A Compulsory Education: S*X Education

In a country like India, which has a population of 1.3 billion and ranks highest in the rates of growing teenagers, surprisingly one still feels agonized in having a conversation on a topic because of which we all are here – ‘sex’.

Sex Education for adolescents is a highly controversial topic in India. It is seen as a topic offensive to Indian values and something which would corrupt the mind of our highly religious population. Although reports have said that the majority of the Indians get to know about this concept before the age of 13, and while surprisingly only 9.96% of them gets to know about it through sex education, others discover it through internet and movies. The source of this knowledge matters, as it leaves a wrong impression in the minds of young individuals about sex, and might give rise to much larger and serious issues such as consent, sexual abuse, teenage pregnancy, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, etc.

While there is no proper sex education provided to children, Dutch kids are learning about sex and sexuality right from kindergarten.

There has been a significant amount of opposition to sex education. In 2007, India’s Ministry of Human Resource Development has faced a lot of controversies while promoting the sex education curriculum. Many state governments banned sex education in schools, claiming that it would cause innocent students to become curious about sex. In 2009, Venkaiah Naidu concluded that “sex education was against the ethos of our society and would uproot the cultural values that have cherished since Vedic ages”, as reported by The Telegraph. This might be from a long back but even in the present days, this education is not seen to be reaching to the children. In order to spread awareness, various NGOs have come forth with new and innovative ideas. A report of India Today says that an NGO named ‘Super school India’ is teaching the children about sex and consent through the example of a ‘chai’.

All children, underserved or not, must have access to sex education, but sex education is more important for the slum dwellers because they are more vulnerable to it. They often live in a more densely populated environment, with no security leading to rampant crime. Many times sexual abuse cases with these children go unnoticed since they have no idea what is happening to them.

While sex education is an important topic to talk about, it certainly needs to be delivered to young children sensitively or might leave a traumatised effect on them. Special counselling shall be given to the teachers and parents, as they create the most impact on their children. So, let us not be silent anymore and talk about it.