Sex education in India

Sex education in India may refer to the sex education courses targeted at adolescents in school. It may also refer to material aimed at adults regarding family planning and safe sex. The introduction of sex education in schools has been opposed by some conservative political parties.

Overview

In India, with rising education levels, many young men and women are delaying their marriage to pursue their careers. Thus, more people are engaging in pre-marital sex. Most Indian households are conservative and prohibit discussions about sex. In rural areas and urban slums, girls are often married early and they don't go into marriage equipped with any knowledge of sex. All this makes young Indians vulnerable to teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).[1] Studies have found that lower education groups such as truck drivers are especially vulnerable to STDs due to lack of knowledge and prevalence of misconceptions.[2]

According to the 2011 Census of India, there are 472 million people under the age of 18.[3][4] Despite having laws to prevent child marriage,[4] according to the UNICEF about 240 million women alive in India today were married before the age of 18.[5] The average age of women at first marriage was 18.3 in 2001, it has since then increased to 20.6 in 2008.[6]

The National Health Policy, 1983 addressed the issues like maternity care and child mortality. The National Health Policy, 2002 was drafted in 2000 and accepted in September 2002. The policy, while keeping its focus on the previous issues, also addressed the need for sex education among adolescents for the first time.[7][4][8] However, most of goals of the policy have not been implemented. Reproductive health services are primarily oriented towards adults. Healthcare professionals have not been sensitised towards the needs of the adolescents.[4]

Pregnancy outside of wedlock carries severe social stigma in India. Medical termination of pregnancy available to few and the attitude of the providers towards such women is not amicable. As a result, they may attempt unsafe abortions or abandon the child. Such stigmatised women may also commit suicide.[4]

Studies

In a 2005 study in Chandigarh, a reproductive health education package was prepared after consulting parents and teachers to address cultural sensitivities. The package had a guidebook for the instructor and a book for the students for self-study. The students (aged 15-20; mean age was 16.47) were grouped and subjected to two types of education methods. In the first method, education was directly provided to them in a classroom setting by an instructor. In the second method, some students were selected and educated by instructors. Following which, they were encouraged to engage in peer education. A third group was reserved as a control. The first group showed the most improvement in their knowledge after the nine month program. The peer-education group showed knowledge levels similar to the first group after a three month course. The increase in knowledge level was consider significant after comparison to the control group.[1]

A 2008 survey conducted among 11 and 12 class girls (aged 14 to 19; mean age was 16.38) in South Delhi found that 71% had no knowledge about the effects of genital herpes. 43% did not know the effects of syphilis and 28% did not know gonorrhoea was an STD. 46% thought the all STDs, except AIDS, can be cured. The major sources of information about STDs and safe sex among the girls were their friends (76%), media (72%), books and magazines (65%) or the internet (52%). 48% felt that they could not talk to their parents about sex.[9]

Opposition to sex education in schools

The Adolescence Education Programme (AEP) was a sex education program designed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development and National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) to implement the policies of the National AIDS Control Programme II (NACP II).[10] The state education boards were allowed to modify it as they saw it fit.[11] However, it faced opposition in various states, including Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Rajasthan.[12]

In February 2007, Gujarat government is a press release stated that it would not be introducing sex education in the state. It stated that the books suggested in the programme by the Central government were inappropriate for children.[13] However, in April 2010, it reintroduced sex education in a diluted form.[14]

In March 2007, the Maharashtra state government banned sex education in schools.[15] The ban came after the ruling and opposition Members of the Legislative Assembly protested in the state assembly claiming that western countries had forced the Central government to implement the programme.[16] In April 2007, the Karnataka Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Basavaraj Horatti said that the program has been put on hold after complaints from teachers. The teachers had complained that the books was oriented towards increasing the sales of condoms, and that the illustrations were against Indian culture and sexually provocative.[17] An women's organisation, Akhila Bharatha Mahila Samskruthika Sanghatane, also protest the course in the state.[18]

On 15 May 2007, acting on the advice of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologue Dinanath Batra, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan removed sex education from the state curriculum on the grounds that it offended Indian values. Batra suggested that yoga be added to the curriculum instead of sex education.[19] This view was criticised by S. Anandhi, a scholar of gender issues, who wrote that sex-education was aimed at combating child sexual abuse, and controlling the spread of HIV/AIDS by encouraging safe sexual practices. She also stated that fundamentalist organisations were attempting to repress sexuality.[20] Later that year, Batra wrote a letter on behalf of the Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti, which stated that teachers who followed the sex-education curriculum could be jailed for two years on the charge of "outraging the modesty of a woman or dishonouring a person."[21]

In May 2007, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje wrote a letter to Arjun Singh, then Union Minister of Human Resource Development. In the letter, she stated that children in Class IX and XI, at whom the course was directed, do not require sex education as they are in the early stages of puberty. The state Education Minister Ghansyam Tiwari stated that they already had a life skills course called Jeevan Shaili, and sex education will have a negative impact on young minds.[22]

In Orissa, in June 2009, Education Minister Bishnu Charan Das said that they were delaying introduction of the course by one year. The decision came after protests from some teachers' organisations and students' political groups. Rajendra Burma of All India Democratic Students' Organisation (AIDSO) claimed that it will cause innocent students to become curious about sex and effect their morals.[23][24] In July 2009, in Uttar Pradesh, a teachers' association protested the introduction of the course. Om Prakash Sharma, the chief of the association, said that it would result in embarrassing queries from the students. He threatened to burn the books on a bonfire if they were not withdrawn.[25]

Ram Madhav of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) called the course designed for a western lifestyle and was unsuited for Indian society. He instead proposed that workshops for adults should be organised to warn them of a promiscuous lifestyle. Prakash Javadekar of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) proposed that course should be changed to suit Indian conditions and students should be taught to avoid sex until they get married. Another BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi said that the course would disturb the mental development of children and claimed that multinational companies were behind this to boost the sales of condoms.[26]

Organisations and movements

The Family Planning Association of India (FPAI) was established in 1949. It was formed with the aim to safeguard the health of women by preventing too many and too closely spaced pregnancies.[27] In 1952, it established its first clinic where it provide advice to family planning, infertility and family counselling.[28]

The Sonagachi Project is a peer education project which was started in 1992. It encourages sex-workers in West Bengal to insist on condoms. The project has successfully increased condom usage and reduced STD levels among sex-workers in West Bengal.[29]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Saroj Parwej; Rajesh Kumar; Indarjeet Walia; Arun K. Aggarwal (2005). "Reproductive health education intervention trial" (PDF). The Indian Journal of Pediatrics 72 (4): 287–291. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
  2. ↑ Deborah H Cornman; Sarah J Schmiege; T. Joseph Benziger (2007). "An Information-Motivation-Behavioral model-based HIV prevention intervention for truck drivers in India". Social Science & Medicine 64 (8): 1572––1584.
  3. ↑ "Demographic dividend at its peak". The Hindu. 7 September 2013. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Watsa, M. C. (2005). "Sexual Health Services for Young People" (PDF). Journal of Family Welfare (Family Planning Association of India) 50 (I): 36.
  5. ↑ "At 240 million, India has a third of child marriages in the world". Hindustan Times. 12 August 2014. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  6. ↑ "Indian women push back marriage age". DNA India`. 20 February 2010. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  7. ↑ M. Kumar R. Kumar (1 January 2009). Teenage Girls Health Development : Nutrition, Mental and Physical Growth. Deep & Deep Publications. p. 90. ISBN 978-81-8450-125-4. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  8. ↑ Girish Bala Choudhary (18 July 2014). Adolescence Education. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. p. 150. ISBN 978-81-203-4980-3. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  9. ↑ Alexandra McManus; Lipi Dhar (2008). "Study of knowledge, perception and attitude of adolescent girls towards STIs/HIV, safer sex and sex education: (A cross sectional survey of urban adolescent school girls in South Delhi, India)". BMC Women's Health 8 (1): 12. doi:10.1186/1472-6874-8-12.
  10. ↑ "Adolescence Education Programme (AEP)". National AIDS Control Organisation.
  11. ↑ "The great Indian sex debate". BBC News. 20 August 2007. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  12. ↑ "Sex education curriculum angers Indian conservatives". The New York Times. 24 March 2007. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  13. ↑ "No more sex education in Gujarat schools". The Times of India. 18 February 2007. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  14. ↑ "Gujarat introduces ‘improvised’ module for sex education". The Indian Express. 24 April 2010. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  15. ↑ "Maharashtra resorts to another ban". The Hindu. 2 April 2007. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  16. ↑ "No sex education please, it corrupts, and this is Maharashtra". The Indian Express. 31 March 2007. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  17. ↑ "No sex education in Karnataka schools now: Minister". One India. 18 April 2007. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  18. ↑ "Women's organisation opposes decision to introduce sex education in schools". The Hindu. 8 March 2007. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  19. ↑ "Madhya Pradesh bans sex education". The Indian Express. 16 March 2007. Retrieved 23 May 2014.
  20. ↑ Anandhi, S. (18 August 2007). "Sex Education Conundrum". Economic & Political Weekly 42 (33): 18–24 Aug. 2007. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  21. ↑ "Former HRD minister feels sex education corrupts kids". Hindustan Times. 15 July 2007. Retrieved 23 May 2014.
  22. ↑ "Sex education course too hot for VHP". The Indian Express. 3 May 2007. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  23. ↑ "Orissa govt against sex education in schools". The Times of India. 11 June 2007. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  24. ↑ "Orissa debates sex education in schools". The Times of India. 29 April 2007. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  25. ↑ "No sex education, say Uttar Pradesh teachers". Hindustan Times. 9 July 2007. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  26. ↑ "Sex education runs into trouble". BBC News. 22 August 2007. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  27. ↑ Leela Visaria; Rajani R. Ved (29 January 2016). India’s Family Planning Programme: Policies, Practices and Challenges. Routledge. p. 59. ISBN 978-1-317-31324-3. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  28. ↑ R.L. Kleinman; P. Senanayake (15 November 1993). Family Planning: Meeting Challenges, Promoting Choices. CRC Press. p. 607. ISBN 978-1-85070-514-7. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  29. ↑ Flora Cornish; Catherine Campbell (2009). "The social conditions for successful peer education: a comparison of two HIV prevention programs run by sex workers in India and South Africa" (PDF). LSE Research Online 44 (1-2): 123–135. Retrieved 15 January 2016.

Further reading

External links

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