Written by: Rhea Kapoor
Edited by: Akrit Agarwal
Designed by: Aadhaar Agarwal & Lavanya Guha
Sex education includes programs that discuss sexuality, safe sex, and contraception, but in India, it is highly controversial. There are claims that it interferes with certain Indian values and cultures, which ultimately increases the negative stigma surrounding it. This influences schools to omit it from senior school education and prevents adolescents from being able to openly discuss it with older confidantes or parents. Not only is sex education widely neglected, it has been banned in some states.
In 2007, the central government announced the initiation of the Adolescence Education Program in school. The reaction to this was overwhelmingly negative, leading to a ban in thirteen states due to the perceived notion that the program was against their culture.
Conservative Hindu groups even threatened teachers and school authorities with physical violence. Dr. Harsh Vardhan (Minister of Health in India’s BJP-led government) even proposed yoga and celibacy as an alternative to sex education in 2014.
However, sex education is necessary for self-awareness and to avoid sexual exploitation. One cannot say with certainty that sexual violence and abuse would reduce because of an educational program, but without it, adolescents often do not know when they are ready to be sexually active. Moreover, many succumb to peer pressure, leading to non-consensual sexual activity. During early years, when the concept of a bad touch hasn’t established, children can be exploited unknowingly because they haven’t received the education to know what’s wrong. Furthermore, regardless of age, sex, or sexuality, people should know about healthy and unhealthy sexual relationships. This would be conducive in understanding when to say “no” to unwanted sex or even just an unwanted touch.
Some seem to think that sex education encourages children to be sexually active at a young age because they’ve been introduced to it. However, that is not the purpose of sex education. At a young age, it’s about respecting each other’s bodies and understanding what constitutes a good touch or a bad touch. It is important to normalize this respect and to view sex and sexuality as something that differs from person to person. Starting from an early age does not influence children to become sexually active, because that is not where the education starts. What happens when teenagers start to have these questions and are unable to find the right answers? Not knowing about safe sex could lead to sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies – which is worsened by the stigma around abortions.
A sex education program would serve to promote safe and healthy sexual activity as well as prevent nonconsensual sex; its purpose is not to thrust young people into sexual engagements, nor is that its impact. And yet it carries heavy stigma. Why should it?
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