A model balances a tricky load at Nida Mahmood’s runway show during India Fashion Week. [10/27/09, New Delhi]

The “No Toilet, No Bride” campaign began in India about two years ago and gives women the right to refuse a suitor unless he promises to furnish their future home with a toilet. It’s unfathomable here in the U.S. to think of a toilet as a bargaining chip, but consider that about 665 million people in India don’t have access to latrines. They have to squat in fields to do their business. And those who do have access to a community latrine are regularly under the gaze of prying eyes and suffer urinary tract infections and kidney and liver problems. A lack of proper sanitation in the fields and communal toilets also contributes to the spread of diarrhea, typhoid, and malaria.

The one and only time I experienced a condom breaking, I rushed to my doctor to get a prescription for the Plan B emergency contraceptive pill. This was before it was available over the counter. When the doctor explained the complications—the pain, nausea, and bleeding—I was terrified to take the pill and decided to wait it out a day or two. Luckily, I never had to actually use it. I know there has been lots of debate about whether or not it is a good idea to make EC pills easily accessible to young adults. I’ve generally thought it was a good idea because, really, who would want to take a pill with those side effects unless they HAD to, right? That’s why when I read this article in the Times of India about how emergency contraceptives are being used as casual contraception, I was concerned.

India has a rather novel idea to curb overpopulation—late-night TV! Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad wants the country to increase efforts to bring electricity to the country’s rural areas in the hopes that watching late-night TV will kill the libidos of this huge population and discourage procreation. “If there is electricity in every village, then people will watch TV till late at night and then fall asleep,” Azad argued. “When there is no electricity there is nothing else to do but produce babies.” India’s population grows about 1.6 percent annually and accounts for about 17 percent of the world population even though the country makes up only 3 percent of the Earth’s land. Azad said 80 percent of India’s population growth can be reduced by TV, which is a great medium to combat the problem. [Impact Lab]

Kudos to India for increasing its effort to bring electricity to rural areas (it’s only 2009, after all), but wouldn’t more conventional approaches like, you know, sex education and contraceptives, prove more effective in fighting overpopulation?

After thinking a lot about that crazy singles map of the US and how all the ladies on the East Coast are screwed, I got back to my navel gazing about what it means to be single. (I have plenty time alone to think about these things.) I moved on from my bubble of self-absorption (played out) and started wondering what it must be like to be single in other countries—not that I’m thinking of fleeing or anything. Is it better in France where fidelity is not a cultural moray? Is it worse in India with the caste system and arranged marriages? And what are those cold singles in Iceland doing to stay warm? Well wonder no more, because Liz Tuccillo (Mrs. “She’s Not That Into You” and former “Sex and the City” writer) is travlling the globe to demystify singlehood in an awesome web series called, “How to be Single.” Um…amazing! After the jump, a few of my fave revelations from single sisters around the world. [Your Tango]

Eleven-year-old Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail starred in 2008’s Oscar-winner for Best Picture, but he did not live inside a home with an indoor toilet.

Yes, the young actor who played young Salim in “Slumdog Millionaire,” grew up actually in the dirty and chaotic Mumbai slums depicted in the film and saw his home bulldozed by the government without warning last May.

But his housing situation improved yesterday when little Azhar moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Mumbai, near where he attends school. “Slumdog”‘s director, Danny Boyle, and producer Christian Colson, purchased the new pad with money from the Jai Ho Trust, which was set up for Azhar and 9-year-old Rubiana Ali, who played young Latika. Boyle will transfer ownership of the apartment into Azhar’s name when he turns 18 if he stays in school. [Telegraph]

You may call fashion your religion, but for some, religion really is fashion. Take the Sikhs, who wear turbans as a sign of commitment to their religion. Yet, more and more, youths are abandoning the headgear as well as facial hair, causing upset community members to react by promoting turbans as a fashion item. Reports the Calcutta Telegraph: “Sikh community leaders…are planning turban-tying contests and fashion shows to convey the message the turbaned look is ‘cool’.” Leaders have also called for fashion rags: “We need a Sikh fashion magazine to promote uncut hair, the beard and the turban as cool and clean. We should use persons like Manmohan Singh as role models,’’ said one representative. But that might prove hard to sway some kids like a Delhi teen named Rocky Singh who believes that, “faith is deeper than a turban.” Increasingly, religious fashion has sparked controversy, especially in France where President Sarkosy recently stated that burqas are “not welcome in France,” and his predecessor, Chirac, outlawed “religious symbols” in school, that targeted Islamic head scarves. [Telegraphindia.com]

India may be the home of the Kama Sutra, but according to a new law, everyone in the country will now be forced type with both hands. Their new Information Technology Bill has officially banned internet porn, and the sentences are stiff. If you get caught red handed, the po-po can arrest you and throw you in the slammer for up to FIVE years. Plus, you could be slapped with a fine of up to 1 million rupees—which, egads, is about $20,000 smackeroos. Plus, this law has now given the authorities the right to raid any international sexy sites and comb its users for criminals. Although the penalties are soley for Indians, the bill gives the authorities jurisdiction that includes UK sites, now making Hush-Hush.com a total misnomer.

Sheesh, it’s times like these we get all patriotic. God bless America, land that I love, and where I can make sweet to love myself.[AVN via Nerve]

Men’s Health mag surveyed sex positions around the globe.  Although, no nasty move is indigenous to one area because we all universally get freaky!  Well, here’s what they found rocked people’s worlds in different areas:

India: The Fusion
When I think of fusion, either nuclear or pan-Asian flare comes to mind.  But this is a dish best served hot. He leans back, you sit on top, facing him, and lean back too. Make sure you bend your knees and pump away with a full view of all the crotch action!

Grace Kelly’s son, the playboy Prince Albert of Monaco, is finally engaged! While the significance of him producing an heir is important to Europe, we here at The Frisky are interested in talking about the other historically significant Prince Albert—the penis piercing. All the meaty details, after the jump…

A new essay in the New Yorker takes a look at India’s “sacred sex workers.” In “Serving the Goddess,” author William Dalrymple spends time with the country’s devadasis. What’s a devadasi? An ancient Hindu practice in which women are “dedicated” to a god or goddess, some of those women become prostitutes. “The nature of that service and the name given to it have wide regional variations and have changed through time; only recently have most devadasis come to be working in the sex trade,” he writes. It’s an interesting read about a country in which “sacred” and “sex work” have become strange bedfellows.

There are many ways to let people know you’re into having safe sex. The easiest being to verbalize your needs: “I will not sleep with you unless you use a condom.” If you lived in India, you could always let your phone tell people for you. A cell phone ring tone was launched August 8 and features a singer chanting the word “condom” 50 times. So far it has been downloaded 60,000 times. “A ring tone is a very public thing,” said Yvonne MacPherson, the country director of BBC World Service Trust India. “It’s a way to show you are a condom user and you don’t have any issues with it.” We can think of a few other ringtones we wish existed…

It’s a rare man with super sperm that can impregnate a woman when the two of them are in their seventies. The late conservative Senator Strom Thurmond, fathered a child at 74, comedian Charlie Chaplin helped his wife conceive at 73, and abstract artist Picasso made a baby at 68. And all this was before Viagra! Now science has made things possible for any Tom, Dick, and Harry with in-vitro fertilization.  Thanks to IVF,  Charam Singh, who is in his mid-70’s, and his 70 year-old wife just gave birth to twins over the weekend in India.  Congratulations?! So we get why Angelina Jolie wants to spawn over and over again with Brad Pitt, but why on earth would this woman want to take a loan out to pay all the expensive medical bills, not to mention take her va-jane out of retirement?  The Panwars already had two daughters and five grandchildren together, but it wasn’t enough for them. They wanted, and finally got, a male heir to pass their family farm onto. Thanks chauvinism!  [BBC via Dlisted]

Commercial sex workers in India now have the option of purchasing life insurance policies even though their line of work is illegal in the country. When a few sex workers approached the Life Insurance Corporation of India, the company agreed to provide coverage provided the sex workers get routine medical check-ups since they’re at a high risk for HIV/AIDS, and so far, about 200 have signed up for life insurance. The goal is to bring 50 percent of the 1.2 million sex workers under the insurance coverage by the end of 2008, according to the “Committee for Indomitable Women,” and some sex workers hope this is a step toward legalizing their profession. [Medical News Today]

Devout Buddhist Richard Gere, who regularly travels to India, was facing obscenity charges for his kiss heard ‘round the world.  Last year, at an AIDS fundraiser in New Delhi, the actor swooped up one of Bollywood’s biggest stars, Shilpa Shetty, and planted a few kisses on her cheek and hand. But the bigger dip appeared to be Gere, whose controversial smooth moves are considered vulgar by traditional Indian culture. While the stunning stunt caused public protests and uproar, at his trial yesterday, the Supreme Court graciously threw the case against Gere out citing cultural differences.  The Justices just slapped him on the wrist, saying his actions were for publicity and brought a “bad name” on the country. Sounds like they’re not too impressed by the American Gigolo-act. [Reuters]