Siddharth Dube, a gay Indian who writes on poverty and public health, sees “an enormous world of difference” in the confidence of India’s young gay community compared with when he came of age in the 1980s. Then, Mr Dube says, he “felt terrified every day”.

With rapid economic growth creating middle-class opportunities beyond the civil service, “gay men and women can afford to strike out on their own”, he says. “When it was much more difficult to earn an income, people were much more cautious about rocking the boat. Now, they can be who they want to be.”