'Is it possible to become pregnant the first time you have sex', 'Does HIV spread through oral and anal sex?'; 'Can protected or penetrative sex get you pregnant?', 'Whether sperm donation causes infertility?' and 'Does an excess in masturbation lead to pimple growth, increase in the temperature of the body or give problems related to stomach?'
These aren't question which a child in a sex education class poses in front of his or her teacher. On the contrary these are questions asked even by adults who are married. Sex no matter even if it is done at the proper time, with the proper person, in the proper place, is a topic that makes many Indians uncomfortable. Though India is the second most populated country in the world we are not comfortable in talking about sex to the kids. This is mainly the reason why adolescents from the age group of 11 to 19 learn about the birds and the bees mainly from literatures, movies, books, or porn which often aren't sufficient to give a thorough knowledge, and in such cases we have misinterpretations, ambiguities, and myth developing on the topic of sex.
Sex education and our culture-
A parliament committee in the year 2009 finally declared that sex education is against the ethos of the Indian Society. The committee was of the opinion that topics like HIV/AIDS/STDS should not be taught prior to standard 12 and should be included as a part of the syllabus of Biology. If that is the case then the section of students who have not taken up Biology will be lost so far as knowledge about sex education is concerned.
Status Quo-
Not much of teachers are there, so mainly the biology teacher is shoved with the burden of sex education. It starts around standard six, where the sex education is mostly biology related with horror stories about pre-marital sex which is still a taboo in the country, and with certain highlights about the demerits of abortion and HIV/AIDS. So our system is mostly based on the "abstinence-only".
Trouble with the Status Quo-
Sex is the basis of human life and no amount of social taboo or religious dogma shall get humans rid of this carnal desire to have sex. This "abstinence-only" sex education focuses on controlling pre-marital sex ignoring the most important part that it is human nature to want to have sex. Human body is developed in such a manner that it is ready to produce new generation right after puberty so after the age of 16-17 the bodies start to want sex.
Solution to improve the situation-
In such a case, the claim of the Mumbai cop that talking about sex or giving sex education actually causes people to have sex is a flawed idea because sex education doesn't only need to teach about abstinence of sex but also to deal with the other physical attributes that come along with the urge to have sex.
Tags:
Indian System
Student
Learning
Sex Education
