Trouble in the air with sex education

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

The assault from the loony right wing has started in real earnest. Firstly the

news that a huge mobilisation is on to stop sex education in schools has made

most social activists jittery about the way things are going. T^his is despite

all evidence supporting such a move -- like the various WHO surveys which

indicate that countries where sex education has been imparted in primary schools

have seen significant drops in teenage pregnancies, fews STIs among adolscents

and lower HIV prevalence, nobody seems to be listening.

But the more dangerous development is what happened after the lower estimates of

HIV positive people came up in media. Though the first ballistic reports started

appearing in the national papers straight after the announcement by the Minister

of Family Welfare, the most dangerous article is the one written by a very

frustrated member of the Delhi political glitterati, Rami Chhabra, in today's

Indian Express.

Printed on the edit page itself with the title " The HIV/AIDS Funding Farce " ,

what is alarming about the piece is the sting in the tail. The last para reads

thus: " ...the other is the social, ethiucal and law and order implications of

such unprecedented and large scale collectivisation of high-risk individuals " .

Now, now, Auntie Rami has been extremely smart. To avoid mentioning homosexuals,

MSM, sex workers and IV users, she has dumped them into an equally politically

incorrect term called " high-risk individuals " , which is a huge lemon. There

is no such phrase in any epidemiology. There are no " high risk individuals " but

only " high risk behavior " .. For example, the group of people at highest risk are

housewives as 80 per cent of women reporting HIV+ are women reporting only one

partner -- their husband!.

So does Rami Chhabra think housewives might " collectivise " ? In that case, she

can rest at peace. They are too busy looking after their homes and families in

unpaid work. But if she means prostitutes, homosexuals and hijras, then you can

bet she does not have the courage to say so.

Knowing Rami and having crossed swords with her on many occasions, I have to say

that these macabre mavericks are more dangerous than the real luny fringe

because they come with their own set value systems and have been in powerful

positions due to the pecularities of the Indian political class.

The best article on size estimates is in 'The Mint " from the HT stable and even

that is neither here nor there.

Things are going to get worse before we can even dream of them getting better..

Ashok Row Kavi

e-mail: arowkavi@...