Why the Indian attitude toward sex education is just plain wrong!
One of the currently trending videos, is this.
A hilariously exaggerated video created by EastIndiaComedy that sets out to identify why there’s nothing wrong with speaking about sex and how the official stance about protecting ‘culture’ borders on inane.
Unfortunately, while supposedly protecting Indian values and the Indian culture from perversion by ‘Western Influences’, many Indians have been up in arms about the sex education program in schools. So much so, that a few members of the ruling party have expressed their concern about the current program and why it should stop.
That’s just completely out of whack in a fast progressing world where, thanks to the internet, boundaries have ceased to exist.
Here’s why it makes no sense:
Firstly, Indians are not prudes. Through history the Indian culture has been one of the most progressive and open cultures in the world. India is the place where the Kamasutra originated. The openness displayed by Indians in the past has led to the creation of sculptures like the ones on display in Khajuraho.
To say that this doesn’t belong to our culture, is quite like England claiming that there has never been a monarchy.
Why the sudden claim that this is against culture? What has changed in India over the last few centuries, that has turned us into a race which believes that sex is a matter of self experimentation, self discovery, and grapevine knowledge?
Secondly, AIDS is a serious problem faced by India. Uncontrolled, it has the ability to spiral out of control. Forewarned is forearmed. Without knowing about sex, how would one fight this menace?
Thirdly, by the time they are teenagers, most kids have already found out almost everything they need to know about sex. However, considering that a large amount of this information comes from the internet, a lot of it is inaccurate and as such presents a sexist, misogynistic view to impressionable minds. It is only right, therefore, that the official communication should seek to clarify these misconceptions.
India has been seeing a slew of atrocities against women. Cases of gang rapes, molestation, acid attacks and stalking have become commonplace. Even when it is not that extreme, every woman has, at some time in her life in India, been ogled at, eve teased, groped or ‘stripped naked’ by the eyes of lecherous men. It is easy to brand all these men as perverts. The question is, how many would you brand?
The issue is not just related to a sudden lapse in law and order or a higher percentage of cases being reported. The problem India faces is much more deep rooted.
Thanks to the hush-hush attitude towards sex, most sexual opinion is driven by peer group knowledge, pornography and perverse humour. It is the attitude inculcated among men from the time they are young, which teaches them to treat women as sex objects rather than as equal human beings.
This is where the Sex Education program can actually help. Most sexual crimes are as much about domination, as they are about perversion. If put to good use, the Government’s sex education program can actually go beyond speaking about human anatomy, to shaping one’s attitude towards sex. It can actually go beyond being looked upon as titillation (as the cultural protectors claim) to being something more meaningful. A way to teach young men and women that they are inherently equal. That sex is not unnatural. That speaking about sex does not make one a pervert. And most importantly, that sex is not a means for domination.
Stopping the Sex Education module will only end up perpetuating the problems India faces on women’s safety. Because no amount of protest, law making or enforcement can be successful, without changing a man’s attitude towards a woman.
What do you think? Does it make sense to stop sex education in schools across India? Share your views in the comment box below.
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