Sexuality Education in India Yet Remains a Taboo—An Attempt to Dust-Off

Historically, India boasts a rich heritage of liberated sexual perspective as evidenced in the historical works of literature and sculptures in ancient temples. However, today sex education is an abandoned subject in the major part of the country and schooling systems. There have been efforts in bits and pieces in some sections of society to bring it back to mainstream education and acceptance, yet it continues to be a taboo and an unresolved interpsychic conflict among different strata of Indian society. It is strange that people hide the genesis of life and the most pleasurable activity of human beings in this world. Let us try to understand this burning subject in all its dimensions. A recent UNESCO global report1 provided a panoramic view of countries regarding their relative progress in the implementation of sex education. It is surprising to see that in the context of laws and policies, decentralization in implementation, curriculum development, implementation, and so on. India lags behind many other underdeveloped and small countries, such as Congo, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, and Sudan to name a few. Interestingly, in majority of these countries, sex education begins at the primary level of schooling whereas in our country, concept of sexuality education is considered only from secondary school. We lack a uniform policy for conceptualization, planning, and implementation of comprehensive sex education. It is time to ponder upon what is holding us back? In India, few initiatives were started at the government and nongovernmental organization levels. UNESCO in 2021 recorded one such success story regarding the implementation of sex education in India from the state of Jharkhand which implemented “Udaan,” a school-based adolescent education program. It started in 2009 and by 2019 over a million students were educated about health including sex education.1 This model could be considered as a prototype for public-private partnership for the conceptualization of a sex education program in India. Unfortunately, such a program would only mean a drop in the ocean because the magnitude of necessity in the country is large. India is home to 444 million children and adolescents.2 Therefore, a collective introspection is our obligation. Let us investigate our shortcomings toward comprehensive sex education, a few of which are quoted here. First, neither government, civic societies, or institutions are broadening their perspective in response to global change. Moreover, states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka have banned sex education in their schools. They argue that sex education increases risky behavior in children and can destroy the educational atmosphere of the school.3 In addition, several key educators like school teachers, influencers, and religious leaders believe that implementation of early sex education will lead to precocious sexual debut in children. These myths have been clearly busted with substantial scientific evidence. In contrast to the stakeholders’ view listed above, Indian youth appear to have a more pragmatic perspective. Eighty-eight percent of youth emphasized that sex education should start in primary school, 66% reported that teachers in primary and secondary level are not equipped with the knowledge and skill to impart sex education, and 90% of the youth spoke that parents and teachers should be provided factual training which will equip them with the skill to talk on this subject matter.4 There are several reasons that call for an expedited revision of policies such as shared stakeholder-ship, publicprivate partnership, and systematic phase-wise implementation of formal sex education in schools. The first reason is that many parents feel uncomfortable or unprepared to discuss about sexuality with their children because nobody talked to them about it factually or openly. Other sources of information for children (friends, laypersons, magazines, online platforms, etc) are insufficient, misleading, and lack reality. Globally, fewer than 1 in 3 children agreed that their school taught proper sex education. In the Indian context, 71% of youth living in 17 states (aged 13-30 years) reported that they were neither taught about sexuality by teachers nor by their parents.4