The Need for Comprehensive Sex Education in India
As a part of my fellowship project, I co-facilitated workshops on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights by partnering with Rubaroo and Pravah in Hyderabad’s low-income private schools and government schools with students from classes 8th and 9th. This blog will explore the current state of comprehensive sex education in the Indian context, highlighting its importance and approaches to strengthening its delivery in our schools.
- The current scenario
Have you ever experienced girls and boys being separated for a secret class in your school days? Yes, you got that right! I am referring to that one particular class where the girls were locked in a room and the boys were asked to go out and play on the ground. For those who are still not able to get it, I am talking about the class when there used to be a silenced conversation about periods or sex education in our school.
Unfortunately, sex education in our country is treated as a subject that does not exist. It is also observed that the teachers themselves are shy and uncomfortable teaching sex education. One prominent reason behind this is that sometimes the teachers themselves do not have the right vocabulary to talk about these issues due to a lack of adequate teaching material and training on the subject. That is the reason why these topics are often skipped or taught to girls in isolation when boys are not around. Lack of comprehensive sex education leaves young people ill-prepared to make informed decisions about their sexual health, leading to issues such as unplanned pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and the spread of STIs.
One of the highlights from the past month was when I conducted a session on menstrual health awareness in one of the low-income private schools. The moment I uttered the word ‘periods’, each and every student in the class shied away; some of them started laughing, and some girls hid their faces under the bench.
The shame, the stigma, and the taboo around menstruation are so prevalent that the girls are not allowed to touch anyone in their house during their periods and are asked to isolate themselves from the rest of their family members. Some of the students shared that they are not allowed to touch pickles, as it is believed that if a girl during her period touches a pickle, it may spoil. 90% of the class believed that period blood is impure blood, and the reason behind periods is that every month their bodies go through a cleansing process that makes them bleed.
I further made an attempt to break this stereotype among the students by making them understand the biological reason behind why periods occur. Showing them videos on menstruation made them understand what goes on inside a woman’s body during those 5-7 days of the menstrual cycle. One of the highlights of this session was when my co-facilitator pulled up a sanitary pad from her bag and briefed students about how to use a sanitary pad and its safe disposal methods. The boys were curious to know what a pad looked like, while the girls were hiding their faces out of shame.
I have conducted many such sessions until now in different parts of the country with different communities, but this session will always remain fresh in my memory as it was extremely difficult to manage the students since they were making fun of us, passing comments, and not willing to listen to what we were saying. It was a tough task to make them understand that this is nothing but a normal biological process.
Breaking the Taboo
One of the major obstacles to conducting comprehensive sex education in an Indian context is the societal taboo associated with it. Sex is often considered a private matter and is not encouraged to be talked about, considering it inappropriate or immoral. It is important to understand that sex education is not about promoting promiscuity but involves teaching young people about the bodily changes that occur in different stages of life to help them make informed choices about their bodies and their overall well-being.
Importance of Comprehensive Sexual Education
- Increased Awareness and Knowledge: A focused comprehensive sexual education during the adolescence helps students gain accurate information of the bodily changes that occur in different phases of our life. It helps them understand puberty, menstruation, sexual and reproductive health rights, and contraception’s.
- Reduction of Health Risks: It helps them understand Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI’s) and being responsible for their actions. It helps them make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health rights.
- Creating a Safe Space: These conversations and discussions in a classroom can promote the value of being empathetic, curious, and acceptance. Comprehensive sexual education can teach about consent, healthy relationships and acceptance, fostering an environment of understanding.
- Reducing Teenage Pregnancy: This also teaches the students about the correct age of having sexual intercourse, use of contraceptives, reducing the risks of unplanned teenage pregnancy and unsafe abortions.
Effective ways to facilitate
Implementing a curriculum for comprehensive sexual education requires a multi-pronged approach. Effective ways to deliver a curriculum includes providing educators with adequate age appropriate teaching learning material which should include lesson plans that include images, videos, games, etc. Topics like this should be taught through experiential/ activity based learning, involving the students for a better understanding of the subject. Encourage students to speak about the issues and challenges that they are facing in terms of the increase in bodily changes. It’s important to establish certain ground rules before the beginning of the topic to ensure that no one makes fun of each other and that a serious yet fun learning environment is established. Establishing ground rules helps build empathy, curiosity, and a respectable learning environment for the educators and the students.
Way forward..
Sex education is an essential part of the school system. It prepares students to understand the ever evolving changes in their bodies, helping them to be better prepared for the growing changes that affect one’s physical as well as mental health. In a country like India, with 1.4 billion people, it is high time that we start addressing these issues in a formal education system. It is important to break the taboo around sex education and start treating it like any other normal subject. The educators should be provided with adequate resources to conduct these classes meaningfully and ensure that the right information is delivered to ensure the overall well being of the future generation.
