Sex Education & Indian Society

 Sex Education and Indian “So”-ciety 

Let's talk about sex, baby 

Let's talk about you and me 

Let's talk about all the good things 

And the bad things that may be 

Let's talk about sex? Nope. – Says the society. Not until a magical switch is flipped on the day you say 'I do'. Thereafter all at once, it turns like the main plot. Masked under heavy innuendos, among other conservative members who gently egg you for “good news”. 

In the land of Kama sutra, Khujarao’s Sex temples, and people worshipping ‘Shivlingas’, the word “SEX” remains taboo in India. The country which wrote the greatest book about sex. For Indian society, sex still remains a matter to be discussed inside the closed doors of a bedroom instead of talking about it in public spaces to create more awareness. 

India has great architecture and a historic presence to date. There are sculptures of sexual beings, denoting different meanings and expressions of being, and are still a part of the structures. 

“The personal is political”, sex education was thoroughly considered personal. But it is also quite ironic that the log that groove to sexist Bollywood numbers that objectify women like “Sheila ki Jawani”, get a throbbing vein in the neck when asked to talk about Jawani’s biggest bounty – Sexuality. 

Sex education is one of the major requirements of society today, from children to adolescents, even adults for that matter are deprived of knowledge about various aspects and concepts of health. And unless you have managed to score gyaan from an older friend or a forward-thinking cousin you may find yourself combing through the net or if you manage to understand with some self-learned shiksha. 

Even parents turn the TV off or switch the channel when there is a sexual context in the scene which increases the curiosity in the children and adolescents as there is always a sense of ‘hush-hush’ around such topics. Children want to know about sexuality, but the grown-ups tell them they need to know about something else. A deep-rooted sense of morality binds the sentiment of a large population from seeing the benefits and necessities of launching such an education program throughout the country. It is largely believed that talking about sexuality and its awareness may instead corrupt young adolescents. Au contraire, they are the perfect target of corruption if left untaught about their bodies, leaving them highly vulnerable during their own physiological changes. 

India is home to 1.4 billion people with the second largest populated country in the world which we are expected to surpass and become the first by 2027 and it is not all roses but the thorns. The reason why sex education is essential in India especially for adolescents is that they are in the developing stage and the right stage to learn about their body and get sensitized towards topics and beings. When it comes to health, more than a million people have HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases who are over the age of 15. 

We as adolescents are unaware of what we are getting exposed to and what is in store for us and we are not equipped with the knowledge that can protect us from what is coming. From HIV, STIs and UTIs, sex protection and their effects, female reproductive health and hygiene (from unwanted pregnancies, maternal mortality, knowledge of menstrual well-being, etc), male health and hygiene, consent to sexual abuse. And this is just when we are peeling the first few layers of the onion. 

Sex education also reduces the number of violent crimes like rape and assault because people would then be equipped with not only physiological but also the mental and spiritual frames of reference and our existence to it, and would be sensitized and unlearn the wrong and the existing slants. It is the beginning of breaking the cycle of unprepared and inattentive existence of issues that should not exist in the first place.

Written by: Priya Kejriwal