No Sex Education Please - We're a nation of hypocrites.

[Guest guest]

No Sex Education Please - We're Indian

By Nitin Jugran Bahuguna

NEW DELHI, Aug 30 (IPS) - Though adolescents are said to be at the centre of the

AIDS epidemic and India has the largest number of infections in Asia, this

conservative country continues to shy away from incorporating sex education in

school curricula.

As many as 11 of India’s 29 state governments have either banned or are in the

process of dropping sex education from school programmes. Education and health

are state domains in India’s federal system.

Such a state of affairs recently prompted India’s outspoken federal minister for

women and child development, Renuka Chaudhary, to remark that India seemed to

her like ‘’a nation of hypocrites " .

Among major states that have banned sex education in state-run schools are

western Maharashtra and Gujarat and central Madhya Pradesh. Among grounds cited

were overtly explicit teaching modules and pictures that were too graphic.

Private schools are continuing with lessons, but many have watered them down to

avoid controversy.

Other states expecting the axe on sex education for youth are southern Kerala

and Karnataka, both with high literacy rates and reputation for being

progressive.

Karnataka though is experimenting with an innovative non-governmental initiative

covering 350 schools and colleges. The ‘Life is Precious’ HIV/AIDS preventive

education module, comprising a manual and interactive CD as a classroom aid has

been designed specially by the Bangalore Medical Services Trust and Research

Institute (BMST), a Bangalore-based NGO working in the areas of blood safety and

sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), HIV/AIDS awareness training, research,

testing and counselling.

Both the manual and CD list the services needed to effectively fight the

epidemic, the strategies that have worked in providing HIV/AIDS services, work

sectors needed to implement the services, potential roles that youth can play

and skills/training needed by youth to carry out these roles. The CD was

screened at a special youth session, Aug. 19-23, at the 8th International

Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) held in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Apart from basic information about AIDS and awareness and prevention

interventions, the CD has a list of activities for students to discuss in class.

Based on improvised scenarios and stories, the students are invited to

deliberate upon who is most at risk and responsible behaviour. For 17-year-old

Mangala (name changed) of Sri Kongadiyappa College in Bangalore rural district,

the initiative was a welcome exercise " where we came to know many unknown

concepts which play a very important role in our life " . More importantly, she

stresses: " We came to know that we can say ‘no’ to sex if we are not

interested. "

According to Dr Latha Jagannathan, the author of the ‘Life is Precious’

programme, BMST has 15 years of experience working with youth and training

teachers in Karnataka, in collaboration with the state education department.

" The manual and CD have been successfully used by teachers and peer educators in

350 schools and colleges in Bangalore as well as for community outreach

programmes in 2005-7.’’

The BMST material has been recommended by the National AIDS Control Organisation

(NACO) for use in peer educators’ programmes.

Faiyaz Akhtar of the Mamta heath institute for mother and child, a Delhi-based

NGO working with young people on issues of reproductive and sexual health, says

the need for curriculum-based sexuality education in India is only now gaining

recognition. " The ‘school AIDS education programme’ is being re-introduced as

‘adolescence education programme’, which focuses on adolescent sexuality and

life skills. However, evidence about its effectiveness in the South Asian

socio-cultural context and experiences that can guide its programmatic ‘roll

out’ are lacking.’’

According to Akhtar the big challenge lies in developing a curriculum to meet

the diverse expectations of students, parents and teachers because each group

has vastly different ideas on what should be included, he observed.

The controversial sex education debate in India found mention at the ICAAP where

J.V. R. Prasada Rao, regional director of joint United Nations programme against

HIV and AIDS, UNAIDS, delivering an overview of the epidemic and response in the

region, criticised as " highly retrograde’’ the decision of some Indian states to

ban sex education.

" What surprises me more than the silence of the government of India is the lack

of a strong response from civil society in India to this organised campaign,’’

said Rao, a former NACO project director. " Except for a few assertions made on

e-mail and IT networks, hardly any voice of protest has been raised against

these moves. Why? Very baffling indeed, " he added. Rao said there are 5.4

million people living with HIV in the Asia and Pacific region. ‘’Nearly a

million new infections have occurred in the last two years, 50 percent of which

are among young people.’’

According to the 2006 surveillance figures, approximately 2.5 million people

were living with HIV in India in 2005. Though HIV prevalence is showing signs of

decline among general population, pockets of high HIV prevalence continue to

emerge in new areas. The 2006 surveillance figures also show an increase in HIV

infection among several groups at higher risk of HIV infection such as injecting

drug users (IDUs) and men who have sex with men.

Interestingly, Indian youth living abroad seem to face similar inhibitions and

ignorance about sexual health issues. A poster presentation on gender and

cultural issues that affect the sexual health of British Indian youth living in

London was made at the ICAAP by a London-based NGO, Acting on Gender and Sexual

Health Issues.

Authored by Ritu Mahendru of Canterbury Christ Church University, the study

interviewed Indian men and women aged 18-20 brought up in Britain from age nine.

The findings showed respondents living in contradiction, trying to access both

cultures (Indian and British). Young men hold strong views about arranged

marriages while young women face parental domestic violence whereby they do not

question their status and fate. Only two of the respondents had received school

sex education.

‘’These findings suggest that understanding cultural issues of the Indian

community is critical to instigate an effective social agenda as well as sex

education that promotes racial and gender equity and good sexual health among

Indian youth in Britain " , stated Mahendru.

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______________________

Arpita Shah <arpita_2006_aug@...>