Sex education in India
Sex education is a controversial subject in India, sometimes viewed as a taboo topic; across the country and within the community, opinions on how or whether to deliver it are divided.
[1][2] The states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have banned or refused to implement sex education in schools.
[1][3] The BJP government in Madhya Pradesh said sex education had "no place in Indian culture" and plans to introduce yoga in schools instead.
This is propagated by several factors, including lower caloric intake by mothers, female infanticide, and cultural preference for boys.
In some areas[specify] of India, many young men and women[vague] are delaying marriage to pursue their careers, a result of rising education levels.
[11] Growing concerns over high incidence of STIs among the youth only further emphasizes the current lack of and need for comprehensive sex education in India.
With its continuous advancements and accessibility, technology has become an integral part in filling in those gaps and educating India's youth about sex.
Studies show adolescents are gathering a majority of this information from social media, pornography, television and streaming platforms.
Second, a school in Gujarat implemented a system where students could anonymously drop letters into a box for trained counselors to read.
[22] In a 2005 study in Chandigarh, a reproductive health education package was prepared after consulting parents and teachers to address cultural sensitivities.
[22] However, despite continuing opposition, large scale interventions have seen success and demonstrate the possibilities of implementing sex education programs in India.
In Jharkhand, India, a sex education program called Udaan has seen success not only as a curriculum, but at responding to resistance.
[24] Various agencies that have evaluated the impacts of the program record positive effects on the students' knowledge regarding topics covered in the curriculum and improvements in critical skills such as communication and decision-making.
These arguments cause states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Goa to ban sex education programming.
[25] The ban came after the ruling and opposition Members of the Legislative Assembly claimed that western countries had forced the Central government to implement the program.
[26] In April 2007 Basavaraj Horatti, the Karnataka Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, said that the program has been put on hold after complaints from teachers.
[28] On May 15, 2007, the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan removed sex education from the state curriculum on the grounds that it offended Indian values, acting on the advice of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologue Dinanath Batra.
[29] This view was criticised by S. Anandhi, a scholar of gender issues, who wrote that sex-education was vital for combatting child sexual abuse and the spread of HIV/AIDS.
In the letter, she stated that children in Class IX and XI did not require sex education because they were in the early stages of puberty.
[34] Ram Madhav of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) called sex education unfit for Indian society.
Another BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi stated that the course would disturb the mental development of children and claimed that multinational companies were behind this to boost the sales of condoms.
However, even with the complete omission of the words "sexuality or sex" in the program, this initiative was met with resistance from various segments of public society.
[36] Because the United States used food aid as leverage, India was incentivised to create a program that would influence lower-caste individuals to not have children.
[39] Past hospital care, ASHA also gives out free birth control pills and condoms which remove the stigma associated with couples buying contraceptives at drug stores.
Critics state that India's program does not consider the psyche of women who often undergo irreversible procedures like sterilisation without providing the infrastructure for regular follow-ups.
Finally, critics state that the programme is inherently gendered because most sterilisations are performed on women even though the procedure is less invasive for men.
[41] Because HIV/AIDS has been deemed a health crisis in India, prevention techniques have been set as a priority by the government which have been pushing NGOs to implement programming that focuses on training, support, and outreach.
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%).
By considering factors like caste, sexuality, religion, class, and ethnicity, Nirantar works to develop feminist leadership.
[56] This initiative has been highly controversial: An RSS-affiliated organization stated that "there is no need for teaching sex education in schools or making it a part of curriculum.
