevant. Once the marriage has been celebrated and the title to the land transferred, the couple are left to their own devices. The reason why divorce is discouraged is because the courts might disturb the ownership of property. Indeed, wives who threaten divorce can be relentlessly bullied to keep quiet. A further problem is that homosexuality is still concealed. Thus, sons are married off without regard to their sexual preferences. This can leave wives in unconsummated marriages. The same result is achieved by the men who are impotent but dare not go to a doctor to admit the problem and get treatment. The worst possibility is that the men have been routinely engaging in unprotected sex with prostitutes before marriage and have picked up a sexually transmitted disease (STD). When the marriage is consummated, this can leave the wives with serious health problems.

A politically active group of Bollywood women is campaigning for all men to produce evidence of potency and freedom from STDs before being allowed to marry. Although the idea of a certificate of erectile function is never going to be practical - just how would the evidence be collected? - there's great merit in screening tests to ensure that both parties are free from sexually transmitted disease. Because many couples still prefer unprotected sex, the incidence of STDs has been rising quite sharply over the last ten years. Testing would therefore be a good thing not only in India but around the world. In the West, since there's no real need for gay men to marry for the sake of appearances, all men who have problems of erectile dysfunction simply rely on levitra. This drug produces the best erections in most men no matter what the physical or psychological problems. This is somewhat ironic since the leading manufacturers of the generic form of levitra are based in India but local distribution is limited by a culture that refuses to discuss sexual matters openly. Unlike the West, it's also quite difficult to buy levitra online. This unfairly leaves many Indian men struggling to cope with their impotence.